Organizing My First Ever (and Successful) Clothing Swap--Plus, Plans For The Next One!!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I did something fun--and new--this weekend!

I held my first ever Clothing Swap this past Saturday morning and I must say, it was a success!

I had the idea several weeks ago after the Spring shopping bug hit me--but my wallet didn't really allow me to go on a shopping spree.  I started laughing about the thought of raiding all my girlfriends' closets for their old clothes when it dawned on me--why not get everyone together and we can swap all the stuff we're tired of?!  It would be just like shopping in their closets, but MUCH more convenient!

With that, I started organizing a Clothing Swap.

I admit, I had no idea what I was doing.  I looked online for some ideas--but turns out, there's about a bijillion ways to throw a swap...I didn't have the time or energy to fine-tune a long and complicated plan, so I kept it simple.

I reserved our church basement--it had plenty of tables and rooms for trying on clothes.  And I wouldn't have to spend days tidying up the place :-)

I sent out a Facebook invite to any local ladies who I thought may be interested.  And I probably missed a few people (and if you happen to be reading this, I'M SORRY!!!!) while checking all the boxes, but I did leave the invitation open for guests to invite additional friends.

And finally, the day was here!

We gathered in my church basement at 10:00am and started sorting our stuff.  I labeled tables based on the type of clothing and accessories, rather than by various sizes.  Any more, sizes vary so much between brands (and even sizes within a same brand may vary), that I wasn't going to sweat that detail.

Before you know it, we had tables overflowing with stuff.  I was so glad that people brought in TONS of clothing, purses, jewelry and shoes--it made for a huge selection of goodies.  We didn't limit/match the number of items that people could take (ie if you bring 6 items, you can only take 6 items)--instead, we let them take HOWEVER much they wanted!  Once everyone was done picking out their goodies, we let them find items for friends who were unable to attend.

At first, I was worried that we'd have a crazy amount of clothes left-over.  But when it was all said and done, we only had 5 bags of clothing left.  That's one of the major reasons why I didn't limit how much people could take ;-) We took the bags upstairs to our church's Encore Shop--it's a local thrift store run out of our old Rectory that donates its financial proceeds back into the community to assist with paying utility bills and prescription costs for impoverished residents.  The gals were super excited to have our left-overs and it was great knowing that the clothing swap benefited so many people.

All-in-all, the swap was a blast!  It didn't cost me a penny to organize it...and everything was swapped for free.  With the seasons changing and everyone yearning for new clothes and gas at $4 per gallon, you just can't beat free clothing!

Plans are already underway for another Swap in the fall--maybe around the first part of October?  When I picked the date of this past Saturday, I didn't realize this past weekend was K-State Open House AND Prom for many schools, so lots of people couldn't make it :-(  Soooooo, I promise to pick a better date next time!  Also, in hopes that many of the moms can enjoy a girls' night out (and all of us non-moms can enjoy the girl time!), I plan on throwing it on a Friday evening--we'll swap MORE than just our clothes (hehehe!)...ie kids clothes, home decor, you name it.  We'll swap what ya got!  And finally, if things go as planned, I'm hoping to include some food and wine next time around :-)  See you at the next Swap!

The church where I held my Clothing Swap...There's only 3 doors in relative proximity to another so I tried to easily identify the proper entrance :-)

A view of the pants, shorts and dresses tables...I was amazed at how many pants were brought to the Swap!

Checking out the goodies at some of the other tables...

And this picture is EXACTLY why the Clothing Swap rocked.  Check out all the stuff she got--for FREE!!!

Our left-over goodies...bagged up and ready to be resold,--the proceeds will help those less fortunate in our community :-)