First I'll start with the pros of the clothing exchange I attended:
- Great reason to clean out my closets, winter storage box, summer storage box, under the bed, bottom back drawer of my dresser, boxes of pipe dream skinny bitch clothes and the boyfriends similar nooks and storage crannies :)
- Get some new FREE clothes in the process
- Give my old clothes to a good cause where they'll be much more loved than they were whilst being neglected in my home
- Get together with a great group of ladies!!
So I'm hoping from my pros you get the gist of a clothing exchange. Wait, stop the bus, not everyone knows what a clothing exchange is? Basically you clean out your closets or wherever you hide clothes and meet up and other people go through these items of clothing and take what they'd like. The leftovers get accumulated in bags and donated to charity. I'm sure there are varying degrees of how organized one could get about this but I'll explain how the one I went to was done.
First off you basically invite everyone you know and tell them to congregate in the largest house you can occupy. We typically have a Facebook page where people can post asking for things they're on the hunt for or motivational comments to get you going on cleaning out the closet!
On the day of the event there are rooms that have signs designating what sizes and gender each room will contain. Since so far it's mostly been women's clothes we've divided the women's clothes by size then had a room solely for children's and men's clothes. We've just used bedrooms of the house to do this or the rec room in the basement, you don't need anything special just an area like a table or bed to spread the clothes out on!
So everyone arrives and distributes their clothes by size and then typically meets in the living room for some snacks and drinks until everyone arrives. Once everyone has arrived the routine was explained and the games begin!! I put that in underline and bold because as much as free shopping is once you've combed through the clothes what else is there to do?
This is where you get creative as the host/hostess. The first time I attended one of these the hostess awarded tickets for various things such as inviting friends, those friends actually turning up, bringing a snack, purging the most stuff, you get the idea! Then she put all the tickets in a pot and drew them for various prizes she'd put together. I was the happy little girl that went home with a bottle of pink lemonade wine, hello summer drinks on the patio, here we come!
This last one was a bit different and more interesting I think. Some of us chipped in a few little prizes, I made a package of 4 crocheted dishcloths that were surprisingly popular! Upon arrival everyone wrote their name on a paper and crumpled it up and threw it in a box. Every 15 minutes 3 names were drawn. These three people then either chose something from the table or stole someone else's prize! It got heated. And everyone went home with something even if it was just a balloon :) This also went on while the clothes were being picked through so you got a little break now and then!
I think I forgot to explain something. Once everyone has the game plan they're released on the count of 3 to go pick through the clothes. Essentially everything is first come first serve and negotiating is allowed. Once you've picked your load you pop into the bathroom to try on your finds! After everyone is done shopping and trying on all the leftovers get bagged up.
Here's all the clothes we had leftover!
All of the leftover clothes get donated, and in the case of our clothing exchange the host only gives them to places that give the clothes away for free to people in serious need, she thinks this is how we can do the most good and I'm inclined to agree.
Have you ever been to or hosted a clothing exchange?
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