Last week my friend “Jessica” wrote an email to a few friends that she had done a little spring cleaning and was giving away clothes to Goodwill. She asked if any of us wanted to take a look before she donated them to charity. That email sparked a whole chain of replies with the idea for everyone to clean our closets over the weekend and have a clothing swap party.
I’ve heard of the idea, specifically from Confessions of a Shopaholic (where she sells her wardrobe to pay her debt), but I had never attended one. To be honest, I didn’t think there would be anything of interest and everything would be out-dated, but almost everyone brought great stuff that they were simply tired of wearing.
Tuesday night about seven girls gathered at Jessica’s apartment to bring old clothes, accessories, shoes, and do a little shopping while we watched American Idol. It was so much fun! Her place looked like a department store with sections across her dining room table and accessories scattered about her living room. I gave away four shirts, one pair of jeans and some pajama bottoms.
I ended up getting:
- 2 pencil skirts (shout out to Chelsea Bea!)
- 1 pair of work pants
- 5 short-sleeve summer shirts
- 1 pair of sweat pants
- 1 black necklace
I think this is a brilliant idea for girls to get together to empty their closets and in return get some free used clothes.
Has anyone else hosted or attended a Clothing Swap?
I’ve been reading a lot about this lately, and I definitely want to try it sometime. Just curious, did you guys follow any “rules”, as in taking turns, a limit on how much you can take, etc?
Not really! We didn’t all get there at the same time, so each of us dropped off our clothes and looked through the stuff throughout the evening. There were some pieces that I saw other people got that I wish I had grabbed sooner, but since it was all free, we just went through it as we went. It was also really fun to try on the clothes in the dressing room (aka: bathroom) and then show off each outfit to the group.
That sounds superfun. My only problem is that I’m tiny and I probably wouldn’t walk away with all that much.
I have’t – but it sounds like a fun idea if you have a large enough group of people.
I did this with my friends a year ago with similar success! Another thing we did was bring old beauty products and makeup, since those are hard to “sell” but if the people attending are your close friends you do not mind using a half-empty bottle of shampoo they give you. It was great!
My girlfriends and I do this every spring and every fall. We call it ‘Bitch and Swap,’ because basically we get together, drink, gossip, and trade clothes. It’s such a blast and almost always, everyone brings (and takes home!) great stuff. Love it!
I’d love to! Most of my friends are larger than me though (I’m tiny). Also, I’m kind of ashamed of my wardrobe. LOL.
I have a bunch of girlfriends and we do this quite often. All of us have kids, so we also swap clothes for them too. It’s a terrific idea and such a money saver. Everything that doesn’t get swapped is taken to Value Village
My friends and I have totally done this! So much fun and financially smart. Plus, it’s always fun to see your clothes looking new and fab on your best friends.
My friend in NY does this, and because I’m so small, she skims the smaller pieces off the top for me. It’s fun!