Frugal Family - Clothing Swap

Hey, you can be frugal and fashionable. How to host a successful clothing swap:

1) Plan ahead. People need time to sort through their unwanted clothing and organize their stuff. Invite your friends 3-5 weeks ahead of the intended swap date.

2) Be a gracious host. Provide snacks, drinks and other items that will make your guests feel comfortable. To make things easier, ask guests to bring something.

3) Invite lots of people. Tell you friends to invite their friends. The more people you have, the more sizes and styles of clothing you will have to choose from.

4) Give it a theme. Tell guests to bring clothing of a certain season or occasion to keep things simple. For instance, you could only allow seasonal clothing, forbid athletic clothing, or have a swap dedicated to accessories. Or have a free-for-all, it is up to you!

5) Provide at least one full-length mirror. People will want to try things on and check themselves out, of course.

6) Have a tie-breaker strategy in place in case two friends want the same item. You can toss a coin, play rock-paper-scissors, or have friends vote on who looks better in the item.

7) For modest friends, set up an area where they can try on clothes in private. If this isn’t possible, suggest to friends that they wear a bathing suit or body suit under their clothes.

8) Stay organized. When guests arrive, have them separate their clothing into categories.  Designate areas for pants, shirts, accessories and so on, and tell people to go ahead and sort their items as soon as they arrive.

9) Ask guests to arrive about one hour before the swap begins. If you want the swap to start at 2pm, asks guests to arrive at 1pm. That way, everyone can sort their clothes and chat before swapping.

10) Donate the leftovers. You may want to ask a couple of friends for help with Goodwill or thrift store donations if there are very many unclaimed pieces when the swap is over.