Dress Yourself For Free: How to Host A Clothing Swap
Published on - June 18th, 2010 (by Sierra Black) This post is from staff writer Sierra Black. Sierra writes about frugality, sustainable living, and getting her kids to eat kale at Childwild.com.
I spend almost nothing on clothes. According to Mint, I’ve spent $199.50 to clothe my family of five this year. They say the average U.S. household has spent $1258.62. That’s more than six times my spending.
It’s been years since I walked into a clothing store, tried on styles I liked and bought myself a new pair of jeans. That doesn’t mean I’m content to dress like a slob, or wear the same tried-and-true favorites season after season. I change up my wardrobe every few months with a huge shopping spree — from my friends’ closets.
The clothing swap
My friends and I hold clothing swaps at least once a season. We all clean out our closets of anything we don’t love that’s still in good condition. We get together and swap our cast-offs around. I’m a walking advertisement for the aphorism, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”
A clothing swap is a win on several fronts, For example, it decreases clutter in your closet, and gives you a chance to freshen up your wardrobe for free.
I find the selection at a clothing swap is better than I get in most thrift stores. My friends’ tastes in clothes are fairly similar to mine, so I don’t have to wade through rack after rack of 1970s polyester blouses to get to the good stuff. The last swap I was at had an entire business wardrobe of designer-label stuff in my size, a lot of it still with the tags on. I also picked up half a dozen cozy, long-sleeved t-shirts and a pair of great jeans.
I feel free to experiment with my wardrobe. If something fits well but is wildly different from my usual style, I can take it home and see if I like it. If it sits at the back of my closet for six months untouched, I can just return it next time I go to a swap. No harm, no foul. With clothing swap finds, I’ve expanded my staple wardrobe from simple jeans and t-shirts to include a lot more adventurous skirts and dresses.
Clothing swaps are great fun. I’d much rather spend a morning hanging out with a group of friends chatting and laughing while we play dress-up than spend hours trolling a mall for the right ensemble.
I’ve heard these events called “naked lady parties”, but men can play this game, too. I’ve hosted swaps that were just for the ladies and swaps that were co-ed. Do what works for you.
Swapping is simple
Here’s how to host a clothing swap:
- Find a space. If you’re hosting a small event for your friends, your living room is probably ample. If you want to make it bigger, church basements and community centers are often open to this type of thing.
- Decide who to invite. Do you want it to be all women, or co-ed? Just your close friends, or a big group? Will your swap have a theme, like a fancy dress swap or a mother-daughter swap?
- Make your announcement. Giving people a few weeks notice before a clothing swap is a good idea. You want to give your guests time to gather up their unwanted duds, and make sure they have open space on their calendars.
- Set rules for what can be swapped. Decide what you want people to bring, and what should go straight in the Goodwill bin. A good first rule is that everything be clean and in good condition. You may want to prohibit donations of used underthings. Some swaps also exclude kids’ clothing, athletic wear or winter gear, just because there’s so much of it and the appeal is so limited.
- Gather your supplies. You’ll want a ready supply of trash bags for people to take clothes home in. Also handy: sharpie markers and masking tape for making labels. Full length mirrors are a huge bonus. You may also want to put out some light snacks and beverages, in a separate room from where the swap is happening.
- Collect clothing. Encourage people to drop off their donations a few days in advance, so that you have time to set up and sort the loot before the event starts. This helps cut down on chaos. People will bring clothes as they arrive on the day of the swap; it’s human nature to do these things at the last minute. But you can get a head start by taking things early and having piles already going when your first guests arrive.
- Set up the swap. To help people find what they want, sort clothes into based on type. You’ll want a separate heap for shirts, t-shirts, pants, sweaters, jackets, etc.
- Donate the leftovers. When the swap is over, take the leftovers to Goodwill, Planet Aid, or the charity of your choice. It’s best to have a couple of dedicated volunteers on hand to help with this. The job can be overwhelming for one person.
The best reward to hosting a clothing swap? You get first dibs on everything that comes in as you sort through the donations.
Final thoughts
The biggest risk is bedbugs. Bedbugs are a nightmare to live with and nearly impossible to get rid of. They love to travel in clothes, but can’t survive the heat of a dryer. If you’re hosting a clothing swap, make a very firm rule that everything brought into the house be freshly cleaned.
Hosting a clothing swap is a great way to slash your clothing budget to almost nothing, and it’s a fun way to spend time with your friends. It’s also a way to live green. We don’t usually think of clothes as recyclable in the same way a soda can is, but clothing makes up 5% of the municipal waste in New York City. That’s a lot of clothes going into landfills.
Swapping your unwanted stuff decreases your demand for new manufactured textiles, which can be a drain on natural resources. It also helps keep more clothes out of landfills.
Got any more tips on how to host a clothing swap? Leave ‘em in the comments!
For more clothing tips, also see How to Stop Buying Clothes You Never Wear and Embracing the Thrift Store Ethic: 18 Top Tips for Buying Used Clothes. Also welcome Lifehacker readers! Photo by iwona_kellie.
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If you live near a university many host an annual “dump and run”. When all the dorms empty in May it is insane the amount of stuff students leave behind that they simply can’t or don’t want to fit in their car. All these items are collected and then just before fall semester starts back up there is an enormous yard sale, like gymnasium sized with everything from furniture to computers to clothes, etc.
We lived near an Ivy League for awhile and you wouldn’t believe the things students left behind. Prices were inexpensive, comparable to a yard sale and depending on the university proceeds are used for different things, I think typically charities.
Anyways, check your local university website. I would think most host them around mid-late Aug. when students return, but before classes start so they can do back to school shopping there. Arrive early though, often the line forms hours before the sale starts.
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My daughter simply posts on her mother’s group board when her son needs the next size. Usually within two days a bag of that size arrives! She gives the outgrown clothing away to others on her board. Everyone wins eventually (except the shopaholics who still insist on new).
My nieces store all of their baby clothes at my SIL’s house. As their boy/girl grows into the next size—-off to Grandma’s to look at “new clothes”.
In both cases clothes have been gently used and stored correctly.
I give my things to a store that helps women get back into the business world. It is fun to see my clothing around my small town.
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That is a great great idea.
Better even than donating, becuase you get something, hopefully more useful, in return.
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well that sounds like a good idea but not for me, I don’t like used clothes, plus I don’t really own that many clothes to begin with, just enough for two weeks, that’s it
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we all do what works for us =)
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That sounds like a lot of fun, but impractical in my case. In the past five years or so, I’ve only bought my wedding outfit, a couple of T-shirts and a swimsuit. I have absolutely nothing to swap and I would feel bad if I was just going to take stuff and not contribute any.
But just because it wouldn’t work for me doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea, and I’m sure it will be of more use to other people. I have to admit though, my friends tend to either not be my size at all, or not have the same tastes at all (or both).
But hey, I really like the idea. If people have clothes they don’t wear, might as well let the friends share
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@38 “Goodwill doesn’t want clothes with stains either. Clothes which are donated should be in good condition, too.”
Our local Goodwill WILL take stained, damaged clothing – just make it as “Salvage” to save them the time of sorting. I do this a few times a year!
My biggest challenge is finding Secular thrift and consignment stores. We had a children’s consignment store locally that many Moms raved about that I just couldn’t shop at because of the owner’s beliefs. My first and last time in the store I overheard the owner stating that God created the Earth and all it resources for humans to use up completely and quickly, before the coming Rapture. I really wanted to ask “Ok, then why are you running and profiting from a resale store?”
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I’m not sure why people seem to think the swap can only work in your circle of friends. Don’t your friends know other folks? I’ve never organized a swap, but I’ve been to one or two. They were massive events — my friend had a week long one in her living room. She invited every lady she knew, and she told them all to invite people. We dropped by whenever we could during the week, put our clothes in the appropriate piles, and took what we wanted. It worked out really nicely. I certainly didn’t get clothes from anyone I personally knew. It was still awesome
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Sounds like a lot of fun! But unless all your friends look alike, it’s hard to imagine how you could get enough people together who wear the same size.
A neighbor of mine did a riff on this. She was a killer sale shopper–I never knew anyone who could find nice clothes at 80% off the way that lady could!
First, she’d go through everyone in her family’s closets and cull out everything she’d bought the previous season. These, she would take to Buffalo Exchange, where would collect a handful of cash for the lightly used clothes. Anything B.E. wouldn’t take, she would donate to Hadassah for a tax deduction.
With fresh money in her purse, she would head for the last-chance sales, where she bought all new stuff for herself, her husband, and her kids. She said she effectively paid nothing for the family’s clothing.
Everyone in the family always looked nice.
It just doesn’t work for me. I dislike shopping in sales, especially off the bottom-of-the-barrel racks where she gravitated. All I can see there is the purple, black, and green polka-dotted nylon dresses. The stuff’s on sale for a reason! Same thing with thrift shops: if you find something you like and that appears to be clean and unstained, it doesn’t fit. You need to have a LOT of patience to shop this way!
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I’m with S – I would be extremely interested in hearing of any secular thrift stores!
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I looove clothing swaps! Some of my favourite clothes that I wear all the time are from swaps.
Everytime I wear those clothes, I feel good inside because I know it was FREE. =)
I haven’t hosted one myself yet, but went to one. Thanks for the tips!
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I’ve been to lots of swaps, and loved them all. It’s always great to get rid of stuff I don’t want, and to poke through and see what goodies I can find. I’ve gotten a number of really great cardigans and necklaces this way.
I’d be interested in hearing how other people have set up their swaps. I’ve always found it a bit manic when people start pulling through the different piles.
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Secular thrift stores: DAV (disabled American veterans), ARC, in a lot of cities there’s a women’s organization store (like Junior League or Women’s Crisis Center). Goodwill is secular, as is OxFam.
We have some local charity shops – People for Pride in Living, Silver Angel (which despite the name benefits a local neighborhood organization elderly services program).
And then there are for-profit chain thrifts like Unique, Savers, ReNew.
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eeeeeeek… bedbugs.
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I live in a large city and a friend of mine organized a Plus-Size women’s clothing swap last year. I hear that it went fabulously well. The organizers requested that attendees bring a small donation for the non-profit which offered the free use of the space. The extra clothes were donated to a local thrift store.
DeeBee
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I’ve attended and hosted two swaps with mixed results.
One I attended was at a coworker’s friend’s, full of gorgeous women, whose style and bodies I envied … and not one person was anywhere near my plus size. I made off with a great purse and necklace, so I wasn’t terribly disappointed. The second I attended had tables labeled for each size, so it was a breeze browsing. They also charged 50 cents for anything you took, and it went to charity, so people were less grabby and more selective.
The first one I hosted was invite-only, and everyone reported success finding at least something — we had plenty of purses, scarves, and jewelry for the people who didn’t have a match in size (I wear 22/24, one friend is a 0, lol)
The 2nd however was a disaster. We opened it more to the public (friends of friends of coworkers, etc) and the quality of clothing was awful — stuff that wouldn’t even sell at Goodwill. Some women grabbed all the expensive things to sell at their garage sales, instead of the original purpose of helping friends refresh their wardrobe. I was furious!
Furthermore, I had people drop off donations early so I could put them in different corners of the room according to size, so it would be easier for groups of S/M/L/Plus to find their treasures. It took me two hours to set up, and when everyone had left, it took 8 people over an hour to box it all up and fill my station wagon for the Goodwill (there was soooo much that nobody wanted!
For all that work and stress, I didn’t find a single thing I wanted. The women my size weren’t my style, and the purses/jewelry got scooped away before I could even look through it. Some low-life brought nearly-empty bottles of cheap body spray, like the Christmas crap you get from KMart.
What I learned is to keep it friends-only so people don’t feel like they can anonymously screw everyone else. I’ll be adding other rules, like: If you wouldn’t give it to a friend, it doesn’t belong here (nice stuff only!) No taking things to sell, it must be for your personal enjoyment (until everyone’s had a chance, then the leftovers are free to take.) Please try to take a fair amount compared to what you brought (one lady brought a couple ugly t-shirts from various casino give-aways and walked away with a dozen of my nice work blouses.) No kids clothes, and you must bring a dish for potluck dinner.
Third time might be the charm, and I’ll do it closer to fall when the wardrobes change for the season and closets are due for a refresh.
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Cynthia, you sound awesome. I wish you lived in Houston so I could participate in your next swap. Lowlifes tick me off and your new “rules” should solve a lot of problems. Good luck!
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Our family tries to stay away from buying retail. Overpriced and most of the clothes shrink by the time you wash them the first time…..buying used, you will never have that problem. Thanks Sierra for your insight….
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I get 80% of my clothes this way. My friends and I host swaps about twice a year. We are all different sizes, people gain and lose weight, and somehow it all works out. People only bring stuff they want to get rid of anyway; there is no expectation that everyone will go home with a bunch of great stuff. Doing this regularly, however, we find that eventually everyone will find something that they LOVE.
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I can relate to the tall chicks who can’t have swaps with their shorter friends. I’m 6’2 with a size 14 shoe – trading jeans with my 5’6 best friend isn’t an option! It was out of my frustration of hunting for clothes that I started tallchicksrule.com. I hope you’ll check it out the next time you’re shopping for longer lengths. Sounds like we need to organize a TallChicksRule swap!
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@Shara: Have you tried shopping for shoes online? Zappos.com has sizes up to 22. Yeah, you have to pay for shipping and perhaps deal with exchanges if a pair turns out not to fit, but you do get a pretty big selection to choose from. There are also sites that specialize in big shoes, like (no surprise) bigshoes.com.
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I have been running a community swap for 10 years now. I started with children’s clothing and expanded to women & men clothing too. I have one every may & Sept. I have also help start 5 other ones in the area. I am tall and do find clothes for me. Not a ton but who needs more then a week or two of clothes? I have gotten 90% of my family clothes through these swaps.
Some families are looking to clean out the clothes they no longer use, and they bring boxes of clothes in, sometimes leaving with just one or two “special” things. Other families are really in need of clothes, and come with little or nothing, but leave with bags of clothes. Others bring what they took last season, for another family to take this time, and bring home another seasons worth themselves to start the process again.
And it is fun to look forward to seeing everyone and saying hi to new folks who join us.
Our clothing swaps were featured on June 5, 2009 on NBC Nightly News – Making a Difference. It is a short video. Here is the link
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31131921#31131921
A web page to teach you how to start swaps of your own. http://swap.nobucks.net/
It is so fun listening to kids ask their mom “Can I buy this?” knowing mom can easily say yes.
I have had a great time hosting these swaps for the last ten years.
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