Free fun: Clothing swap

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to my first-ever clothing swap. It was hosted by one of the girls I know from the climbing gym, so I had a pretty good idea of who would be in attendance. My first reaction was excitement, I mean hello, free clothes to trade! That's something to be excited about. My second reaction was one of skepticism: those tiny girls' clothes will never fit me.

Me and my skepticism decided to go anyway. I mean, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I would find something to fit me and maybe my clothes would fit them. Besides, it would be a fun (mostly FREE) Friday night of girls getting together, eating and looking at clothes. Sounded like a win-win to me.

So off I went with some of my favorite pieces that had simply been in my closet for way too long, and a few other items that never fit me correctly or I just never liked the way it looked on me. I can now say that I attest to the traveling sisterhood pants movie. Things from my closet looked amazing on one of my good friends who is about five inches taller than me, and vice versa. And one of my favorite H&M sweaters looked so cute and cozy on the smallest girl there. That night I basically emptied out a large tote bag of my old clothes and came home with that same bag full of new clothes to put back in my closet. And again, it was pretty much all free. The only money spent is on food and drinks that you bring to share with the group. I have to say, this might be my new favorite way to shop.

There are several ways you could organize your own swap. You could lay/hang everything out and everyone would get a chance to "shop" the room at the same time. Or you could literally barter piece for piece. Or you could use the method we did. We made everyone get in a circle, and take a turn pulling out an item piece by piece. If someone was interested in the top or skirt or whatever, you voiced your opinion. And if there was more than one girl who wanted that piece, we went either by enthusiasm or we flipped a coin for it. It might have taken longer than if we had laid everything out, but it was much more fun this way and everyone had the equal opportunity to see each piece at the same time.

So what are you waiting for? Organize your own night of free fun with a clothing swap soon!