How To: Host a Clothes Swap

I've been meaning to post this for ages! I hosted a clothing swap earlier this year and it was so great (if I must say so myself)--and so simple! In the middle of winter when all is bleak and drizzly, a little closet clean-out and friendly camaraderie fit the bill nicely--and now that summer is upon us, another closet purging might be in order again.

I sent the word out to my girls in the city:

I went to another clothing swap soon after I moved here, put on by a woman in the city who has been doing them for years. She lives in a big, beautiful Tribeca loft and had tables and racks set up for all of the piles of clothes, as well as a coat check (smart!). She converted her bedroom into a dressing room and all snacks stayed in the kitchen.

A (blurry) action shot

I modeled my clothing swap after that one: a few tweaks, but mostly the same. Here are some shots of the set up before people arrived...

I put all accessories together (with shopping bags to "shop"):

And organized clothes by category on my (cleared-off) dresser and bed:

(And I made a drinks and snacks station over in the back corner to keep the kitchen from bottlenecking!)

A few of the girls looking through the goods!

At the end, we bagged up the leftovers and donated them to charity. An easy way to force yourself to clean out the closets!

Have you ever thrown a clothes swap? Let me hear about it in the comments below!