My group in FL had clothing swaps twice a year, in the Spring and Autumn. We'd all go through our closets and pull out all the stuff our kids had ougrown and meet at a park pavilion. We'd sort the clothes onto picnic tables by size and gender, and then we'd all go through everything and pull out stuff for our kids for the next season. Anything left over was donated to a women's shelter. It was awesome, we rarely had to buy any new clothes or shoes. It was also a lot of fun to go to play groups and see a shirt of Max's on another boy or something of Jessamine's on a new baby girl. Jessamine is now wearing a special Cookie Monster shirt that has been worn by nearly every 2 year old girl in that group, it's something of a tradition. I'll probably mail it back to them when she grows out of it so it can continue.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw this idea out there to you guys. It's a great way to share efficiently, save money, and give back to the community.

Marie

I would be very interestd in participating in this. I have a 5 yr old son and 3 yr old grandson. I am sure we have lots of items others would want, and vice versa.

Kim

I would be interested.

I would be interested.  I have three bags full of clothes right now!

I would be interested as well....... is it just for kids or moms too? would we include books and toys? I am on the west side, we could possibly do a park day or community center...... I think its a great idea!~

I could coordinate one at the West Side Park Day if anyone is interested.  

When we did this in FL, we would bring anything we needed to get rid of. Mainly kids' clothes, but also adults' clothes and even household items. I must warn you that there was always A LOT of stuff left over, and whoever took the stuff to the charity was considered a saint. And needed to have a large van. This was with about 30 moms participating though. It was also necessary to have a couple moms keeping an eye on the kids so the others can sort through the stuff, it's pretty hard to "shop" when your kids are disemboweling each other on the jungle gym.

Right now I have some 3t boys stuff and 12-18m girls' stuff extraneous, but personally I'd like to wait until I find out what gender this baby is (in 2-4 weeks) so I know what I should keep and what I should save.

I am noticing that the feed back about this has kind of dropped off.  Do we need someone to arrange this or is there not enough interest?

I have a bunch of clothes I am hanging onto for this if we are still interested.

I think arranging at the park days is a good idea.  We have a lot of new families coming to ours on the West Side.  Like I said, I can arrange it for the West.  

Even if there isn't a whole lot of interest in the beginning, I think it's a good idea to give it a try. Even if only a few people do it it's still a great thing, and others will see that and it will grow. It got to be such a popular event with my grup in FL that we'd have impromtu swaps, so although we'd typically schedule them twice a year, we'd have smaller ones as often as once a month.

BTW my mom works with Care Net, a nonprofit that helps low-income pregnant women, and they could always use donations of maternity and baby clothes.

Marie

Considering today's WIND I think it should be scheduled in a non-windy month.  Anyone know when that might be???

Another option if you're concerned about weather is to use a reserved library room. We often reserved conference rooms at local libraries for such things, as they were usually free. There was a Panera Bread with a free room we sometimes reserved as well.

Marie

We have a big van and can take leftovers to donate.

I would be up for doing this at the west side park day too.

I would still be interested, although I am on the East side and there is really no way I'll be able to make it to a West side park day.  Anyone interested on doing in on the East side?  I would love to bring my bags to  the park if I knew what day!

I am on the East side, but I doubt I'd be able to go myself b/c I have very limited access to transportation.

Marie

I might be able to bring some things to an east side park day. I don't have all that many clothes to give away, just took a trip to Goodwill, but maybe we could expand it to a toy/book/clothes swap or something?

Okay so my nesting has kicked in full swing and I cleaned out dressers and closets today and I have two large buckets of clothing (children and adults) and stuffed animals to swap.  When can we do this cloting swap?  Anybody in a position to do it this Tuesday at the west side park day?  I can bring all my stuff to the park if so and try to organize it.  Let me know and I'll get it moving.  

HI!~
Could we try for next week on the West side? I am getting ready to have a huge moving sale this weekend, and I am still trying to clean out closets and go through book shelves!~
Let me know I think it is a great idea......

I think we are going to have to wait because no one else responded.  I cannot guarantee being available to organize next week because I'm trying to have a baby soon but I'll keep you posted!

Hi jenifer,
Iam finally using the forum,anyway just let me know what I can do to help. We have alot of stuffed animals to swap too.