Clothing Swap 101

Bryhanna Greenough illustration

I've received quite a few e-mails in response to a recent column I wrote that mentioned a clothing and product swap my girlfriends and I had.

Readers are asking for tips and details about the swap, how to organize, etc... I'm happy to admit our swap wasn't very structured or even organized.

(And, after another recent gathering of the girls, it sounds like we need to do it again, since some are still stewing over items they didn't get.)

If you and your friends would like to try a swap, here are a few suggestions:

The number of swappers is key. Too few and you won't have a range of sizes/styles. Too many, and it'll get overwhelming. For our first swap, we had seven people.

Set the ground rules. Is it clothing only? Clothing and accessories? Is home decor fair game?

Similar range of sizes. It works better if you and your friends wear about the same size. Same goes for shoes.

Newish products. For products, we limited ours to beauty/hair/grooming products that had been opened recently and maybe used once or twice.

Clean, please. Make sure items for swapping are as clean and possible.

Decide how the swapping will be done. (This is where my group got loud and laughy -- we were doing this after a few cocktails). We couldn't decide on a system, so we would just hold items up, tell a little bit about it, and others would start calling dibs or lobbying for it. It wasn't the most orderly way, be we sure had fun!

Do you have swap tips to share? Please do!