Swap ’til You Drop! {And Something Else I’m Excited About!}

First up, the “other” thing I’m excited about!

Every October The Nester blogs every day of the month around a choosen theme, and she’s invited fellow bloggers to join in, pick a theme, and blog about it for the 31 Days of October.

Well…I’ve honestly been waiting for years to get to participate, and this year is the year! Sarah and I will be blogging every day for the month of October around the general theme of Simple Solutions. We might even have a guest blogger or two in the mix.

I’ll fill you in on more details the 1st of October, but I’m just so excited about it, I couldn’t not tell you. I hope you’ll look forward to it with us!

Now…

On to the “real” point of this post….

We had a swap party!!

Oh yeah….

I first heard of a swap meet when The Nester had one quite awhile ago. I thought it sounded like SO much fun, but then…never did anything about it.

One of my good friends Rachel is part of the Women’s Ministry team at church, and she suggested they coordinate a Swap Party as a kick off for fall event for the ladies of the church. And {the best part!} she asked me to host!

Let me tell you…it was a TON of fun!

I knew it would be fun, but I didn’t realize just how fun it would be.

There’s nothing better than getting rid of something you can’t use anymore, letting someone else have it who will love it, AND taking home something new to you! All for F-R-E-E – free!

Woot!

So…I thought I’d give you a little run-down on how Rachel coordinated the event in case you’d like to try it. And really – you should. You should try it! We can’t wait to do it again!

Our event was open to all the women in our church. Most swap parties would probably not be open to that many people. But…you could go big or you could go small. It’s up to you. I think even with 10 women it would still be a ton of fun.

We had right around 40 ladies. Wow! I didn’t know my home could hold that many people!

Each lady was invited to bring at least one item, but were welcome to bring more. For each item they brought they receive a ticket at the door. We did not assign value to the items, which the ladies were aware of beforehand. I think it would have been waaaaay more complicated to assign value. But you could if you want to make things more even. However, part of the point is to get rid of something you aren’t using anymore. In my opinion it’s better to let someone else have it and love it than squirrel it away in your closet or garage. And if it’s really valuable, then consider selling it on Ebay or consignment instead.

{Most of these pictures of the tables with the swap items were taken before a lot of people arrived. So imagine them all filled up!}

We excluded clothes {since sizes vary} and baby or kid items. Everything else was pretty much fair game!

We had jewelry, scarves, belts, picture frames, a mirror, artwork, vases, nick-knacks, books, home decor, kitchen items, serving ware…lots of variety.

You could certainly choose to do an event where you only focus on one type of item.
An accessories exchange.
A housewares exchange.
But…since we had such a wide range of people we wanted to include, we kept our swap very general.

It was a dreary, rainy day. But did that keep theses ladies away? Nope! Shows how fun a swap party can be!

After the ladies came in and got their tickets, they ventured over to our number tree, and selected a tag. No peeping! The number inside told them which group they would go it {kind of light boarding a Southwest flight}.

Rachel had even assembled cutie shopping gift bags for the ladies to bring their goodies home in! {Thanks, Alissa for the great bags and tissue!}

We had people at the door to collect their items and get them displayed on the tables. We didn’t group items together except for the jewelry and scarves. We did, however, made “sets” of smaller items. Like…a pretty pitcher had tea and napkins inside of it.  A series of books counted as 1 item. Stuff like that.

We took special care to make sure we had plenty of room to display stuff. I used my dining table, my buffet, my old dining table {moved to the middle of my living room}, and two more tables outside. We could have gotten away with fewer tables, but it was really nice this way because we were able to display everything so you could easily see it. It was not a rummage sale! So…make sure you have lots of display room!

We also put a small specified ribbon on items that weren’t up for swap, but that we were using for display – like the a tray for jewelry and another jewelry hanger. Don’t want someone walking away with the home decor you still want!

Refreshments were served {we asked people to bring food} and we encouraged the ladies to mingle and browse to get an idea of what they might like to take home!

Since this was an outreach of our church, our Women’s Ministry Director shared a devotional with us. So refreshing…and good to get our perspective right. Even if this isn’t a formal church event, you could take a few minutes to share with the people there. A captive audience is always a good time to share about Jesus.

Then Rachel started calling numbers! She called them in groups of 5. At that point, those 5 ladies could get up and pick one item {two books if they were going to pick books}. You could do this on the honor system, but it did make it easy for people to understand by using the tickets. So they chose their one item, turned in one ticket, and sat back down.

Rinse and repeat.

I was like number 39. Out of 50. Yuck, right?! But….I still got something really nice! I thought for sure everything I wanted would be gone, but there was such a great selection! I think everyone left with something they really loved. Yay!

After we went through all the groups each picking one item, Rachel opened it up for anyone who had more tickets to select the coordinating amount of items. I know that might sound a little crazy, I reallllllly thought this was a good idea. You didn’t have to wait to hear all the numbers again AND if you were in the end group you still had the same chance as anyone else the second time around.

After everyone had taken the things they wanted there were still some things left over {several of us brought “extra” things just to make sure there was a good variety}. At this point even the people who didn’t have extra tickets could grab something else they would like.  So kind of a controlled free-for-all effect.

I know this probably sounds chaotic. But it wasn’t. Promise! No cat fights!

We had some stuff left at the end, but not much. And that’s the way you want it! You don’t want to have to pack up boxes of stuff when you’re trying to get rid of stuff.

And that’s about it!

I heard over and over again how much the ladies loved this event. It was low pressure, fun, and exciting! I think everyone came away with something they were excited about! It’s also a easy event to invite people to because it’s very casual.

Wanna see what I scored?

A pretty scarf that I wore already on Sunday. A fun necklace {with earrings}. A pretty amber pitcher that’s perrrrfect for autumn! {Oh and some tea and napkins came with the pitcher. But honestly…I just wanted the pitcher } I’m very happy.

As far as cost…I think Rachel said it came in under $50. She had to buy paper plates, cups, etc., some fresh flowers. If you had people bring food and you had paper plates on hand, you could probably pull this event off for next to nothing.

So it’s cost effective all the way around!

Swap Parties rock! Can’t wait until we do another one!!

{Thanks to Rachel for the idea and the coordination! Thanks to Becky, Debra, Marjorie, and Alissa for ALL the hard work and preparation. And thanks to Erika who came early and stayed late to help us out! You guys are the best! And thanks, ladies for coming and bringing the delicious food!}

This is me and Erika. I loved that we both wore chambray and bubble necklaces! And I love that she’s one of my good friends.

So! Are you intrigued?! Think you’ll be planning a swap party anytime soon? If you’re local, be sure to invite me!