The Two Babes Clothes Swap Was Amazing!

Kim and I have been on the fence about hosting a clothes swap since we first launched this blog in early 2019. We knew it would be a lot of work and we weren’t sure of how exactly to go about it. After doing some research online and speaking to people who had hosted similar, smaller events, we concluded that it might not require the massive amount of effort we had previously thought it would take.

BOY WERE WE WRONG.

We announced the clothes swap in late Jan of 2020 and since then we have had about a month and half of turning our bedrooms into storage facilities, running around to gather the garments from people who were not able to drop off, looking for venues, sifting through garments and just generally freaking out.

We had a high number of registrations, around 108. But eventually, we realised that only half would actually take the leap and drop their items off and this suited us perfectly.

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So many of you have reached out to ask us how it worked, so let me tell you:

1. Everyone who attended had to register on our site.
2. Once they registered they then had to drop off no more than 20 items which they would want to swap.
3. Kim and I then went through all of the items that were dropped off and vetted them. We did not accept things that were too well-worn, of too specific a style or very dated or broken.
4. The number of items that made it through to the swap was then communicated to the person who registered. So for example, you gave us 15 items but only 10 made the cut, we then let you know that you had 10 items in the swap and could, therefore, take as much as 10 items on the day.
5. On the day the event was closed to anyone who had not registered and donated clothes.
6. In the end, we had 1 box of clothes leftover and this was donated to two different charities.

Some things worked well and things that didn’t work at all.

1. The collection process was impossible to manage. Kim and I both work fulltime and finding time to be parents, partners and employees while still driving around to gather collections was challenging.
2. People were just not as respectful as we would have liked. We heard several complaints on the day about people not sticking to the rules and grabbing things or hoarding things.

We’ll need to brainstorm how we go about managing these two elements of the event for next time.

AND YES, THERE WILL BE A NEXT TIME.

While we have not yet set the date for the next swap, we know we would like to do it in time for spring, so either in September or October If you would like to get on the list now (keep in mind we will not be accepting more than 100 registrations for the swap) then complete the form below and we’ll add you to the list.

Any questions? Pop them in the comments below.

Lots of love!

Nikki