Free is my middle name!
Today we had our 2nd annual clothing exchange at church. I started this exchange last year as a way to help get our children much needed school clothes for the upcoming year. This year I am having a baby in August so I did the exchange early so that I would be up to organizing the whole thing. Last time I took whatever people gave, toys, books, household items, clothes, anything really. We had so much stuff left over at the end of the exchange that our local thrift store got 5 mini van loads of stuff! This year I got smarter. I started announcing it to friends and friends of friends months ago. I also posted it on Craig's List Friday night, and had a friend of mine make signs for the front of the church and the corner so that we could pull in some people in the community. Free Cycle was having a similar exchange a few streets over and some of our members were going over and telling people about ours too, it was fabulous.
Friday night we started collecting things and organizing them. I had so much help it was great. People were very generous with their time and within 4 hours we had it all sorted, organized and ready for the next morning. I was completely shocked at how much stuff we received. It was more than last year by a few tables full, and I was smarter about how I laid the room out so we maximized space really well.
This morning I was shocked again by how many people we had coming to the church and taking stuff! By 9:30 (we opened at 9) we already had more takers than we had the entire time last year. I'd say we got rid of about 3/4 of the stuff that we had and only had about 1- 1 1/2 van loads to take to the thrift store.
The idea of this whole exchange came from my old stake that did this after I left and my MIL would send us boxes of stuff for the kids. It was always really nice things and they were pretty picky about what came to the tables. If it wasn't fit for their own kids then it got tossed away. I have brought this same philosophy to our exchange and I have to say we had some REALLY nice things come in.
I also admit that most of my motivation comes from the fact that I have to clothe 5 children, and it's not cheap! K needs new stuff every season since she is the oldest. O gets a lot of hand-me-downs from K but sometimes the gap between sizes is a little far and she needs some "filler" clothes. C only grows up, thank goodness, so his clothes last a long time but he's the first boy and needs things regularly. L is so far from C's size that it will be years before they fit so he relies mostly on hand-me-downs from friends and things I pick up myself. This new baby,who will also be a C so we may have to call him CH on this blog, will be a hand-me-down baby since he's so close to L's age. The one that stresses me out the most is K, she is getting to the stage where clothes count. Luckily she is very frugal when it comes to buying stuff, and is always understanding when I suggest Good Will or Plato's Closet instead of Hollister, or Gap! She was very lacking in the summer clothes department and was able to get an entire wardrobe from this exchange! She will be dressed VERY nicely in the upcoming months. So will O,who despite her already overflowing drawers, picked up quite a few nice things herself.
So my motivation is about 1/2 good will and service, and 1/2 necessity. That's not too bad, and I know that there are a lot of families today that are thankful for the generosity of others and are reaping the benefits of this exchange.
Other things on my good find list for the day include 2, count them 2, dressers off of Craig's list for $5 TOTAL! They are not the best quality but they are in good shape and are clean (no stinky, stink!). So now CH will have a place to put all his clothes, and K will get one of them and I can have my grandmother's vintage dresser for a buffet! So excited about our finds for the day and exhausted and tired from all the work.
Friday night we started collecting things and organizing them. I had so much help it was great. People were very generous with their time and within 4 hours we had it all sorted, organized and ready for the next morning. I was completely shocked at how much stuff we received. It was more than last year by a few tables full, and I was smarter about how I laid the room out so we maximized space really well.
This morning I was shocked again by how many people we had coming to the church and taking stuff! By 9:30 (we opened at 9) we already had more takers than we had the entire time last year. I'd say we got rid of about 3/4 of the stuff that we had and only had about 1- 1 1/2 van loads to take to the thrift store.
The idea of this whole exchange came from my old stake that did this after I left and my MIL would send us boxes of stuff for the kids. It was always really nice things and they were pretty picky about what came to the tables. If it wasn't fit for their own kids then it got tossed away. I have brought this same philosophy to our exchange and I have to say we had some REALLY nice things come in.
I also admit that most of my motivation comes from the fact that I have to clothe 5 children, and it's not cheap! K needs new stuff every season since she is the oldest. O gets a lot of hand-me-downs from K but sometimes the gap between sizes is a little far and she needs some "filler" clothes. C only grows up, thank goodness, so his clothes last a long time but he's the first boy and needs things regularly. L is so far from C's size that it will be years before they fit so he relies mostly on hand-me-downs from friends and things I pick up myself. This new baby,who will also be a C so we may have to call him CH on this blog, will be a hand-me-down baby since he's so close to L's age. The one that stresses me out the most is K, she is getting to the stage where clothes count. Luckily she is very frugal when it comes to buying stuff, and is always understanding when I suggest Good Will or Plato's Closet instead of Hollister, or Gap! She was very lacking in the summer clothes department and was able to get an entire wardrobe from this exchange! She will be dressed VERY nicely in the upcoming months. So will O,who despite her already overflowing drawers, picked up quite a few nice things herself.
So my motivation is about 1/2 good will and service, and 1/2 necessity. That's not too bad, and I know that there are a lot of families today that are thankful for the generosity of others and are reaping the benefits of this exchange.
Other things on my good find list for the day include 2, count them 2, dressers off of Craig's list for $5 TOTAL! They are not the best quality but they are in good shape and are clean (no stinky, stink!). So now CH will have a place to put all his clothes, and K will get one of them and I can have my grandmother's vintage dresser for a buffet! So excited about our finds for the day and exhausted and tired from all the work.
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