What To Look For At A Clothing Swap

You guys, I'm struggling here. Struggling with bulking up outfit content to share with you. The best I can manage is my daily insta-stories with the day's #ootd (so hopefully you are at least following along there, @bottesdeleanor). The daylight was short (it's getting longer now), the workday is long, and I want to spend every last available minute with my best boys. So outfit photos fall to the very bottom of the list. 

But I do want to get better about posting more frequently, so in that spirit, I thought I'd share some tips with you all on what to look for at your next clothing swap! 

This weekend, Noto, will be hosting a clothing swap at the Trailhead at Cascade Lofts. It will likely be a monster, as it's part of their Sustainable Fashion Weekend events. To help you all out, so you don't get overwhelmed like I did at the the last swap, which was also a doozy, with over 40 women swapping clothes, I wanted to share some of my favorite tips on how to get the most out of a clothing swap! 

So here they are:

1. Arrive early. Most swaps set a start time for swapping, but that doesn't mean you can't show up early to get a lay of the land.

2. Focus on the "hard to find" or unique items: for me this is always shoes. People are usually hesitant to bring shoes, so that means the selection is much smaller and easy to scan. Not to mention I have a pretty average size foot (a little bigger now), so I can easily take a quick look and determine if any shoes "spark joy" and then when swapping starts, try those options on. Accessories also fall in this category. People bring amazing bags and scarves, so always worth a first look.

3. Colors and patterns: Generally, whenever you go shopping, you know which colors you are drawn towards. Swapping is no different. Look for items in the color family you know you like (or that catch your attention). Alternate argument: Rachel found an amazing mint top at the last swap that isn't usually in her color palette, but decided to take a chance on it because you literally have nothing to lose when swapping.

4. Wait for the initial frenzy to die down, and then go back for a second, third or fourth look - you can't miss what you didn't know existed. Generally, swaps follow a similar format (at least the ones I've been to): first round - swappers can pick one thing, second round two things, then "free for all" with the max matching how many items you donated to the swap. After the first few rounds, I like to grab my "top 10" items, take them back to my "home base", "try them all on" (i.e. over my clothes*), put back anything that didn't work and then go back at it - looking more closely at items that have been left behind or put back. 

5. Relax. One of the women at the last swap earlier this year said it best: "even if I don't walk away with anything new today, at least I cleaned out my closet." I also like to add that quality time with friends to chat clothes, fashion and life isn't a waste either. 

*Bonus tip: wear slim fitting clothes that are easy to throw other items over. Swaps usually don't have a traditional "dressing room" area, so to be able to quickly judge if something is a keeper, I like to throw all my possibilities over what I'm wearing. Alternately, don't worry about trying stuff on. If it doesn't work out, it was free, and you can bring it to the next swap (if you have the space to store it in the interim).

For those of you who have no idea what a clothing swap is, or what I'm talking about check out some past swap posts I've shared here, here and here. And if you want to throw your own swap, Jessica posted a great how-to here.

Good luck this weekend at the Noto Swap (I'll have to miss this one to spend some QT with family) - sounds like you can start dropping your items off now! Feel free to share you swapping tips in the comments!