A new wardrobe without buying? - try a swap shop evening with friends

It's now eight months since I challenged myself to a year of not buying unnecessary 'stuff', and I have to say in the last couple of months it's been getting harder not to be tempted to break the rules. For starters, I miss shopping. I quite like pottering round the shops looking for something specific - although I still kept to my principle of not buying unnecessary things, Christmas did at least give me the opportunity to buy useful stuff for other people, so I had a reason to browse round the shops.  Secondly, I've been getting bored of my clothes. As I write this today, the English weather has lurched from a colder than normal spring into full summer heat almost overnight, so suddenly I am able to pull out my summer clothes and find something different to wear, but a couple of weeks ago I was getting really bored of the same winter clothes that I had been wearing since September.

So while I was bemoaning my lack of something new to wear a few weeks ago, I had an idea. Host a swap shop evening with my friends. The idea is simple - get all your friends to bring along a few articles of clothing that they no longer wear, do a bit of swapping, then everyone gets something new for a change. 

There were a few problems I could think of. We're all different shapes and sizes for starters. And what about my friends that don't 'do' secondhand as the thoughts of wearing something that someone else has worn has them running out the door. Could I tempt them somehow?

Well, it was my birthday coming up as well, so if we added in a couple of  bottles of sparkling wine and some nice nibbles, and made it a fun evening to chat as well as swap, I reckoned that would work. And we could include accessories and unused toiletries as well as clothes, so that would deal with the problem of us all being different shapes and sizes.

So I emailed out invites to my friends, explained my idea and invited them along, asking them to bring between 2-5 items that they no longer wanted. Some people were busy, but everyone seemed to like the idea, and a couple of weeks later, they all descended on my house one Friday evening clutching bags of their cast offs.

The evening went really well. I had set out the dining room with a clothes rail and some hangers and a table for other bits and bobs, and made sure that I kept their glasses topped while everyone chatted. To start with, I think everyone was a little too polite to start rummaging, and too busy enjoying talking, but then someone tried on a dress, and then we were all offering advice on what would suit different people, and trying things on. Some people were happy just to declutter their own wardrobes, others were really pleased to get something new. One of my friends couldn't find much in the way of clothes, but came along with some lovely soaps and candles that were presents that she didn't really want.  I think most people managed to find something to take away with them, and I was particularly pleased when my friend that doesn't 'do' secondhand fell in love with an evening bag that another friend had bought along that had hardly been used.

One of the fun things was watching several of us trying a simple black stretchy T shirt dress that a friend had bought from Jigsaw in the sale. It was fascinating seeing how the same dress looked on different people, but although it looked lovely on the hanger, but somehow just didn't seem to suit anyone. Sometimes you can see why things are in the sale after all.

I managed to find a lovely flowery dress that one of my friends didn't want any more, a skirt that didn't quite fit another friend and a couple of nice necklaces. After everyone had gone my daughter enjoyed looking through the leftovers, and found herself a couple of new items for her wardrobe. We had quite a lot of things leftover, so I bagged them up and took them into Oxfam the next time I was working there.

So all in all - it was a great evening. We had fun, we all decluttered our own wardrobes and found something new, and ended up with a big bag full of donations for Oxfam. And it put a hold on my 'I want something new!' pangs. We will definitely do it again.