- Make sure everyone knows to bring cute things. The first time we had a swap a lot of people brought old ratty t-shirts. Think about items you still like, but maybe don't fit, or aren't your style anymore. No one wants your old gym t-shirt with stains on it.
- If you have a bunch of people who are different sizes, consider making areas for people to place their clothing according to size. Our party was small enough and most people were close enough in sizes that this wasn't necessary, but if there were a lot more people who wore different sizes, it would be nice to be able to look through items by size.
- Have an area to try things on with a mirror. Since we were at my house I let people try things on in my bedroom and bathroom, but if you're somewhere else, make a little dressing room.
- Make it a party! Have drinks, snacks and music! We went through phases of just sitting around and, munching, drinking and having fun and then spurts of digging through clothing.
- Plan ahead and give people time to dig through their closets to find items to swap. We made a Facebook event a couple weeks beforehand to let people know and kept them updated that way.
- Have a place set up to hang or rummage through the clothes. I had a little pole that I hung up, and then once that was overflowing we hung clothes on my back fence. If you have a ton of people coming, make sure you have a place for all the clothes to go!
- If you're hosting, offer to take the leftovers to donate to a local thrift store, so people don't have to haul their old stuff home.
Have you ever had a swap party? Did you get some awesome stuff? Have any other tips for throwing a successful swap party?