Steal This Idea!

Our church's Mom's Time Out group (essentially MOPS) has an annual Clothing Exchange. This is the best idea that I'm always telling friends who are involved with MOPS programs or something similar at their churches about it so they can do the same thing at their church. A benefit to moving all the time is that I see a lot of neat concepts at various churches and I can take them with me to my next church and fool everyone into thinking I'm brilliant and have a ton of creative ideas in my head!

Here is how it works. On the designated evening donations are dropped off at the church from 5:30-7:30. Everything is asked to be clean and in working order and paired together (i.e...a 2 piece outfitted safety pinned together so it doesn't get separated, or toys with many pieces/parts in a bag together etc.). It doesn't aways happen but it makes it a lot easier when people follow the guidelines. We also ask that when you drop off your donation it is already separated, so a bag of girls size 2T and a separate bag of boys size 4T etc. This makes sorting go much more quickly.

Sorting donations....tables are marked with pink or blue balloons that also have the size/gender hanging from them...it is really helpful when 50 women are swarming one table.

With me so far? So donations arrive during those 2 hours and are sorted by tons of volunteers. Tables are arranged according to boy/girl as well as size. We take sizes from newborn to size 14/16 kids as well as maternity clothes, kids shoes, coats, toys, books, and baby items like car seats, strollers, large toys, pack-n-plays etc. You wouldn't believe the amount of donations we receive, as well as the amount of people that attend.

This has gone on at our church twice a year since for at least 8 years that I know of and probably more. A ton of people from the community have learned about it and now attend. It's a great outreach and a good chance to tell families about our church as well as meet their needs. I don't know exact numbers that were there last night, but I would guess somewhere around 300.

Donated baby items

The doors open at 7:30 and people literally run! It is like those wedding dress sales where the crazy brides run inside the store and start grabbing things. A lot of people drop off their donations at 5:30 and then wait for 2 hours so they can be at the front of the line and the first to get to a specific size table. People also come with teams...women with their sisters and mother in laws with lists shopping for various children throughout the sanctuary. I'm not kidding when I say that it is chaos and insanity, yet organized and well run if that makes sense. I saw women leaving with several garbage bags full of things last night. Some people bring wagons to load their goods into...one man was in the hallway with a wheelbarrow watching over their loot.

The shoppers invade!

The stage in the sanctuary was covered in shoes and winter clothing.

Book table, in the back are tables filled with toys, stuffed animals, games, videos, etc.


This is a garage sale junkies paradise. Like an alcoholic in a bar. I can only imagine what my friend Amy would think! (She is a garage sale junkie...not an alcoholic, fyi). I felt a little claustrophobic and in need of fresh air. Sorry, Amy.

It's not a kid friendly environment so we tell people not to bring their children or strollers but there are still a lot of people who don't seem to get the memo! People have one hour to shop. At 8:30 we begin to pack up any leftovers. The coordinators organize pick-up with various organizations in the area and they were there last night with vans that we filled with the remaining donations.

Best part. Everything is FREE!

This same thing is possible at any church...there are no expenses other then maybe some advertising. It really just takes a lot of time to coordinate, spread the word, talk with local organizations and then get people excited so that you get a lot of donations in order to make it a big success. When this first began it started in the lobby of our church. Then it moved into the chapel. Now we fill the sanctuary. So if you start the same idea at your church don't be disappointed if it starts small.

We have a 1 minute DVD that was put together that shoes the entire evening in time lapse...front the sanctuary being broken down to the set up tables, the drop of off clothing, the organization of books, shoes, etc. and then the shoppers and eventually the tear down. I know a lot of my readers are in MOPS groups...I highly encourage you to present this idea to your steering committee. If you are seriously considering it maybe I could get you a copy of the DVD.