JBER Library Clothing Swap

Yesterday was the clothing swap at the JBER library and I did pretty well! I always get excited at clothing swaps because they’re usually pretty chaotic in a way that I love. Like shopping on Black Friday, it’s the sacrifice you make for a good deal. They had a rule where you could only take as much as you gave. I spent the week digging through closets and boxes and dark corners of the house, looking for clothes that we didn’t need. When I was finished, I ended up having 372 items!

My Donation

I was amazed as I kept finding more and more things. There was a lot of maternity stuff, three years of boy clothes, the stuff my daughter has grown out of, and a few misc. items that my husband and I didn’t want. I almost felt bad for donating so much, so I separated the items by size and bagged them accordingly. It was the least I could do to help the people running the swap.

Once I took care of the sorting and bagging, I had to deal with transporting it all to the library. I was very grateful that we still had the big box that my daughter’s car seat came in, because it held a lot. I was able to stuff the rest in a couple of diaper boxes. Because my boys were in school, I was able to fit all of the boxes into the middle of the van. This let me put a dolly in the very back. The ladies at the library laughed when they realized that I brought my own, but how else was I going to get it inside?

The Swap Itself

Later that night was the actual swap. Even though they had a rule of “take what you donated,” I did NOT want 300+ items back, haha. I was surprised that it wasn’t chaotic at all! Everyone was very nice and no one was greedy about items. My haul was decent; I filled up two totes that I’d brought. I got some name brands and a couple of the other pieces still had tags! There was a free book area too, so I grabbed some for the boys and a couple for my mother in law.

Everything at the swap that wasn’t taken by someone got donated to Clare House, which is a homeless shelter for women with young children. I saw a lot of my items still there when I left, so it’s nice to know that they’re going to people who can really use them.

2 thoughts on “JBER Library Clothing Swap

  1. Thank you for your generous donation to Clare House! Your clothes will help women with young children and expectant mothers shift from homelessness to independence as they are provided the basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. And our case managers will help these women find the services they need for themselves and their children to becoming self-sufficienct. Thank you for supporting Clare House. 🙂

    1. Colleen says:

      You’re welcome! Happy to help.

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