Swap Til you Drop

It's no secret that finances have been pretty tight for the Maui Smith Ohana for the past few years. We live right at our means, not a bit above. We have cut down everywhere we have thought we can cut down. By the grace of God and some responsible stewarding of our money we seem to just get by every month.

That being said my closet looks like I go on a major shopping spree about every 3 or 4 months. I'm talkin' about new dresses, shoes, skirts, shirts, belts, purses, bras, scarves, hats, jewelry, and jeans. The picture below is just what I pulled out of my closet to shoe you today (and about half of my laundry wasn't even clean, so it was not included in the picture).

Well this just doesn't add up does it?! I just told you that there has been a severe tightening of the good ol' purse strings here at the Smith Casa, and yet above you see just about a third of the new clothing and accessories that I have aquired in the past 12 months. How did I do it? Is your good friend Taylor a klepto? Do I have a sister none of you know about that sends me her clothes?

These are all good guesses, but none are true (except for that one time I did accidentally shoplift a mickey mouse ring from the Disneyland gift shop when I was about 10, I had put it on in the store and forgot about it until we were on our way home and I cried and cried thinking that mickey would ban me for life!) The truth is... it looks like I go on a major shopping spree about every 3 or 4 months because I DO go on a major shopping spree about every 3 or 4 months! Best part is, I don't ever have to pay for these sprees because instead of "Shopping Spree's" I go on "Swapping Sprees!"

In the last 12 months I have held 3 Fashion Swap Parties. The first one was in May of last year. The second in November and the most recent was in January. Everybody, (including yours truly) leaves the party with handfuls of free treasures!

Don't know what a Fashion Swap party is? Well, they can be called many things... Clothing Exchange Party, Upcycling Clothing Party, Swapinista Party, etc... I like to call my get-togethers "Fashion Swaps" or "Fashion Exchange" Parties though, because I encourage all the attendees to bring not only clothing to swap, but also lingerie, bras, board shorts, bathing suits, jewelry, hats, scarves, shoes, purses, wallets, belts and even used books!

I encourage the ladies invited to bring as many or as few items as they want to swap. Even if they feel that they have only one or two items to bring, I tell them to please consider still attending. I feel like we are all there for the fellowship as much as the free treasures, and I don't keep track of who brought what.

So how does it work you ask?
Ladies from all different walks of life, opinions on style, ages, body types and shoe sizes get to clean out their closets of lightly used, but for whatever reason, unwanted items. In return they go "swapping" and end up brigning home some fabulous pieces that are FREE TREASURES!

When the "swap" is all said and done there are always some items leftover, and they are given to a charity here on Maui called Women Helping Women.

Here is a funny little video from the last swap party.

This is the count down for them to GO SWAPPING!

If you have a group of friends that you think would enjoy a Fashion Swap (and really, who wouldn't?!)
or maybe you work with kids or are apart of a book club or some other organization... I highly encourage you to hold your own "Fashion Swap" Feel free to call me if you want any tips :)

The next Fashion Swap (Maui Edition) is in April, so I'll try and get some more fun video to post up here. Until then...


Swap Til You Drop,

Taylor