Trade Used Back to School Items

This can be done in a community to help families provide new articles of clothing, shoes, backpacks, etc for children to have when school begins.

We use the fellowship hall at a local church, send out an ad to let everyone know that on "this date" we will be meeting. The only requirement is that you bring 4-6 gently used items of clothing, shoes, etc. for school aged children. This is a good way to clean out closets and rid your home of the things your child has outgrown. Each person is to place the items they brought with the other like items in the room. refreshments are served and then we begin the browsing. No "black friday trampling", each mom or dad is allowed to take home 4-6 items. This way, the child gets something new to them.

It helps to do away with the burden of not being able to afford all the clothes they need. We hold it every other month during the year so it gets us through all the seasons. As it grows, more items are accumulated. At the end of the session. If there are items that you brought in still left, you take those back with you along with your new ones!

Mothers love this! The kids get something that's new to them. The community gets the blessing of helping out others and it re-purposes old items that have been outgrown. My grandson is one of the children that gets to look foward to this. We limit it to school aged childrens sizes all the way up to high school. But most of the items are for the younger kiddos.

By grammytab from Depew, OK