Spring is the best moment to enjoy this place. The days are long and full of bright light, the air is fresh and the weather is fresh but sunny. In this fantastic climate, we are at home outside in the garden. If everything is reorganized waiting the arrival of the guests, we dedicate ourselves to furniture restoration, mending and repainting. A cleansing not only physical but also energetic. We choose to give up objects accumulated for years, and get room to new ones that make us happy.
This year at Borgo4case I organized my first swap party, entirely dedicated to clothing. The season is changing and it is time to change my winter wardrode to spring and summer. I don’t like to do this, so I decided to organize a party with friends. I think it is very fun to see that my friends are very happy wearing my clothes with their style and with the enthusiasm that I had lost.
What is a swap party?
It is a party dedicated to swap, barter or gift clothes or objects with friends who want to get rid of objects that do not make them happier. It’s a good way to give to your stuff a new meaning instead of throw them in the trash.
How to organize a successful swap party in your garden in 7 steps:
1 FACE THE WARDROBE
First of all, empty the wardrobe completely by pulling out all the clothes, identify the ones that make you still happy and you wear with pleasure, and store them in the closet. If you have clothes in doubt, keep them and place them in a visible place, try to re-wear them and check whether to confirm or delete them. Do the same operation with the clothes of the other season. Put clothes for exchange in bags with some hanging clothes that you will use to show off your clothes in an attractive way.
2 CALL YOUR FRIENDS
invite a lot of your friends, ask each to bring a limited number of items, to avoid creating too much confusion. Invite your friends to involve other people in turn it can be a good opportunity to get new friends.
I asked to my friends to come with few clothes, because I preferred to give instead of changing.
3 DECIDE WHEN TO ORGANIZE IT
If you want to organize it in the garden you should check the weather. If it would be a sunny day plan it in the evening, if it is cool you can organize a brunch. If you have the possibility, organize tents or mats to cover the area you set up. Otherwise, if you have a veranda, use it to organize at least the buffet area there.
4 ADJUST THE GARDEN
cut the lawn, set up chairs and tables, decorate the garden as a vintage shop. Remember to bring a mirror and chairs, to arrange a sort of dressing room using an old sheet and a bent branch to form a circle. Remember how important the lights are, put lamps or torches in strategic positions so that the colors of the clothes are clearly visible and are not against the mirror. If you like music, get an amplifier and a suitable playlist.
5 PREPARE THE BUFFET ZONE
cool the wine, the beer and the drinks, prepare some appetizers, invite friends to bring something to eat so as not to get too tired. Remember to think of a way to mark glasses, which must be strictly not glass to avoid breaking them in the lawn. If you want to create a situation in style a bit ‘natural you could create cocktail glasses by cutting bamboo canes. A nice idea can be to prepare ice with borage flowers, daisy, calendula etc. or prepare a beautiful carafe of aromatic water. For example, I love the elderberry syrup (HERE my recipe) served in a beautiful transparent carafe with slices of lemon, mint and ice cubes with flowers.
6 SHOW OFF THE CLOTHES
Since you don’t want that your party look like a second-hand market don’t piling clothes on a table. Make your clothes attractive by putting them on stends. In my opinion the best solution for everyone to see well is to hang them. I have used the branches of the olive trees to support bamboo canes and ropes to hang clothes. Help yourself with clothes pegs or with clothes hangers. Organize clothes by hanging them in a logical and aesthetic order: split winter and summer clothes, follow a chromatic scale, combine clothes on the hangers according to your taste, just like you are in a store. My friends were positively surprised by the preparation I did, and eventually they left with bags full of clothes!
7 GIVE THE CLOTHES TO NEEDY
At the end of the evening, each of you will have exchanged, some more than others. Put the remainder in a well-closed black bag and bring it to a second-hand market or charity center.
I hope I have inspired your imagination to create your swap party. I remind you that you can organize it to exchange any type of object, but not only, you could even think of organizing a barter of plants. My friend Mara had this idea, who took my swap party as a starting point to re-launch an exchange of seeds and plants in her house with a five o’clock tea and a fantastic apple pie with rose petals and a nice walk in the garden to discover unusual plants and taste the fruits directly from the tree.
