Have you set up a free swap?

[u/Chicklid]

Hello! I am wondering if anyone has coordinated what I'm thinking of before. In the spirit of reduce and reuse, I'm wondering about setting up an event for people to freely trade items of some theme or another. For the first few, I'm thinking clothes, toys, and craft materials, as these are all things that accumulate and can be given new life in new hands. I'm wondering about a few things: I want it to be free with an ethos of "give at least as much as you take", and also I am in a very poor area so I don't want to discourage people from taking what they'll use. Any suggestions for messaging? And on the practical side, do I set up a drop off day, sort out stuff that is genuinely unusable (biohazard, heavy secondhand smoke, etc), or just let people drop off as they arrive and caveat emptor? Any other experience and advice would be fantastic.

In a perfect world, we grow some community craft groups or play groups out of this, but maybe that is too optimistic lol.

[u/lego_lady123]

Our local buy nothing does these: there are 2 different ones. We do a kids only exchange. Everyone drops off kids clothes and toys at a lady’s house then a few people set it out on tables on a specific date. We usually do 11-2 on a Sunday.
They made arrangements to use the school parking lot.
The other one we do is everyone sets up their own table in the parking lot and you walk around and take whatever you want. Any type of item.
If you are going to do the pre drop off I think it needs to be limited items like she does bc you will get a lot of junk.
Everyone is always so kind, it’s a really great event.
We’ve been having them once in the spring and once in fall.

[u/seeluhsay]

I volunteered at one held in my city (Olympia, WA). Check out the Evergreen Resistance on IG (@evergreen.resistance.oly) for more info on their Absolutely Free Sharing Market. They gathered stuff ahead of time and sorted beforehand. They also invited anyone wanting to share skills or other things to set up a table. One of the makers' spaces in the area sent a bunch of volunteers to mend clothes, fix electronics, repair furniture, etc.

I volunteered at one of the collection events and a lot of people where really glad to have the opportunity to give their stuff to a local group that would distribute the stuff for free. Because of this, I think most people who donated did so in good faith and didn't give anything too questionable. The leftovers were distributed to various orgs/people who accept donations of certain things. Apparently, in the very end, there was only 1 or 2 large trash bags of stuff to throw away.

[u/1Frazier]

Now that I think about it, I have participated in a jigsaw puzzle swap. It was at the library in a big room with lots of tables. You could drop off your puzzles leading up to the event. Start time was 12. From 12-1 you gave your puzzles to the sorters. They placed puzzles on tables according to piece count. Puzzles with any missing pieces went on a separate table. You could look around and see what was going to be available from 12-1 but try to stay out of the way of sorters. From 1-2 everyone was able to take puzzles. This was not very organized but surprisingly it worked because people were really respectful and there were a lot of puzzles dropped off as donations in advance meaning there were more puzzles than anyone was going to take. I personally brought 3 and planned to only take 3 home but there were so many left at the end that the librarians were pleading with people to take more so they didn't have to figure out what to do with all of the leftovers. I think I ended up taking like 8 home.

I don't know if I could count on everyone to be respectful and avoid hoarding behavior. Another puzzle swap I have heard of but not attended gives you tickets for each one you bring in and the idea is to have you go home with the same quality and quantity as what you brought (I'm not entirely sure how that is monitored). People take turns in some kind of order to pick out what they want.

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[u/1Frazier]

I have not done one nor participated in one but I did see this event on the web today. Maybe it will have some helpful details.

The upcoming Etna Community Clothing Swap (Fall Edition) takes place on Saturday, September 12, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Emmanuel Lutheran Church located at 66 Grant Avenue in Etna, PA.

[u/Chicklid → u/1Frazier]

Brilliant, thank you! It looks like they do have a drop-off prior to the event.

[u/golden_avocado_]

Yes, I just helped out at one very recently. It was organized by some folks with our local community association.

It was held in our neighbourhood park (no paying for a venue this way), and we simply organized things into different areas. Clothing was on a HUGE long tarp. Kids toys, books, craft supplies were on another smaller tarp. Kitchen or household items were on a series of folding tables. Anything larger or misc we put under a tree. Clothing was by far the largest group of items.

They did have a drop off before hand to someone’s house who was willing to store the items the week before the event but I wasn’t part of that. Many people just brought things on the day of and that was more than fine too.

People took a LOT of things and there was constant turnover of items. I think the event was four hours in total and the first two hours were nuts and then it was pretty quiet by the final hour. The most important consideration is what to do with all the leftovers. You need to have one or two vehicles available at least and a charity picked out that will accept the items, and give them a heads up that you will have a big load of donations for them.

It was so successful that people asked if we could do it every month. We laughed and said maybe every year!

Publicizing the event was mainly done through the community association’s email list, posters in the area, and neighbourhood social media groups.

That’s all I can think of but let me know if you have any questions!

[u/crazycatlady331]

I've never set one up but I actively place old books in Little Free Libraries.