Have a Recycling Party
I haven't done this, but a friend of mine has. Somebody at her church volunteers to host, or, in some cases, people might use a local church building or community meeting room.
Send out word that on such and such a day, you can all bring items to share for free. You can agree to let people bring stuff a day or two early if you have the room, so they can get their things set up in a fairly orderly fashion.
You can handle the swapping at least two different ways- Tell everybody the Recycle Party opens at 9:00, let them browse ahead of time, and at 9:00 on the dot, it's first come, first serve. Those who I know who have done this are members of a congregation where nobody would ever think of pushing, shoving, snatching, or resenting somebody else for getting to something they wanted, too.
Or you can have a drawing. You can have people write down their names and an item they want on a slip of paper, one paper for each item, and then start drawing names and people collect their goodies.
Or you can limit the drawing to a few special items that are sure to have multiple people hoping for the same item.
Have you ever done something like this? If so, what are some tips to make it all run smoothly?
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11 Responses to “Have a Recycling Party”
January 28th, 2011 at 10:23 am
I LOVE this idea. The thought of so many unused items just sitting around gathering dust or taking up precious storage space or worse, cluttering up everyone’s homes when it could be in service by others and saving folks money in the process. It’s beautiful. Maybe most useful for baby items like cribs and swings that usually don’t see a lot of wear and tear in an “average” household, but think of all the food processors and meat grinders and grain mills sitting around in cupboards going unused year after year. It’s just so wasteful.
Alas, I don’t know how to make it work on a practical way. All I can imagine is greedy folks showing up to see how much they can haul away as fodder for their next garage sale. Grim, I know. I also know that some folks make it work. Gotta be a way.
January 28th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Maybe an event that is not limited to a single congregation but is invitation only, with the condition that participants not take things for resale?
I think this would be so fun if one could hammer out the details!
January 28th, 2011 at 10:50 am
We have a small church, and we just have a table in the fellowship hall where we put stuff we don’t need any more. Usually, it’s just stuff like toys, clothes, and homeschool curriculum, but occasionally it’s more interesting.
When someone puts something new on the table, they usually go tell the people they think would need it most, like the wife of a man who’s been out of work for a while or a missionary family. Those who can more easily buy stuff for themselves generally let stuff sit for a week or two before they go see if they’re interested.
January 28th, 2011 at 11:29 am
My church’s women’s group did this for an event last year. Everyone brought stuff they wanted to give away and got a ticket for each item (bring 5 items, get 5 tickets) We had a set amount of time to eat the snacks, mingle, and put our tickets (on the back of which we put our name) on the items we were interested in. After the time was up, we all sat down and the “MC” went around announcing who “won” each item. If there was more than 1 ticket on an item, those were put into a basket and the “winner” was drawn. After that it was a free-for-all for any items left. Any items remaining were donated.
January 28th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Yes, I have done this before in fact I do it every year. We’ve been doing this for the last 7 years or so. We hold a recycle bbq party in the backyard, everyone must bring at least 10 items to the recycle party, that way it is fair to everyone who picks things out they want. Otherwise it would not be fair for someone to only bring 2 items and grab a bunch of stuff and those who brought 10 items only get 1 thing.
**I do it 2 times a year in June and than again in September it is always a big hit and even have had neighbors stop by and join in the recycling.
January 28th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
The ladies at our church have an auction night to recycle items. Everyone brings at least 3-4 items and receives a bowl of dried beans (maybe 200?) to bid on the items. Bidding starts low, but if there is something you really want, you can bid all of your beans and it is yours. It is a really fun night, and offers a fair way to choose!
January 28th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Our church actually has a clothing drive annually. They do it before school so people can swap or donate clothing instead of spending the money in the stores. It wasn’t just clothing. People donated anything they wanted to get out of their homes: toys, clothes, purses, shoes, and everything in between. This past year was my first time attending. Let me tell you- it helped so much. It was a huge success too. The entire cultural hall was full of tables toppled with organized clothing and I was so grateful. I highly suggest trying this out. I am a single mom and I brought a huge black bag of my son’s outgrown clothing and ended up with a black bag of clothing for my daughter to start her school year. I also got my son some brand new church shoes, which he was in desperate need of.
January 29th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I was the chair for a large non-profit’s fundraiser for 3 years. It was half of our organizations fundraising goal, so definitely not a small task.
I wanted to use the skills I had obtained to do something free for all my friends.
So, I did the Swapn’ Chix.
Every person donates items. They ‘value’ the items on a point scale of 1 to 5. We ask for only gently used, nearly new, or tags-on. No merchandise showing wear or damage. We have drop-off on Friday night. All items are listed on a sheet and their ‘value’ is recorded. The next day, the doors open at 8 and all are allowed to come in to spend their ‘points’. We had no items left behind because the quality of items were so high.
It didn’t cost us anything because the church let us use one of their rooms. It was items people already had. Masking tape or printer labels listed the point values.
It was a huge success!
January 30th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
love this idea. the closest I get is to go through daughter’s no-longer-wants before taking the rest off to charity.
February 1st, 2011 at 11:23 am
Various friends of mine have hosted clothing exchange parties, so it’s a smaller version of this, and it’s all friends, so you know what you’re dealing with. They invited only females, so people could try things on in front of each other. It’s not as fun for the rarer sizes in the group, so also including accessories is a good idea.
We just put everything in piles on the couches and helped each other evaluate different choices. Occasionally two people would want the same thing, and so whoever got to it first was the winner, but they would always promise to think of the other person if they decided to get rid of it later. Or occasionally both people would try the thing on and onlookers would vote for whoever it better flattered.
We also brought party food and socialized. I know I never expected to find anything I wanted and mostly went for the socializing, but I sometimes would find things.
At the end, the leftovers went to a thrift shop (but if someone had wanted to take it for resale, that would have been fine).
February 1st, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Once a summer, our local Freecycle group puts out a general email to all those on the Yahoo group/message board. There is the name of a park, a time, and a day. Bring everything you want to get rid of. And, browse through everyone else stuff. And, you are responsible to take anything away of yours that doesn’t get picked up.
Also, I keep trying to convince my MOMS Club group that this would be a great idea for a gathering. Smaller group with similar interests kind of thing. But, not very much interest and I don’t have the supplies to have it at my house. LOL
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