US Japan Fam - US Japan Fam

Our First Swap Event - Little Swappies

9/30/2013

Raising a child is expensive. Raising a child in New York City is ridiculously expensive! But as I just found out, filling your child's closet with great clothes can be a steal and a whole lot of fun! Yep, we just attended our very first swap event, hosted by Red Tricycle Awardee Little Swappies!

Here's how it works (or at least how the one we went to on Saturday worked):

1. You pre-register for $20 or you pay $25 at the door, and you have to bring at least 5 items to donate (children's or maternity clothes, books, and/or toys).

2. You get to the event (doors opened at 10am), sign in, give the items you're donating to a staff member, and are handed one ticket and a huge tote bag which you will fill up during the swap (only get stuff for your kids now - no hoarding for their whole childhood!!). You print your name on the ticket and peruse the table of various raffle prizes, putting your ticket in the box for the prize you want. They had really great prizes from a ton of vendors (see photo below). It was a hard decision, but I put my ticket in the Kidz Central Station box for 1 month free Gymboree classes (P.S. I actually won!!!).

3. You've got some time to kill since the swap doesn't start until 11:15am, but no worries! There are loads of vendors stationed around telling you about their cool products, new apps, handing out freebies, etc!

You could even get your stroller cleaned for free by CleanBeeBaby. The wait was long, but actually it was like cleaning and stroller check in one. I filled out the stroller tag and left our stroller there, strapping Kenzo on for the rest of the event figuring the stroller would be too cumbersome to deal with during the chaos of the actual swap anyway!

Stroller parking waiting for their free cleaning by CleanBeeBaby!

He fell asleep soon after taking this photo, and slept through the rest of the swap! haha!

4. 11:15 am came around, everyone was lined up at the door chomping at the bit. I felt like I was at Filene Basement's annual wedding dress blowout!! My adrenaline was pumping! haha!! Doors opened, and everyone scurried to the table of the age and sex they were looking for. The room was laid out really well - it was huge and had boys stuff in the back row and girls stuff in the front row with toys and books and maternity gear at one end. Each table was for a different age group. I headed straight to the boys' 7-12 months table and started pillaging through the clothes. There were several other moms at MY table, but no one was aggressive or anything. Literally within about 5 minutes the table was bare save 3 or 4 random onesies that no one wanted (leftover clothes are donated to a different charity after each swap). I have to admit I then moved on to the next size up table, cheating?? I then headed to the toy/book section which was already picked over pretty well but I still found a few fun items! Here's a photo maybe 10 minutes into the swap, it's more or less over (well, I was done anyway, otherwise I wouldn't have wasted time to stop and take a photo LOL):

5. Now your bag is filled, you go pick your nice and clean stroller up, and wait for the raffle to be held at 12 noon. Some of the vendors have snacks, and there was free Starbucks coffee - HELLO!! I actually was talking to some of my Mommy Nearest friends and missed the raffle, but luckily enough they print your name on a poster and contact you afterward if you won! How nice! So, I know you're all dying to see...

Here is my Little Swappies Swap Loot!!!