I recently went to a pre-Christmas toy swap event and the intention was awesome: for people to bring what kids toys and books and clothes they no longer need and take away what they would like, to stop people buying new stuff for Xmas. There were no rules – bring what you want and take what you want. It was a lovely event, spirits were high, no money was exchanged and people left with as much as they wanted.
The problem was that, by there being no rules, the quality of the items was not great and loads of stuff was left and there was no system to get rid of it. Finally, a few lovely volunteers drove car loads of stuff to the charity shop. But it made me think of how an event like this could really work well. There are a few guides I found online which are really quite good, like this one and this one . These are the rules I think are really important:
Swap Shop Rules
- Limit the categories of items to children’s toys and books (and children’s clothes)
- Limit the number of items someone can bring. While it’s OK to bring nothing, a maximum number of items helps stop chaos.
- All toys should be in good to great condition. Puzzles and games need to have all their pieces. Batteries need to be working, and included. Instruction manuals ideally need to be included too!
- Everything not swapped needs to be either taken home by the people who brought the items or taken to a local charity shop by volunteers
Honey and Cork 