Plan a Scout swap shop

Before you begin 

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.   
• Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely. 
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers. 

Planning and setting up this activity 

• Swap shops are a fun way to reuse pre-loved items, reduce waste and save money. They can be used for Scout uniform and clothing, and can also be a good way to share camp or expedition kit, to save people having to buy new things. They can also be used to fundraise.
• Use our guidance on event safety and planning.
• Decide when you want to run your event. You'll want to plan your event at least six to eight weeks in advance to organise the event and tell people about it.  A District or County event might be a good opportunity to run a swap shop. 
• You may want to have clothes rails and hangers to display clothing. You could ask a local clothes shop for help. Alternatively, you could hang them on drying racks, washing line or rope, or display them on tables or picnic blankets.
• If it’s to prepare for a camp, trip or expedition, you could think about whether a kit library that people can borrow equipment from may be better. You can find some ideas under 'setting up a kit library' on this page.

Running this activity

Plan your clothes and kit swap 

1. Explain to everyone that you’re going to run a swap shop event and why you want to organise one. It could be just for fun, to raise awareness about reusing and waste, to trade uniform before a new term or to help your wider community. 
2. As a group, think about who you'll invite to your event. It can be as big or as small as you want. It may be for your section, your Group, Scouts in your local area or your wider community. 
3. Next, decide how you’ll organise the swap shop. Here are some questions to help you plan. 

• • What will people swap? If it's for Scouts, will it be for just uniform and clothing? Or will there be other useful kit or equipment too?  
  • Do you want people to drop off items in advance, or bring them on the day? If collecting in advance, there are ideas of things to consider this page.  
  • Will you charge for entry? Will items be free or will people pay? We’d recommend charging no more than £5 entry, or £1 per item.  
  • Do you want people just to bring any unwanted items and take what they want, or would you prefer a system? You could put a cap on how many items people bring or take, or ask people to only take the same number of items that they've donated. If you want to use a token system, you can find some ideas under 'using a token system' on this page.
  • What will you do with any leftover items?

4. Now, plan where you’ll hold your swap shop. This could be a local Scout building, your current meeting place, a community centre, a leisure centre, or somewhere else in your area. Think about how you’ll display and organise your items. Where has enough space, and will be accessible?
5. Decide when you want to run your event. 
6. Think about what help you might need planning your event, and on the day. The size of the event is up to you. It could just be for your Scout group, for any local Scouts, or you could run something for your wider community. You may need parents and carers or volunteers to help. If you’re organising a bigger event, you might want to have specific roles or teams – you can find some ideas on this page.  
7. Decide what items can be donated and put together some donation guidelines, such as making sure all items are clean, dry and in good condition. You can find more ideas under 'creating donation guidelines' on this page. 

Promote your event  

• You could promote the event on social media, through local Scout groups, and via posters or leaflets.
• You'll want to start advertising early, to give people lots of time to sort through any donations they might have. 
• Make sure you tell people where and when the event is, what they can and can’t donate, and where to take donations and when.
• If you're running this event with the public or parents and carers, you could take the opportunity to tell people about Scouts, share leaflets or tell people ways they might be able to help as a volunteer. 

On the day

Here are some tips for running your event on the day:

• Organise your items so they’re easy for people to handle and so it’s easy for people to get around the space.
• If you're running a bigger event, you could create a ‘return zone’ for unwanted items that people pick up, then decide they don’t need, so the items can be put back on display. 
• Have a person or team at the entrance, to welcome people to your event and explain any system or guidelines in place. They can hand out and collect any tokens, and collect any entrance fees. 
• Encourage browsing and having fun! People can be nervous at first, but once people start browsing, they can quickly get into the spirit of the swap.  
• If people are bringing and selling items on the day, you might want to make sure they take anything they have not sold or swapped away with them. 
• Think about if you want a way to capture any feedback or ideas from people who come along, about what went well, what they found helpful and anything that could be improved or developed if you run something similar again. 

After the event  

You'll need to decide what to do with any leftover items. Here are some ideas for how to donate, reuse or recycle:

• Store the items safely, for a future event.
• Offer them to another Scout group. 
• Set up a page on Grown Out of It as a way for people to keep sharing and swapping pre-loved uniform or kit.
• Donate items to a charity shop, or find a local collection point on the Recycle Now website. 
• Set up a kit library with any leftover equipment.

If you’ve items of clothing that aren't re-usable, consider clothing recycling points that include a textile shredding service.