Class 5: Pre-Loved Clothing

General

Please read the information for all classes.  Information on expense reimbursements can be found here.

Cake Stall or Salad Bar Donation 

It is tradition for all school families to donate one item to either the Cake Stall or Salad Bar. Both these stalls regularly sell out so donations provided from the wider school allow the stalls to remain open maximising the fundraising.. Please Click here for more information. Ka pai!

Task Lists

Click the links for a detailed planning task list and other info:

• Clothing stall ROSTER

Stall/Task Coordinators: Edit these lists to suit your needs, then ask parents to put their names on the lists (online and/or print them out).

Parents: When requested, volunteer your help by putting your names next to task on the lists.

Pre-Loved Clothing

Collecting clothes

A few key points:

• It is important that every effort is made to group clothing into specific type and AGE GROUPS (i.e. boys tops 6-10 years etc).   This needs to be done prior to fair day either periodically as the clothing is collected or at an arranged session with a group of parents. A jumbled stall of clothes on fair day will mean takings are down and lots of left over clothes to get rid of at 3pm.

• There are two suggested means of collecting the clothes

  1. Advertise for clothes to be dropped at the  Fair Container during the White Elephant times before and after school, usually for a 3 to 4 week period. A parent is rostered at each time to take them to the girls changing room at the back of the school hall. Check with school that changing rooms are available and not being used in the week leading up to the fair for plays or similar. The rostered parent could spend 10mins sorting what they can into labelled banana boxes that have been setup. Heaps of clothes are usually dropped off in the last two days before the fair. If you’ve not done any sorting prior to this time then the whole task appears quite overwhelming!! 

  2. A class parent who lives locally offers their garage and the advertising can start early for dropping clothes to the address. If this option is possible it can allow for more pleasant and lesiurely sorting sessions at times parents are available. 

• We always get heaps of donated clothes – parents who put their names down for the sorting sessions have the advantage of getting first dibs on any clothes or shoes they might want to purchase! Just keep a tally for payments.

• Despite the best adverts it is common to get a lot of ‘poor quality’ clothes – you can afford to cull out all clothes with rips/stains/pilled/extra large etc without compromising the amount left over to sell. (As an indication, previously 100 banana boxes of clothes were sorted and on top of that about 30 banana boxes of poor quality clothing were taken to recycling)

• Sorting clothes directly into banana boxes is really handy. These can be sourced from all the main supermarkets for free. Banana boxes are easy to stack and handle and brilliant for displaying the clothes at the fair

Stall Setup - From 3.30pm Friday 

The clothing stall is held in class 1 and class 2. One room becomes to cramped for space making for an unpleasant experience for fair goers . Class 1 is typically used for children’s clothes and Class 2 for adult.

You will be given

• 4 x Trestle Tables, the class 4 team will distribute these. 2 x trestle tables per room.  (or is it more?> TBC)

• Lower school class benches are also used. Talk to the class 4 stall coordinator about whether the higher C3 benches can be brought in,  Banana boxes can be set up on benches around the perimeter of the room for easy display with the trestles being located in the middle of the room.

• 2 x clothing racks and a large box of hangers - stored in the CA Container, then shifted to room 15)

Other items the class community could supply:

• On the day you will need a large supply of clean recycled bags to put bought items in, for those people who have come unprepared.

• Additional clothing racks. Items in the ‘adults room’ always look much nicer hung.  

• Wheelbarrows or sack barrows are useful for moving clothes on ‘set-up’ day.

• If using a locals parents garage a car and trailer is the best way to move to the school. Also for disposal of clothes  after the fair.

Clothing Categories

When the clothing is sorted into clear categories, shoppers can easily find what they need and we are more likely to make sales.

As a rule we separated clothes into:

• baby clothing (under 2 yrs),

• girl’s tops (2 -5 yrs & 6 – 10yrs),

• girl’s bottoms (2 -5 yrs & 6 – 10yrs),

• girl’s dresses (2 -5 yrs & 6 – 10yrs),

• boys tops (2 -5 yrs & 6 – 10yrs),

• boys bottoms (2-5yrs & 6-10yrs),

• Teenage boys 

• Teenage girls;

• kids swimwear,

• pj’s, thermals etc;

• children’s shoes;

• women’s tops,

• women’s bottoms,

• women’s dresses/skirts,

• men’s tops,

• men’s bottoms;

• adults shoes,

• adults hats/scarves etc

 Anything which was in good condition and a ‘label’ was separated into the $5 boxes. These are then displayed on the racks – and sell very well!

Poor quality clothes should be discarded

 Day before the fair

Arrange for clothing to be taken to the stall classrooms on the Friday - the day before the fair. Try to complete the setup on Friday 

Have 6+ people rostered on to set up the two rooms.

Hang up the $5 clothes or, for the kid’s room, keep a trestle table aside for labelled clothing and display on that. Display all the banana boxes in ‘category groupings i.e. all women’s tops together – all baby stuff together. Keep clothes in banana boxes on table – it looks far more appealing than a whole heap of clothes that people need to rummage through.

 Prices

Previously we priced ‘flash’ items at $5 each and all other items $2 each.   Don’t drop the prices too early! A fill a bag option can be started after 12pm and  the price reduced during the afternoon e.g.  $5 down to $1.

 Fair Day Roster

6 people setting up

2 people in each room each hour

6 people sorting at the end

 After the fair

After fair, put all unsold clothes back into banana boxes. In the past it has been arranged that the Salvation Army accepts all unsold items on the following Monday. This requires the clothes to be stored somewhere over the weekend and then transported again. Ring around and see if you can find anyone who is happy to come and pick up the clothes themselves.

Contacts

For further ideas chat to these parents who have previously been involved in the clothing stall:

• Katherine Bauer