I Love Hand-Me-Downs!

As a kid, I always loved when a friend of my mom's would bring me a whole black garbage bag of her daughter's outgrown clothes.  It was like a treasure chest, all full of neat clothes, all for me!  And you know what? I haven't outgrown that little thrill.  Partly, I suppose because often I'm being given clothes I might not otherwise afford, and also because the giver's thoughfullness delights me.

I love getting hand me downs for my kids too.  I think passing around hand me downs for kids is a bit more common, but I wonder if we can re-ignite it among us adults too?  I notice that offers of hand me down clothes are often pre-faced with " I hope you aren't offended, but I thought of you...".  Probably because some people might be offended.  But why? 

I know some of my friends often pass around clothes to each other, and I think it would be fun if we could get more people in on this.  Chatting with a mom at the playground the other day, I heard about how her and her friends have a "Merge and Purge" party.  Everyone gets together for a girls' night out, and brings clothes they no longer need/want/use/fit into.  Then, each gal gets to go through what everyone else brought.  Whatever no one needs at the end of the night is "purged" to Value Village or the womens shelter, or whatever charity was decided upon.

Who wants to "Merge and Purge" with me??