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I have had this post in the drafts section, waiting for the rain/snow/wind to stop long enough to take pictures. It has taken 3 weeks to finally have a perfect day! This is what my yard looks like today:
I have had several people inquire about how I organize and store my inventory. So I'm going to do a series on Ebay inventory from purchase to sale- How I organize, store, list, photograph and ship. I will also talk about what to do with those items that don't sell. I will be writing a separate series about my Amazon listing process. Stay tuned for more information about that in upcoming posts.
Part 1- Sourcing and Unloading the Car (Ebay)
(Meet your new best friend!)
First, I unload the kids (I usually have at least one with me) give them snacks/drinks/bathroom break and get them settled doing something outside (if the weather is nice enough) or find them something to occupy them inside while I unload. Sometimes they will help me sort the items- depending on how long our day has been. I'm hoping to have my storage area cleared out enough by winter that I will be able to pull the car in and unload in a more protected area. Unloading in the snow, rain, or strong winds is no fun!
I start by backing up my car to the driveway as soon as I get home from sourcing, whether it be thrift store, retail arbitrage, garage sales, trip to my mom's- whenever my car is loaded with inventory. I line my driveway with empty banker's boxes that I store just inside the door for unloading days.
I also have some empty totes ready to go for Amazon inventory and a laundry basket for items for the house/family. I often combine sourcing days with grocery shopping, and I am always on the lookout for things for my family or one of our many projects (homeless bags, Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes, Awana prizes for our Church, School Donations, etc)
Then I start filling the banker's boxes as I unload the car. It doesn't matter what goes in the box, I just try to fill it up using all of the space. I continue filling boxes until the car is unloaded.
(I was using my extra Amazon totes for consignment inventory this week, so I only have one overflowing tote this time, not how I usually do it)
Once all of the boxes are loaded I carry the boxes into my shop and place them on the first set of shelves for unlisted inventory. If the item is too big to fit in a box, I use the top shelf of all of my storage shelves as oversize storage. If the item will freeze, melt, or otherwise be hurt by storage, I have a few shelves and drawers in my small ebay room that has heating and cooling for safer storage. Also, at this point the boxes stay unmarked (you'll see why in a later post)
boxes of various ebay inventory ready to carried inside to unlisted inventory area
Walkway to unlisted inventory shelving (left) hanging storage for ebay, etsy and kids consignment sales (right)
unlisted ebay inventory
oversize unlisted inventory
close up hanging storage ebay/etsy/kids consignment
wow look at all that room! It's so organized I'm a bit jealous LOL
ReplyDeleteI have been very blessed to have the space, and I haven't been taking advantage of it, but it's so nice to have at least part of it organized now, especially since it's exactly 20 steps from my front door to "work"
DeleteThanks for sharing! My background is in retail operations so I love finding out how other's process and what not. I'm loving your rack of clothes on the wall, not sure why I didn't think to do this sooner as the company I worked for had a similar setup in their stockroom. I do the same thing with the boxes but use Rubbermaid bins instead as I had a bad past experience with flooding and cardboard. You kicked butt on listing all that stuff, that's amazing! Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteGrace recently posted over at Picked by Grace
I love the hanging clothes too, I started out doing them in totes, but this takes up way less room. I am going to get some plastic sheeting to go over them this year-I'm thinking shower liners from the dollar store- since we live in the country and they can get dusty, fly specks etc. I would like to do all totes, but they get really heavy fast, and I can't afford to get as many as I would need. Most of my shelving is at least 6" off the floor and if not I only put totes on the bottom layer. My shop doors get water under them every time it rains, sometimes almost all of the way to the back wall, so I have to watch for water damage too. Thanks for commenting, I love to see what other people do also!
Deletethe plastic painter's use for covering floors works really well and is cheap depending on the home improvement store you go to. I've also used the clear plastic covers that you can get for moving furniture too. Good luck on the big organization project, I'm positive all the hard work will be worth it once it's done!
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