How to Organize Reselling Inventory (Easy Storage Ideas)

How to Organize Reselling Inventory

Picture this: it’s 2 PM and you have a sale you want to ship before the post office closes. You’ve been looking for the item for 30 minutes and you still can’t find it. Now, you’re frustrated and even worried because you think you’ve lost the item and will have to cancel the order. Sadly, this is something that happens to every seller, including us! That is why we are here to give you easy tips and tricks on the best ways to organize and keep track of your reselling inventory. We’ll cover all the ways you can optimize, organize, and store the items you have for sale, the best ways to label your items, and what tools will help you stay organized. Read on to learn how to organize & keep track of reselling inventory (4 easy storage ideas).

Four Easy Storage Ideas

1. The Storage Container “Bin Method”

A popular option that many sellers love to use is the Storage Container “Bin Method.” We recommend using clear stackable storage containers that aren’t too large, but still fit a lot, so that you can easily see inside them.

Packing your items in bins gives you a designated place for your inventory, allowing you to organize it the way that makes the most sense for you, based on what you sell, and how much stock you have. The organization possibilities are endless, but we share a few examples below.

How to organize your items in bins:

• • Listed or Unlisted
  • Type or Subcategory (Shoes, Dresses, Tops, Jackets, Swim)
  • Brand (Supreme, Free People, Anthro, Chanel)
  • Listing Date (fill as you list)
  • Gender or Category (Men’s, Women’s, Kids)
  • Price (Under $50, $51-150, $150+)
  • Condition (Used, NWOT, NWT, Needs Repair)
  • Fashion or Style (Streetwear, Dressy, Casual, Boho, Vintage)
  • Color
  • And so on…

THE BIN METHOD (GARAGE)

2. Garment Bags and Garment Racks “The Garment Method”

Clothing racks are another great way to store your items. You can keep seasonally relevant items front and center, and you could even use a garment rack to store all your unlisted items that still need to be photographed. We suggest using large clear zippered garment bags, that can hold several hangers at once, and can be completely zipped-close. We like clear ones because you can see the items inside, but you can still attach a label. We suggest you don’t use the ones with an open bottom, as they don’t protect your items as well, and things can even fall out.

GARMENT BAG METHOD

3. Resealable Clear Bags “The Bag Method”

Another popular system is to use a bag system to keep items clean, folded, and protected. You can use resealable plastic storage bags (larger and thicker than a zip-lock bag), stored upright, inside cubby holes, or inside bins like the ones in section 1 above. A benefit to this approach is that the items are ready to throw into a box when sold. Some sellers store items in poly mailers or USPS mailing boxes so all they need to do is slap the label on when an item sells.

BAG METHOD (WITH LABELS)

4. “Pack-Ahead” Method

In this inventory system, the seller pre-packs the item into its shipping box before storing it. 

“I have tried this method because I like to ship in under 24 hours, but it gave me a lot of anxiety. Even though I knew my labeling system was working-I still couldn’t help but feel like there was a chance I was shipping the wrong item- since I had packed them all up before storing. For this reason, I moved away from this system.” ~elleNess

THE PACK AHEAD METHOD

Which Inventory Storage Method Should You Use?

Short answer- whichever one works best for you. You may try one inventory storage method and find you really don’t like it and want to try something else – that’s perfectly ok, and it means you’re making progress and becoming an even better reseller, way to go!

Between Resell Genius and elleNess, we have used all the above storage methods, and the consensus between us is that the “Bin Method” is our preferred choice. We love it because it’s simple and doesn’t require a huge amount of time to set up or maintain. Time is precious to us and the more time we save, the more time we can spend on other revenue-driving activities. 

THE EASY STORAGE METHODS

One Last Thing… Labeling

There is one more thing we want to touch on: regardless of the way you decide to organize your items, it’s crucial that you label them, timely and accurately. Accurately labeling saves time and will ensure you can locate your items quickly and easily after they sell. Trust us, tearing up your closet and taking everything out of each of your bins is chaotic, stressful, and is not fun!

Therefore, you also need an effective way of labeling, one that will work for you long term. If it’s too complicated, or time-consuming, or worse – inaccurate, you may as well not organize your stuff at all. Disorganized is worse than not organized. But don’t fret, we’ve got you covered.  AND GUESS WHAT’S COMING SOON?? The 2nd article in the Organizing Your Resell Inventory series! It’s all about labeling and you can find it in the Genius Portal (if it’s already been published you can read it by clicking “Next Article” below). In it, you will learn the best ways to label your reselling inventory & storage.

PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE ON LABELING 

About Our Expert Guest Author

” elleNess “

ElleNess is an Online and Mobile Thrift Store that delivers (quite literally) an engaging personal shopping experience with a special touch, designed to make shopping joyful again, like it was in the “good old days.”