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Do you have a stockroom in your business? What kind of shape is it in right now? If your stockroom is disorganized, overfull, and messy, I’m willing to bet your inventory tracking isn’t looking its best either.
Oh, and guess what? When your inventory tracking is off, your sales start to suffer. Do you see a problem here?
Want to fix it?
It’s time to take your stockroom back, my friends. That’s right. Let’s get your stockroom organized, under control, and making you money! These tips for organizing your stockroom for peak efficiency can do wonders for your bottom line.
Organize Your Stockroom For Peak Efficiency
Regardless of the size of your stockroom, these tips can help your business. Organizing your stockroom for peak efficiency may sound daunting, but I assure you, it’s not that bad to do, and boy does it feel good to get it done.
1. Clean out the Stockroom
First and foremost, you need to start fresh. That means it’s time to clean out your stockroom. Pull everything out of your stockroom, make piles of your product, keeping everything in order, and grouping together similar products.
It also might be a good idea to implement a system so equipment can be remotely inspected. This will help save time and lower the number of people that have to trample through your storeroom and work area.
If you discover a product in your stockroom that has remained unsold for a significant time, now is the time to donate this and clear up space in your stockroom.
2. Invest in Organization Hardware
Walk into any home improvement or building materials store, and you will see shelves full of organizational hardware. Shelving kits, hanging rack systems, cube storage, and more can all be used to get your stock organized and ready to be cycled through.
Of course, the size of your products and the size of your space will be a factor in what types of these materials you will need.
3. Use Labels
Regardless of what kinds of storage systems you use, labels will be hugely beneficial to your stockroom. Having labels in front of your product lets you know where to find what you are looking for without having to dig through stuff and make a mess.
4. Organize Based on Product Type
The best way to organize products to be sold is to keep similar products organized together or close to one another. Don’t organize by size or alphabet.
A lot of larger companies store items on pallets and often can tell how much of a product there is just by weighing it on a scale.
If you need to pull a product, it makes sense to have a general area to go to and grab from. With similar products grouped, you will start to get used to where to go to grab what you need.
5. Add a Counter or Employee Workspace
Having a workspace for your employees is a great way to make your stockroom more useful and beneficial for your business.
6. Set the Correct Temperature
Setting the thermostat to the correct temperature may not seem like an organizational tip for your stockroom, but the reality is that most product requires a specific environment and temperature. If the temperature is not set correctly, you may have products that go bad, which is very inefficient to business.
7. Utilize Vertical Space
Stockrooms in commercial buildings often have very high ceilings. Take advantage of this and build shelves up as high as you safely can to store products and supplies.
Be sure to place the lightest weight items on the higher shelves so that you can safely get them down. The higher up you store your products and supplies, the more floor space you will open up.
Be sure to invest in a sturdy and safe step ladder to help you reach the higher shelves.
Also, be sure to place the heaviest items on the floor. This is imperative for two reasons:
- This lowers your potential for injuries since your employees won’t be lifting heavy items from high areas.
- This prevents collapse of shelves under heavyweight
8. Place the Most Popular Items within Easy Reach
Be sure to place the most popular items within easy reach so that it is easy for you or your employees to easily grab the items when needed without digging through your inventory.
For example, if you stock security gear you probably want to make vests and hats easy to get to.
9. Invest in Quality Lighting
It is imperative to your business that you invest in quality lighting in your stockroom. In a space full of boxes and other items, it is easy for someone to trip and fall, this endangers your employees and can cost your company money.
This is why properly lighting this area is extremely important.
10. Look into Inventory Management Software
Depending on how much inventory you keep in your stockroom, you might consider investing in Inventory Management Software for your business. This software will help keep your stockroom running smoothly.
Inventory management software is critical for automating your merchandise prediction system.
A properly running stockroom is a crucial piece to a properly running, successful business. Good luck!
Krystle Cook – the creator of Home Jobs by MOM – put her psychology degree on a shelf and dived into a pile of diapers and dishes instead. She is a wife and mother to two rambunctious boys, sweating it out in her Texas hometown. She loves cooking, DIY home projects, and family fun activities.
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You made a lot of great points about stockroom organization. Thanks for mentioning how it is smart to take advantage of vertical space with shelves. I think it would be crucial to get the shelving systems from a reliable supplier.
Yes, for real stockrooms, the type of shelving is extremely important!