topic Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ? in Selling

5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

base787 — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 14:17:26 GMT

Hi all, soon i want to have about 1000 items listed, but i am curious to know if one has about 5000 items of jeans or pants how much storage would be needed, 3 bed room house with garage or could this be stored in a self storage shed, please if anyone knows please let me know 🙂

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

lyndal1838 — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 15:49:45 GMT

It is easy enough to work out for yourself.

If you want to hang the items just hang say 10 of the item on a rack and measure how much space they take up. Multiply that by 500 and you will have the length of hanging rail you will need for all the items.

If that is not practical then work out the amount of space you need to stack them on a shelf. Or you could store them in boxes, which is probably the way they will be delivered to you. The boxes would be the most space effective I would think.

You are the only one who knows the size and thickness of the items so you need to work it out for yourself.

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

amber-eyed-girl — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 18:27:29 GMT

Lyn's right. Without knowing if you are planning on storing ladieswear, menswear, child or baby clothes it is difficult for anyone to be able to give you an accurate idea from their own stock arrangements...as it could vary a lot 🙂

I viewed your current listings to see if I could get a hint but you are selling adult and kids things so...do as Lyn suggests. Boxes are the most practical.

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

jessicadazzler97 — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 21:10:55 GMT

I can manage 40-50 items piled up in the corner of my bedroom & in half of my wardrobe. Any more than that and I'd have to take on the spare bedroom - so 1000? Hard to say, but I'm thinking I'd have to throw in the garage and the study as well.

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

base787 — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 21:15:05 GMT

Hmm yeah a garage sounds like a plan but i think a garage would only fit say 500 pairs of adult jeans ?

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

nevillesdaughter — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 21:42:04 GMT

How much access you need will also affect how much space you need. I sell skiwear and it's very bulky. I can fit it in a space but if someone wants to come and have a look/try on for a family of 5, it's like a Chinese puzzle for me to move it around so they can easily see what I have. Having space that's just dedicated to 1 use would be a luxury to me - I function out of a granny flat we have but rotten grannies (and others) keep coming to stay!

However you do it, to me it seems organisation is the most important thing (and keeping the grannies away!).

Good luck,

Marina.

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

stickerswa — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 00:31:44 GMT

Just remember with that amount of clothing to leave yourself room to move as well. Sods law says that the little blue top with the flower on it in the box at the bottom at the very back behind the other 40 boxes ....is the one that someone will want to buy !

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

lane-ends — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 00:35:54 GMT

You have to factor in whether something can be folded. eg jeans or needs to be hung up so it can be reletavely crease free eg dresses.

Also how easty it is to retreive and search your stock. Something will always be in the wrong place. if everything is folded and boxed it wil be a nightmare to search for it. If items are hanging on racks it is way easier to find misplaced items.

Your storage system needs to be flexible, are you storing by item #, brand, style, etc. Again the stacks,/boxes/racks will need to have flexibility as certain catagories grow and others reduce. Otherwise some will be overflowing and others half empty.

Always have spare storage ready otherwise your "pending space to sort" pile will grow and become a nightmare and you will spend hours cussing and swearing over that item that is barely turning a profit anyway.

Dont try packing and posting everything in a rush to make last post. You wil get flustered and make a mistake. Only to realize the mistake as soon as you have posted it. Far better to do it early or leave posting to next day. You wont get a defect for posting next day, but mixing two shipping labels leads to 2x item not as described reports=2 defects

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

lane-ends — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 00:39:18 GMT

Keep in mind shipping costs if over 500gm, then unless they are hot items, it will cripple your margin. I used to specialize in jeans but the cost of shipping killed it

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

saarzi — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 01:59:06 GMT

You probably wont need as much space as you think.
I have just over 250 items and I them ALL in four plastic 60lt storage bins you get from the cheap shops. I sit them on top on each other.

Takes up LESS room than a small desk - they sit in my bedroom.

I hope you got the jeans for LESS than $ 2-3 each or you might have a lot of trouble selling for profit considering the shipping cost and what people will pay for jeans these days.
Theres a reason you dont see many Aussie sellers selling them.

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

falconsportspack — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 04:17:21 GMT

@gtx305 wrote:
considering the shipping cost and what people will pay for jeans these days.
Theres a reason you dont see many Aussie sellers selling them.

This is one of the reasons why. A couple of months ago on one of my infrequent trips to Bendigo, I went into BigW & saw they had some jeans on special. They were an obsure brand from Bangladesh for only $9. They fitted well so I bought 6 pairs. So far they have proven fairly tough wearing & I can see they will last a couple of years at least, so I'm happy with them.

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

saarzi — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 04:57:02 GMT

I refuse to buy jeans for more than $30 after living in NYC and getting designer brands around that price, and seeing the sweatshops they are made in in india, bangladesh and south america (they come from the same factory as every other brand!).
No more than $15 for non designer brands.
Theres no way id pay postage on top of that.

Beides that, I think the price has to be kept low on Ebay not only because they are so cheap to get elsewhere and they all look the same, but because they arent as popular these days. Most females wear jeggings now, particularly under 35's. They look exactly like jeans but cheaper and way more comfortable.

But then again, im cheap lol. Im sure people will buy them, it might just be lower profit and slower to sell?
Then again, I do get people living in weird rural areas buying stuff because they probably dont have access to larger shops.

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

funkyflamingo* — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 09:38:48 GMT

I have also learnt, when you have a large amount of items that you sell on line, you then live and breathe it when it is in your home. Everywhere you turn around, items are there, and it is also important to separate work from home. You need to have one room that can hold all your items, and can pack them too.

I first used containers which were numbered for items, and stacked them on industrial shelving, so items were easily found and easy to accessible. They key is to be organised.

Re: 5000 items Of Clothing How Much Storage Space Do I Need ?

chameleon54 — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 12:58:49 GMT

You have been selling a reasonable number of items each month including jeans so you must have a bit of an idea what you are going into. But wow, five thousand pairs of jeans is going to take some serious industrial style storage.

I have around 2000 listings of mainly small items and currently use one room in the house and a two car garage fitted with industrial shelving. This covers the listed items. I also have a rented storage shed and a shipping container fitted with industrial shelving to store surplus unlisted items.

My suggestion would be to find out how large clothing shops, store their unsold items in the back rooms. Go to closing down sales or auctions and buy up the storage systems to fit into your shed, house or whatever you decide to use. There is a lot of thought gone into the design of these systems so why re-invent the wheel.

As others have mentioned, keeping stock organised and easily accesable is essential to running an efficient ebay business. Good luck with the business expansion.