I guarantee you that having a well-organized home office is part of being a good seller! When you sell an item, you want to be able to find it! In my Etsy shop, for example, I have over 200 items listed and more than that in my inventory, and it’s sometimes always challenging to find a place to store all that. Especially if you live in a home, rather than a warehouse! Today I’m showing how I organize my Ebay Etsy home office in the Urge to Purge series. Mine is located upstairs in a small loft where I keep desktop, printer, office supplies, and Etsy shop inventory. We are blessed to have a large bedroom, bath, loft, and several unfinished attic rooms upstairs, and it’s all devoted to my business.

The goal is/was to keep ALL my inventory up here, and not have it strewn all over the house. I strive for that, BUT! You have only to refer to Vintage Picker Off Limits Home Tour to see reality.

At one time in the distant past, our loft was a cute and cozy room, decorated with a vintage 1930’s radio, floral sofa and rug, vintage quilt displayed on the banister, and a couple of club chairs. Now it’s almost a room again!

Loft from the Great Room….I love that the old quilt covers up most of the mess valued inventory upstairs!

 

 How I Organize My Ebay Etsy Home Office

 Storing Inventory

This corner of the loft is in front of the antique radio…

 

As part of my inventory, I keep a large box of vintage buttons, old sewing patterns, and a stack of Bibles. A Baby First Step doll not in great shape cosmetically. No longer walks. Not very rare either.

 

My Etsy shop, vintagesouthernpicks.etsy.com, is a vintage one (what else?), so my inventory is highly varied. I carry crochet, yarn, and sewing supplies, paper ephemera, books, and knick-knacks….just a bit of everything. Since it’s all different sizes, open shelving was the answer, but it instantly looks very cluttered.

Center of Loft room before……Really hate the clutter of open shelves!

 

Now most of that is stored right here in an old chest of drawers.

My dad fixed this up for me years ago when I was moving into my first apartment, so it’s pretty old and very basic. I would love to paint it white and distress it…a job for another day.

Now I have a shipping center! I was using the sofa before, which was too low making it backbreaking bending over to pack stuff.

 

And the other side of the room….Left side of banister railing…..

 

These banister shelves are in an L-shape, so at least they look uniform, even if still cluttered.

Right side of banister railing…..

Over here I have smalls like dolls, toys, games, vintage cigarette lighters, vintage padlocks, glassware, and crochet supplies. I know where everything is (I think!)

My computer desk and printer. For 3 years I’ve been running across the room for access to the printer, so I’m glad to have it close.

For the first time in years, I’ve been able to get to this bookcase, which needs purging. If there’s one thing hard for me to get rid of…it’s books!

In the whole purge, I eliminated 3 black shelving units…

And gained 2 full boxes of smalls for the HUGE GARAGE SALE OF 2017!

Garage salers, eat your heart out! It’s gonna be good!

 Storage for the Etsy Home Office

Part of the issue of a home office is where to put all the stuff already listed and waiting to sell. Sellers do this different ways…

*Box is weighed, then flattened again, item goes back into inventory until it sells. Advantage is saving room on box storage.

*Box is weighed, then find a place to store it until it sells. This is my method.

For either method, ample storage is a must, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each one.

After much frustration and wasted time, I learned I had to take the time to label the outside of boxes. I was spending way too much time opening boxes looking for stuff.

In fact, I still spend a lot of time looking for things even though the boxes are labeled. I’ve never had to tell a customer I can’t find their package, but almost!

Since I don’t live in a warehouse, I have to find places to store, but at least it’s all upstairs.

My Storage Places…

Large Shelving Unit in hall holds mailers filled with smaller items…..

Alcove off the upstairs bath holds my scale, shelves with small boxes, and mailers that hold books…..

Closet off the bath is my kitchen room, holding all kitchen-related items.

One wall of the bedroom holds large mailers…

And against another wall are boxes holding items that can’t stand attic heat…..

When we have overnight guests, they naturally agree to sleep among all the mailers!

3 Years ago, hubby built these wonderful attic shelves which I love….

Storing Packing Supplies

Running an Ebay/Etsy office also involves storing packing supplies…boxes, tape, bubble wrap, peanuts, air pillows, mailers. I also use foam rubber occasionally and styrofoam, all of which are bulky items requiring ample storage. Luckily, I have a large attic room off the loft where I store all that stuff.

This is just half the room….

I use peanuts ALL the time….

Foam rubber and styrofoam occasionally…..

 

Bubble wrap ALL the time….

Air pillows in an old laundry hamper & window seat….

Thank goodness for a friend running a Christmas shop, who saves me all her air pillows and peanuts.

 

My system isn’t pretty, but it’s serviceable for my needs. My advice is to use what you have on hand. I love the feminine, color-coordinated craft rooms I see in blog-land. In a perfect world, mine will look like that!

Thanks for sticking with me on how I organize my Ebay Etsy home office! Any sellers out there reading this….what is YOUR method? I’d love to hear new suggestions!

Don’t forget to pin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks!!