We've been a busy little company lately. Our homes have been turning over quickly and we've been adding new ones to the list. The problem that we've kind of had lately is that we've had no time to unpack and organize. Finally taking a deep breath and scheduling time for this - let's face it, it was the only way it was going to happen - we decided to buy some more shelving units and get organized.
Prior to yesterday and today we had about 8 or so storage racks. We just spent another $500 on racks and wow was it worth the money!
Ok, now that all of our knick knacks, silk flowers, linens, towels, etc are organized we still have another problem. (maybe the first solution to this one is to stop shopping! In the last week we've bought 2 dining room tables, 2 sofas, 5 large chairs and who knows how many accessories - none of them have specified homes - we just liked them and got a good price! We know we'll need them before we blink again.)
Here is next week's project.... .well, if we have time. Bevin & I are both on vacation this weekend and have jobs next week..... at least we'll be taking a lot of the inventory out of here making it easier to organize!
We are buying more large shelves (7 ft high, 2 ft deep, 6 ft long) for coffee tables, dining chairs, end tables, ottomans, etc....
Goodness how we've grown!
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Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocate and national speaker speaks her mind about real estate and the home staging industry. In her 'no holds barred' approach, audience members find real answers to the industries pitfalls and learn how to overcome them with tried and true information and guidance. With marketing as her passion, she turned a small home based business into one of the nation's largest home staging and training facilities. Selling her successful home staging company in January 2012, Marro is now a full time speaker and instructor for Staging And Resign and Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)'s trade events.
For more information on having Marro speak at one of your real estate functions, please contact her at 843.619.1593 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com
Thanks for letting us take a peek, Melissa. I want your lamp inventory!!
Kathy
Good Lord!!! I could shop in your warehouse. Thats very cool Melissa!!!
Heather
Kathy - Bevin & Sue are both going to laugh when they read that... we NEVER have enough lamps! We've probably bought close to 20 in the last month!
Liz - We buy new. A lot of the larger pieces are from Havertys and they are from the back room - scratch and dent or floor pieces. We go over them pretty thoroughly to make sure they are in great shape - often you can't even find what was wrong with them in the first place!
Heather - Thanks! We've been working up to this point. Getting the other half of the warehouse done will make it REALLY REALLY COOL!
Lea-Ann - When I started I took out a small loan (like $15,000) and bought maybe the first house of stuff. Then I used the money from that home and the next job (along with a credit card or two) to buy additional furniture. I'm afraid to say outloud how much personal debt I actually have from the business, but the good news is that I merged with another stager on my team this year and we have written up a note for the company to pay me back with interest & our operating budget is completely in the black, including overhead, loan repayment, etc. We'll take out a business loan later in the year to pay my personal budget back - after the banks feel we have established enough of a record for repayment.
Melissa,
I Love, Love, Love your picture wall! I took over my wine closet in the basement. We never had it finished when we built our home and now there is just no time to even think about finishing it. My hubby wonders if he will ever see the day that it stores wine and not Artwork!
A few more items and you could advertise as a rental store to...LOL
Great pic's and shelves!
Regards
BB
Do you ever retire items? I purchased some items when I first started that I've yet to use... ones that didn't have a home but I liked at the time and were a good price but for some reason, I just never have pulled them off the shelf. Very fun taking a peek at your warehouse. Thanks for sharing!
Sandra - Tuesday mornings huh? kewl!
Michele - it was called using what you've already got! We have over 60 pieces of art (smaller) that are not up on the wall - we are still trying to come up with a plan for those.
BB - except we don't keep it in stock long enough.... it rotates very quickly, which is how it got so out of hand.
Jennifer - I hate to say it, but we use photographs to keep track of everything. We have talked about buying the inventory system, but when Bevin checked into it there was a maximim volume that we've well surpassed. We are still looking into different ideas....
Karla - you are welcome! Glad you enjoyed....
Sandi - We haven't really had to retire anything yet. Most of the pieces we buy are pretty traditional. I'm sure some of our Pier 1 pieces will be the first to go - they seem to get dated more quickly than any other pieces. Some chairs should probably have been retired, but instead we just slipcover them.
Marci - we are actually going away this weekend - but it to my inlaws, not sure that is considered a vacation... lol!
Bevin - Hey, I just got back from there are darn girl, what are you going to do next week with still another vacant to stage? I also just gave out two more proposals last night.... lol
Kym - The warehouse used to be the Dish Network's home. That is left over from them. There were huge cages when we moved in - those had to come down! Eventually we may need those flow paths though.... lol!