My Storage Solution

I mentioned yesterday that I was planning on sharing my eBay storage area. I've really enjoyed seeing other blogger's storage areas. If you've written a similar post please link to it in the comments!

The life of one of my resale items starts out here in the corner of the spare room in my home. I love those handy Thirty-One utility totes for this job, I can bring days worth of thrifts upstairs in one or two. I got the flip-flop pattern one pictured here on eBay. (If it is something that needs washed in the machine it goes there first). 

This is where I clean and photograph it my items:

eBay Corner

Cleaning supplies. Wipes a plenty (baby and Lysol). 

Rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, scissors, Ziplocs, pens, Post-its

(Sometimes I use post-its to write measurements or the name of a flatware pattern on for reference while listing later. I just take a picture of it with the item. Then for flatware the post-it goes in the Ziploc with the forks and spoons.)

The red tote is filled with Playmobil I got at a yard sale two weekends ago for $15 (including the tote)!! Some of it that I listed quickly has already sold. The totes stay there til I list all the stuff. Sometimes this takes days, sometimes it takes weeks.

The windowsill becomes a catch all for things I want to keep for myself, or donate,  and things that need a little repair or extra cleaning in the sink.

Here's Elmo ready for his photo shoot.

I keep this 18in ruler handy - it ends up in many of my photos. It helps so I don't have to always put the measurements in the listing. People can see for themselves.

The tailors tape is for fabric, and clothing.

Great natural light. Just an ironing board and a poster sized piece of paper

From there it's into storage!

Looks like a normal closet...

but no!... It's a strange combo of not an office/closet. It has a phone jack, and an AC vent, but is really not big enough to actually be an office.

That's it! That's my tiny storage space. So, needless to say that closet has to be VERY organized or new inventory will not fit. I also am limited in the size of the items I can sell. I have TONS of mugs listed, and I like to sell fabric, Playmobil and flatware too.

Here's how much space a few hundred dollars of flatware inventory takes up...

In the morning I check my phone and hope that some things sold overnight. I go to the closet with my phone and find all the items... then I bring them downstairs to pack. Under the stairs is my packing supply storage. Hopefully at this point I'm not in Mom mode yet and have 30 mins of alone time to get items packed.

But I'm never really alone!

Loki boy. 

This closet is under the stairs and also houses Christmas decorations. It doesn't look organized, but it is. Packing material is just inherently messy looking. 

Once an item is packed, weighed, and labeled, it goes out under the mailbox for the mail person.

So there you have it! The life of one of my resale items. I've considered getting a storage locker so I can resell larger items, but right now I'm sticking with the eBay closet. Last week I bought ten unfinished duck decoys, and they are all in the garage in a large tote.  I do have the potential to store a couple more bins in the garage if it becomes necessary. 

Hopefully by sharing this anyone thinking they don't have the space for an eBay business will see that you don't need a ton of space to make it profitable. I have over 400 items listed and made over $500 last week, using two closets and a corner of my home.

Hope you're all enjoying a day off!