Renovations Update: Inventory Management
With the changes in our space and additional, more efficient storage for furniture and goods, comes an opportunity to enhance our showroom space for our clients.
Please help by making sure nothing goes out onto the showroom floor unless it is “client ready.” To help facilitate this…..
Triage Room for Donations at the Main Entrance
“Ye old bureau room” is being transformed into a triage room for the following donations coming in the main entrance:
- Upholstered furniture (to be vacuumed in this room rather than on the showroom floor),
- Mattress and box springs (additional inspection and labeled for size),
- Appliances and electronics (to be plugged in and wiped down and checked for completeness),
- Bed frames and headboard sets (to be sure they are complete and clearly labeled),
- Baby furniture and equipment, but not linens, (to be inspected again before they are put in the “Baby room”).
This “triage” is in addition to the inspections that should be taking place before these items come into the facility. Once items are “triaged”, they can be moved into showroom area, or put in the appropriate storage area in the back of the facility or in pods if the back storage is full.
Triage for Donations coming Off Trucks at the Loading Dock
- Upholstered furniture should remain in the loading dock until it is vacuumed,
- Mattresses and box springs should remain on loading dock for additional inspection and to be labeled,
- Appliances and electronics can go to the front triage room to be wiped down and checked again for completeness,
- Baby furniture and equipment (not linens) can go to the front triage area for additional inspection
- Bed frames and headboard sets should remain on loading dock until they are complete and clearly labeled (the person who takes it off the truck should do this, as they best know the pieces that go together).
Volunteering in the triage areas will be an important part of our quality control!
Back Area for Extra Storage (just before the former workshop area)
The area to the left, just beyond the new double doors, is designated for rugs ready to be vacuumed. Household Goods’ vacuums (& bags) are kept in this area.
The remainder of the space is taped off in separate areas for storage. Furniture stored in these areas should be ready to go out on the floor. We will use the white board on the wall in this area to put special notes about inventory, instructions on where to put donations coming in or special tasks needing to be done in downtime.
At the beginning of each donation shift, please check the white board in the back for where items donated should be put based on inventory. If the showroom, triage and interior storage is full, items will be stored in a pod prior to being triaged.
We appreciate your patience as we implement these procedures. We hope this will improve the client and volunteer experience at Household Goods. Of course, if you have ideas on how to improve this process going forward, please let Sharon or Brigid know. This is a work in progress, and we appreciate your input.
We look forward to seeing you back at Household Goods in 2017.
