While just about every business needs to find a solid inventory management system, getting organized is especially critical for home stagers. That’s because home stagers often have tons of furniture stored across multiple locations or on display at various job sites all over town–and for an uncertain amount of time. After all, some houses are staged for a week; others, for months.
The easiest way for a home staging company to take control of their inventory is to get organized–and a detail-rich home staging inventory list can help your business do just that.
In this article, we’ll outline the four steps to organizing home staging inventory. We’ll also provide a customizable home staging inventory list template to help you get organized if you’re not ready to try inventory management software just yet.
Four steps to organizing home staging inventory
Managing your home staging company’s inventory and assets doesn’t have to be a headache. Your team can streamline the process and save tons of time, stress, and money by following this four-step process:
1. Organize your physical inventory
Before you begin cataloging your inventory, you’ll want to tidy up your warehouse, storage unit, or wherever it is you secure your home staging inventory. Don’t be afraid to rethink how you store, sort, and organize your furniture and decor.
Some home stagers like to organize their inventory by decor style, while others prefer to sort items by furniture type. Figure out what works for you, and don’t forget to account for the needs of other people on your team. For example, you might want to move your most popular items to your most centrally-located storage unit, then send more obscure decor to a secondary warehouse.
2. Make a list of all your assets
Now that you’ve thoroughly organized your inventory, it’s time to create your home staging inventory list. The goal? To craft an exhaustive, detail-rich database of everything your home staging company owns, from faux orchids to cookie jars to king-size beds.
Because your business is so visual, you’ll also want to include high-resolution images of each item in your inventory. This can be really difficult if you’re using a document or even an inventory spreadsheet to track your inventory. Fortunately, modern inventory apps like Sortly make uploading pictures a piece of cake.
We also recommend creating “categories” or “tags” for your home staging inventory. For example, you might want to add tags that describe your furniture and decor, such as “mid-century modern,” “beach cottage,” and “modern farmhouse.” That way, you can sort your inventory list by these categories to view all the available home staging options for certain styles of homes.
If you’re using an inventory spreadsheet, you won’t be able to tag your inventory. Instead, create a new column dedicated to describing decor style, and try to categorize items consistently.
You’ll also want to physically label all your furniture, ideally with a barcode or QR code, for even easier inventory management. This asset tagging process will speed up many of your most common inventory-related tasks, including checking furniture and decor in and out of your storage space.
Free Ebook: Asset Tracking 101
- Learn about three different asset management systems
- Find out exactly what to track on your inventory list
- Discover how you can use simple technology to save time, money and stress
3. Take inventory regularly
Whether you’re using a sheet of paper, an inventory spreadsheet, or an inventory app, your home staging business should update your inventory records every time furniture or decor is checked in or out. After all, there’s no other accurate way for your team to gauge what items are available and where they are.
This is especially true if your home staging business works on multiple projects at once. To truly understand what you’ve got on hand to work with, you’ll need to know what items are “in stock” and what style those items are.
Fortunately, if you’re using an inventory app like Sortly, you can generate customized barcode and QR code labels to affix to all of your furniture and decor. Then, simply scan the label using your smartphone and update the location and condition of a given item. You can also instantly drag items to a project folder to clarify what inventory is installed at a given home.
4. Perform an end-of-year asset audit
Just about every business needs to conduct a year-end inventory count to ensure their physical inventory matches what’s accounted for on their inventory records. This is especially true for home staging companies. After all, home staging inventory is moved around constantly. Inventory can easily be lost, stolen, or damaged during open houses or while in transit.
While your team should keep an eye on item condition as inventory returns from jobs, you can also verify item condition during an annual audit. To properly conduct an inventory audit, use your home staging inventory list, then compare that to the data you collect during a physical inventory count. Verify the quantity of an item, review the wear and tear, and update pictures, if necessary.
This audit is also the perfect time to calculate depreciation for your assets, determine what items are no longer usable, and even calculate your inventory shrinkage rate.
Related: Inventory Audit Best Practices
Home staging inventory list template
Want to get your home staging business organized–but not quite ready to try inventory management software yet? You can still get your furniture and decor organized with our home staging inventory list template. We’ve prepopulated the spreadsheet with some of the most common home staging items, but feel free to customize this template and make it your own.
If and when you’re ready, it’s easy to bulk upload this spreadsheet into Sortly’s inventory management software.
About Sortly
Experience the simplest inventory management software.
Are you ready to transform how your business does inventory?
Sortly is top-rated inventory management software designed to keep your home staging company organized for good. Perfect for businesses that store inventory across multiple locations, Sortly’s powerful features will help you stay on top of all your stuff, even as it moves back and forth between job sites and storage facilities.
Best of all, Sortly is a visual inventory system that can help your design-oriented team understand what’s on hand, share picture-rich reports with real estate agents, and track the condition and value of your big-ticket investments–all while streamlining your everyday inventory management operations.
Ready to see how Sortly can help your home staging business? Try Sortly completely free for two weeks!
