Quick and Easy eBay Inventory Record & Storage for Part Time and Small Volume Sellers

If you are a small time seller that has found your eBay inventory starting to take over your home this simple and easy tip might make things easy for you. I found that you can pick up items all year long to sell on eBay but sometimes the selling season for those items (like holiday decor) might be months away and so you need to store your treasure away until it's the right time to sell. But you don't want to lose it packed away in the back of a closet.

What we have found to be a quick and simple solution to this problem is to store all our eBay inventory in those large plastic storage containers that you can buy from many retail stores. These storage containers come in many different sizes and they can stack up on top of each other too. Not only do they look better than a bunch of odd shaped boxes and bags but they can protect your items from dust and other damage much better too.

Okay, I know that using the plastic storage bins might not be new to you and you might already be using them. But it is the way that we record what we put in the storage bins that makes this helpful and time saving to us and we hope to you too. You can start this method any time you want and use it for all your items or just seasonal ones.

Here is how we record and store our inventory.

1. Sort all the items that you are going to store in the bins. We sort them using key themes such as Christmas decorations, Halloween decorations, Spring Holidays, Fall Holidays, Summer Seasonal, candle holders, car accessories, sports, entertainment, children, crafts, scrapbooking, Vintage Avon, ect.
2. Mark the bins (we used large stickers) with the theme name ~ the color of the bin ~ a number.
3. Next we take a quick single picture of the item and then place the item in the bin. Do this to all the items that you are place in the bin and keep count of any items that you multiples of so that can be recorded.
4. Close up the bin and store it away with the label visible - best to put a lable on at least two sides of the bin.
5. The pictures of the items are now uploaded to our computer where they are placed in folders. Each folder is named with the matching bin number. Examples would be: Christmas green bin #3,  Crafts blue bin #1
6. Also in this folder is a text note that is added to list the quantity of each pictured item.
7. Now you have your items stored away and still have a visual record of what you have available anytime you want to check your inventory.  
8. This makes it very easy to go directly to the correct bin if you need to get something out to either list or for any other reason. No trying to remember where the last place you saw it.
9. When you do remove an item from the bin make sure that you remove the picture from the folder also. Keeping your folders current is very important to making this system work.
10. This is a great way to check your inventory if someone asks if you have a certain item too. All it takes is a quick scan through your folders and you can see if have something stored away.

This is a system that works very well for us and might work for you also - so give it a try and see!

Good Luck in all your eBaying!