In this day and age, a lot of people operate small business from their homes.  A lot of these companies are purely internet run, and so they involve a tremendous amount of shipping, which means an even more tremendous amount of shipping supplies.  The thing is, just because someone is a savvy business person doesn’t mean they are well organized.  If you have a private business there are probably a lot of areas that you aren’t great in, but you can still have a business because you know how to run one.  And if you are really that great of a business person you will probably hire someone else to do the stuff you aren’t that good at.  Or you will consult the internet.

Here are some tips for how to organize all of those shipping supplies so that you can have a shipping room that anyone could be proud of:

Become friends with IKEA.  You may not live right next to one, but most of us live within a couple hours of one.  They literally have the best furniture for when it comes to organizing.  Start with tall shelves.  IKEA makes shelves that go from floor to ceiling, and are solid enough to hold up against life.  So the first key to organizing your shipping supplies is having the right props.  Making piles on the floor just isn’t going to cut it.

Have the shipping supplies.  There is no point in organizing something if you aren’t well-stocked in it, but you need to be well-stocked in shipping supplies if your business depends on it.  So instead of making small purchases here and there, find an online retailer that you can order in bulk from and then do a monthly or quarterly order of the same thing.  Stack those different shipping supplies in segregated shelves: like size bubble mailers with like size bubble mailers, and the same with boxes.

Treat them appropriately.  If you have bubble wrap, don’t put your bubble wrap on the floor and just unwind it vertically when you need it.  There are plenty of closet rod systems from Lowe’s or Wal Mart that can make it really easy for you to hang the bubble wrap up, thus clearing up space on the ground for other necessary things that a shipping closet might need, like recycling bins.  And make sure that you put smaller items like tape or Sharpies in bins so that they aren’t falling all over the place.