Clothing / Linen Sellers: To Pre Bag or Not

[bcfol440]

I currently do NOT pre-bag any clothing or linens unless it is delicate (cashmere, silk). I don’t like the idea of it sealed up and I sometimes like to do a final lint roll/ shake out before shipping.
Am I wasting my time and bin space?

[Jay]

We don’t pre-bag either. It’s so much easier to find when the clothes are hung up. Also, I’d be afraid to bag up clothes and store for long periods of time (mold etc). Fabric needs to breathe.

[jbrownfield63]

I have started pre-bagging and I love it. I keep my clothing items and linens in bins. It’s so easy to grab the item (and know it does not need any more prep or presentation) and throw it in a mailer.

[Jay]

Do you think there’s a limit to how many clothing items you could pre-bag? I’m thinking it could work for several hundred items in your inventory (if we’re talking about jeans, coats, shirts, etc). I assume you have the “jeans” bin, the “mens shirt” bin, as a way to find the item.

We have 3000+ clothing items. Hanging them on on racks is the only reasonable way to store and find the items.

[Inglewood]

I pre-bag, as it allows me to label and store. I do not seal the bag – the bags I use are 1mil bags with no sealing mechanism that are about 1/4″ smaller then the polymailers I use.

I place a small label on the bag to note what item it is as I have several similar items at once (items that look identical, but maybe different sizes, maybe slight condition variations, etc).

The item is folded, and the bins I use are just the right size to store them upright – it is like a filing cabinet of clothing.

Each bin is labeled for the type of item – Hockey Jerseys, Football Jerseys, Concert T-Shirts, Jeans, etc. If a bin gets full, I’ve been splitting them (for example, my Hockey jerseys are split into NHL, minor leagues, international teams, etc).

I recently saw a Louis Theroux BBC documentary on open marriages in the U.S., it was called “Love Without Limits”. The one couple where the wife had a husband and multiple boyfriends fascinated me – not there story, but the amount of clothing racks they had all over their house (I mean everywhere you could force a clothing rack, there was shirts hanging up – mostly Hawaiian ones). Looked like the husband was selling lots clothing online, while the wife was looking for men online. Thought it was strange watching the guy list with the kids while the wife was in the bedroom with some random guy…

[Julie B]

I’m in the pre-bag camp. I put in clear bags and store in marked bins. I started doing this to save time when I ship since I have to ship daily and my schedule doesn’t always have much room in it to do so. I also have 3 cats and a dog so leaving items hanging would make them susceptible to pet hair and smells around here. I do make some exceptions – if it is a gown, suit or large coat I hang those in a closet. I don’t have room to hang much else.

[Jay]

Everyone who pre-bags. Do you think there’s an upper limit on how many clothing items you can store in plastic bins? Im especially thinking of bulky jackets that could take up half a bin by itself.

[Mark S]

I am on the Double Clothing rack band wagon. There are about 78″ High and about 60″ wide. These racks are beasts and can hold a ton of clothes. I love them – they fit about 10 Feet of hanging clothes each.

If you are worried about damage to the clothes from things like animal hair, you can buy a cover for them which I think is about $80. I just use a plastic garbage bag for each lot of hanging clothes. This protects them and make it easy to find by putting 1 lot # on label on each plastic garbage bag.

Mark

[bcfol440]

I have a single rack for gowns/leather goods. I am still on the fence. I tried pre bagging for 1 new bin I added and I feel like my bags are sliding around everywhere. Maybe I need to get more organized within the actual bin if I pre-bag.

[Amatino]

@Jay TL:DR No upper limit. Totes can hold an amazing amount of bagged clothing and I’ve even put entire ski suits into them, then filled with smaller items, and they hold a stack more stuff than a shelf or hanging rail.

I prebag, label each bag with the SKU, and then the bagged items go into totes that are labelled with the SKU range. All clothes are alphanumerically SKU’d as K…. So the totes could be labelled K122-K154 for example. If one large clothing item takes up half a tote, the numbering range will be smaller and I move onto the next tote. I find that this method stores the clothes most effectively for space, is easy to find the items for shipping, and easy for shipping. Grab the item, throw it in a polymailer, slap on the label. Because clothes are already in a bag, I don’t have to worry about the item being left in the rain or anything. My totes are stored on racks in a shed with a small window air con unit that only runs during the summer. I’ve had no problems with mold or anything like that.

Large clothing items like heavy coats or very high ticket gowns or similar are on hangars on a hanging rack in the same shed. But I have very few of these as most items can be bagged without damage. I usually hang only those items that would be crushed or damaged by folding, like a 3-piece suit, for example.

[TopNotch]

I prebag. Jeans and anything over a pound go straight into a padded flat rate. Others go in the smallest poly mailer they will fit in. I do not seal them and write the brand/color/inventory tag on each bag so they’re very easy to find in totes. I have about 20 totes on 1 shelf section and each tote is labeled such as S1-S40. As a tote empties, I will add to it and don’t bother checking for duplicate numbers. Even if I did label 2 shirts as S7, there is a brief description on the poly so I would not mix them up.

Jackets and large/heavy items are on a rack, but I am seriously tired of that rack being in my way.

[Winchester38]

I’m on team hang. 1000+ clothing items. Have five rolling racks full, and working on a sixth. Each one is about 6’ in length and holds a ton.

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