If your business is operating in a big city, there’s a good chance you own at least one warehouse to store materials, machinery and other items essential to your success. If you’ve taken a walk through there lately, though, you may have noticed the building that keeps your main location organized has itself become disorganized. This is common since customers don’t typically see the inside of a warehouse, but with just a few easy steps, you can have a warehouse as organized as the Houston Public Library.

Utilize Wire Partitioning

Trying to get things organized can feel like a daunting task when your warehouse is just one big room. Things that shouldn’t be stored together sometimes end up side-by-side, and locating important materials can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. This issue, however, is corrected with wire partitioning.

Whether you just need a small space to safely store fragile materials or a large “room” with access control, wire partitioning can provide it. Even better is the fact that you can create a high-visibility room to keep specific items, and this means workers won’t spend 20 minutes searching for something. Instead, they’ll know the item they need is stored away from the other hustle and bustle.

Build Up, Not Out

One of the best ways to increase storage space in a warehouse – and thus organization – is to store things vertically. While you might have plenty of room to just put everything out on the main floor, this strategy can make the warehouse cluttered. Even worse, a cluttered warehouse is often a dangerous warehouse.

By having metal shelving installed, you’ll be able to store everything from tools to products in a seven-foot space – assuming that’s the size you settle on. Whereas having tools and products laid out horizontally on tables and pallets can take up untold amounts of space, a single metal shelf can keep things vertical and provide far more room in the warehouse.

Pallet Racking Systems

Pallets themselves can partially solve the vertical-horizontal storage problem remedied by metal shelving, but if you run a large warehouse, you could have thousands of pallets stacked tall throughout the main floor. While this is certainly more efficient than just having things laid out randomly, you can get your warehouse even more organized with pallet racking systems.

Pallet racking allows you to store vertically just like metal shelving, but the size and weight of what you’re storing become much less of a factor. Whether it’s large equipment, heavy boxes ready to be shipped or even motorcycles, you can put thousands of pounds of materials all against a single wall by building up. Some systems even have rollers to make sliding heavy materials to the back a simple task.

Reevaluate Everything

When Joel Osteen realized his building wasn’t enough to hold capacity crowds, he relocated to the former arena of the Houston Rockets. In some instances, you may find it necessary to follow suit. If your operation has just outgrown your warehouse, you may need to relocate if you hope to ever again have an organized warehouse.

Of course, something this drastic might not be necessary. It’s possible that your warehouse has the potential to be organized and store everything you need but simply has a bad layout or design. Take the time to walk around and inspect every part of the warehouse. It’s likely that you’ll find areas that would serve a better purpose if tweaked a bit. If necessary, call in warehouse design experts before making any drastic moves.

Your warehouse is meant to make your life easier, but if it’s starting to feel like just another nuisance, you do have options. Anything from bringing in shelves to complete redesigns can improve both storage capability and organization. And in the end, this makes running your business a less daunting task.

Need help organizing your warehouse?  Contact one of our specialists today.