Costume Shop Organization

Step One: Clean it Out!

That's right, the first step to organizing your theatre stock is to clean it out. Get out the garbage bags and the donation tubs and roll up your sleeves and get started. Here are some questions to ask yourself about each item to determine if you should keep or toss.

• 1Is it something hard to find? I had a "no jeans" rule. This philosophy extends to all kinds of items though. If you can find this item very easilly and reasonably priced, don't store it. Each item you store takes up space and takes time to organize clean and manage. Toss it. Plus, if you do need it and can find it easilly, you can get the color and size that you need at that moment.
• 2Does it fit your audience? If you're a community theatre in a rural area or a religiously-affiliated high school, you may not need a risque version of a cabaret outfit, even if it's really cool. Is your theatre top-notch known for high quality and you have something that is poorly constructed and faded? You can probably toss it.
• 3Is it damaged? Be reasonable about how many repairs you're going to make. If it's a hard to come by item and it needs a minor repair, fine. Be cautious though of setting aside a mountain of repair work for items you may not use again.
• 4Is this a size you could possibly use? For this first initial go-through, you probably won't get rid of too much just because of size. However, if you see something that stands out as being rediculously small don't be afraid to weed it out. Chances are if you did have someone who could fit in it, it wouldn't be right for the show or their character.

Step Two: Organize and Sort!

By organize, I mean make sense of your space. This is a process. If you have a small closet to organize, this is fairly easy since the use of your stock is fairly limited. If you have a larger space that lots of people use for a lot of reasons, this is complicated and will take some trial and error. Here are some main points to consider before choosing a place for each of your things. If you already have a basic place for things and you're organizing because it's still a mess, then learn what you can from your messes. Your messes can hold valuable clues to the patterns of those who use your space!

• 1Where are your messes at, inside or outside spaces? If your messes are all on tables and shevles, maybe your inside storage (drawers and tubs) are too full to use. If your messes are all in tubs then maybe your classification needs to be rethought.
• 2Look for like items. Start with the things laying around in your messes. I'll bet those items don't have a "place". If you find all your canes and parasols are laying in a corner, you probably need a box to store those and label it clearly.
• 3Do some items have a "home" but that home doesn't make sense? Do you store gloves unmatched in a box up on a top shelf so you usually just don't use gloves in a show? Do you store suit jackets all the way across the shop from dress pants?
• 4Are you leaving ample room on the racks for selecting costumes? If not, sort again. You need to have each section in an area that it fits in. You need space on the rack to flip through the items and also room for others to hang costumes back up. If you don't leave any room, you can expect they'll throw things on the floor or on a table instead of putting them where they go.

Step Three: Employ Systems

Make it easy to keep it neat

Systems will help you help those who use your storage area to keep things neat. Keep some fresh eyes or ask guests to come in and see if they can find certain things and give you feedback on what's working and what's not. Here are some ideas for systems you can put in place.

This list isn't all-inclusive, it's just a starting point for thinking about ways you can help keep the work you did in place.

• 1Decide who has access to the storage area. The more control you have over the space, the more work you're putting on your own shoulders. However, if you have valuable items it may be best to limit who has access or if they need to be supervised.
• 2Consider labeling your costumes. If your shop is very small or very large, this may not make sense. For information on your options, check out my Labeling Costumes Lens. Labeling can make it really easy to mark costumes with a size to help you find costumes later on more easily. It's also easier to put things away in the right place.
• 3Consider a system for tracking what you use and what you don't. You could put a little dot on the inside everytime you use something to help you decide when to toss things a few years down the road. Or you could keep some lists of items that are used for every show. If you allow actors to take things home you'll want a sign in or sign out method.
• 4Come up with systems for where dirty clothes go as opposed to clean clothes. Where mending jobs are placed, and where alterations go to be top priority.