My first suggestion for costume organization, if you are beginning from scratch, is find out if you have anyone in your technical program who is also becoming an Eagle Scout. I have my feelings about this organization and who they alloe and don't allow as Scout Masters, however, if you have a young man who is already involved in that organization, it makes a fabulous Eagle Scout project and it is super helpful to have that community team on your side. Our space has been mechanically improved several times due to the Eagle Scout projects. Next go and decide how many bins do you think you might need. (Plastic bins to protect your costumes/hats/shoes from water damage.) Walmart does donation requests at the first of every month. You need a detailed list of everything you want from the store and your school's tax ID number. The request needs to be written on your school's letterhead and signed by your bookkeeper or administrator. They turn all requests for donations into their district manager at the first meeting of the month and it's about a 30 day turnaround and you get plastic bins with lids for free. We use huge bins for shoes which we zip tie together and label with their size on the bottom, for easy rifling. We use small, same size stackable bins for underwear, socks, and hats. We also use flat under the bed rolling storage to get the most storage out of space. (E.g. 20 pairs of nicest men's dress shoes are rolled underneath the low hanging bar for our dress shirts).
We organize our costume shop with the men's side & a women's side. Unisex stuff- underwear, fat suits, wigs, masks, yoga pants, mop caps, scarves, ties, etc. are boxed (anything you have to rifle through to get the right piece) and are grouped together on an industrial shelf, with label ends sticking out. We also have a raw materials side, with those items grouped as you would in a sewing shop.
On our M/W side, we put the contemporary stuff low and our period stuff grouped together higher. Inside of the contemporary/period organization, items are grouped by article of clothing, and inside of that, by decade, inside of that, by size. We labeled everything with ironed in tags (return to ECHHS Drama) and size, style, men or women is written on a paper tag that is pinned to the garment by a string and safety pin. If it is part of a set of costumes, we write that too. An Eagle Scout built us a sliding safety ladder that is secured to rails at the top, so it's much safer to go high up in their now. If you can't build that, I suggest investing in a rolling industrial quality step ladder. We put fantasy, military and all of our outerwear together M & W, in one space, not mixed in with gender sorting. They be harder to get at, because you use them rarely, but should be organized by themselves, because those are items that you go looking for specifically.
When end you are done, make yourself a map and publish that map in the space. Test your tech one kids on the map, so you can send them to pull and put away properly. I recommend making that map electronically so it is easy to edit as the system morphs.
We also installed a washer dryer, which I highly recommend. If you don't have the space, befriend your school's assistant football coach. In my experience, those coaches are unbelievable skilled at laundering things (they'll teach you a few tips) and are extremely generous with sharing their facilities off season. We used to have a lot of stuff not make it back after being taken home to be washed after strike, or the theater teacher ends up going to the laundermat at 6:00 am on a Sunday after a show week--neither situation is ideal. Get yourself access to an on site laundering facility.
Also, a word of caution. Once you get this set up, everyone and their mother is going to want to borrow a few things and bring them right back. We have a borrowing agreement (even for other teachers) and no one gets to pull or return without a certified technician. We have set pull and return times--Monday and Friday lunch period or directly after school on those days and you have to schedule an appointment. Don't let your students and facility run you ragged or mess up your system by letting them get to it willy nilly. Have a good, workable policy so you can be generous with your resources, but not be left holding the bag of having to reorganize your shop every four years. (This is the voice of experience).
We also found it helpful to use an empty stage to put everything in piles of organization and hang them and label them and put the in one section at time, when the racks were finally ready. TThis is like the old clean your room method--put everything in your closet on the bed and reorganize before you put it away for good. This can be a all hands on deck, two day team project and it's done. Parent groups are super helpful at this stage.
And we don't store anything super contemporary or anything easily findable
. I let the local thrift store do that storage for me. -----------------------------Hope Love
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