Rotations: To stop that mothball smell

The other day a customer commented on how good the op shop I run was set out and that it was great that it didn’t smell like mothballs. I found myself replying “well that is one of our goals!” And it’s true! I think that smell is one of the most disliked things about op shops.

To try and prevent getting that old stale clothing smell I do what I call a ‘rotation’. All clothing that is put on the racks is dated. Once it has been on the rack for two months (seems like a while but trust me it goes quick!) it gets discounted and moved to the half price rack. I do this every fortnight. Once I have moved the newly discounted clothes to the half price rack, the clothes that were already on that rack are then moved out to the 50c rack. If they don’t sell on the 50c rack within the fortnight it is donated to another charity if it's good enough quality or otherwise bagged as rags.

I personally think this is very similar to the Salvos colour coded discounts except we just move all the discounted clothes onto one rack for you.

Doing this rotation ensures that we move older stock, make more room for newer stock and of course keeps the place smelling free of that old stale mothball smell!