There’s never a day that’s the same in the warehouse and if you were to look in my work’s diary, it’s a bit choca-block – especially as I work Monday to Thursday! For those of you who may be new to the blog, I’m Vic, I’m the Fabric and Needlecraft supervisor here at Wool Warehouse, and have been a blog contributor for almost a year now, too.
I’ve been working here for just over seven years and my role has changed a lot from when I first started in dispatch and customer service. Wherever I’ve worked, I’ve always loved working behind the scenes. For me, making sure those ‘cogs’ stay oiled so that productivity stays up is always a priority, especially as that means we can get things out to you lovely lot that much quicker. I like being busy, so spending a little more time organising things is a bit of a no-brainer for me. My intention is to streamline the overall process for others – fingers crossed that’s the case!
As I said at the beginning of this post, no two days for me are the same and that’s definitely a part that I enjoy the most. Sure, there are tasks that I make sure to stay on top of each week, but sometimes things crop up that need my attention more than others.
For example, it’s been even busier for me this past week as we’ve had our large Zweigart delivery arrive and our DMC precuts order. Don’t let the sizes of the boxes fool you – they’re packed to the brim with individual packets of needlecraft fabric!
But before we get into opening those boxes and seeing what’s inside, I start every day by having a refresh of my diary. At the end of every Thursday, I’ll write a list of tasks that I know I need, or would like, to complete or ones that may carry over. I’ll take a look at what’s down for that day and add anything to it that might need my attention after a walk-round.
As you can see, I like to stay organised! My work diary has now become my right hand and it’s rare you’ll find me around the warehouse without this or my notebook and a pen or two nested in my hair!
With assisting across departments, having what I need to do for the week in front of me has helped a lot, especially when it comes to meetings, product launches and blog schedulling. And yes, it is colour coded.
Back in the fabric department, our DMC stock arrival tells me it’s time to top up the precuts. If anyone’s ordered one of these, it’s little ol’ me who cuts and packs every single one and, although it’s time consuming, I do love getting stuck in and getting them all prepped. If you’ve read any of my Vic’s Picks posts, you’ll know I’m always after something to listen to, so an audiobook or a good album is always a must when I need to cut and fold a stack of 150 precuts of aida.
But when we’ve got some extremely large orders to contend with, I’m happy to hit pause and give Francesca a hand in folding some interfacing – that’s teamwork, right there!
I’ll cut a few bolts of the stock we’re running the lowest on and then I’ll head into needlecraft to do some filing cabinet draw checks. We receive new stock fairly regularly, but what with new season launches and Christmas coming up, there’s a lot more to get on the system and site than usual.
Around new stock launches, I’ll do the relevant moves in each draw so the stock is not too packed together for the team to pick from. Yet regardless of new stock, each Wednesday I’ll manually check our draws of sale stock, taking out the dividers that we no longer need.
Once I’ve checked all of our discounted items, I’ll head onto the ‘back’ of our website and disable what we’re no longer holding stock of.
This helps streamline our site and gives you a better website experience, as you’ll be able to shop for the things we do have, rather sifting through the things we don’t.
Post-lunch on a Wednesday can involve me finishing up any prep on some bits and pieces; I may need for content for the blog, such as images for the Fabric Focus features. Thankfully, Francesca’s kind enough to lend a helping hand when I may need it! With working from home on a Thursday, I like to make sure I have everything I need so I can focus on writing. Yet I’m lucky that if I have had to capture anything from home, we’re a little blessed with the natural light that comes through the house.
Working on the blog really has been a highlight for me over this past year. I’m a freelance writer outside of work, so being able to contribute and/or assist the marketing team has been great fun, not only in helping out, but being able to have the space to bring new ideas to the proverbial table. I’m looking forward to planning 2025 and seeing what everyone else has got planned for you all!
Well, I best get back to it – these blog posts aren’t going to write themselves! If you want to catch up with some features and posts I’ve written, you can do so by clicking HERE.
Catch you next time!