Craft Show Booths - Storage Solutions

Good craft show booths allow for plenty of storage for personal items and additional stock. Read on to learn how to create a booth design with storage in mind.

Craft booth design requires a lot of planning. You demand a lot from a mere 10x10 space. In addition to enticing customers, displaying your products, and providing space for customers to browse and you to complete business transactions, you'll also need to deal with storage in your small space.

In-Booth Storage

There's lots of storage for additional stock in the drawers at the bottom of these shelves.

Keep in mind, you'll need a spot to store additional stock in your craft booth. If you sell small items, like jewelry, this issue is normally not a big problem, but if you sell larger items, you'll need to think carefully about this storage need.

In addition to extra stock, you may need to store personal items such as drinks and snacks, sun screen, a change of clothes, tools etc. All of these items need to be tucked away neatly to keep your display booth tidy and professional looking to customers.

If you use portable craft tables as a part of your display, you'll have plenty of room to store items under your tables.

If you do not use tables and you sell larger items, then you'll need to get more creative. Some, but not all, shows provide space for exhibitors to store additional stock. Alternatively, you may want to consider setting up the back of your booth a little forward so you can store items behind the back of your booth. In this setup, you won't be able to take advantage of the full 10 foot depth of your booth for display purposes, but you will solve your storage issues.

Any open area that can hold items and can be hidden from customers is fair game for storage. I have used the insides of my risers for storage. My risers are rectangular wooden boxes. I set them up with the open part facing the back of the booth, which allows me to store extra stock, tools and supplies within easy reach, but out of the view of customers.

At Home Storage

Plenty of room for storage under the tables in this craft booth.

You'll also need to store all of your craft show booth items at home between shows. If you're like me, and storage space in you home is at a premium, you'll want to try to build in some efficiencies into your booth so you're not stuck with craft display items all over your home.

Think of ways to make your craft show booth display items do double duty. I mentioned my risers. They are perfect for varying the heights of my jewelry displays, they also provide discreet storage at shows, and I had them custom made by a woodworker I met at a local show so they are the perfect size to hold all of my trays of jewelry between shows.

At the end of a show, I just flip over my risers, slip the jewelry trays in large plastic baggies (to prevent tarnishing) and put the trays right in the risers that are now functioning as storage boxes. These kinds of efficiencies make storage of your craft show supplies a breeze.

There will be items that you only use at craft shows, which you can keep packed up between shows, and there will be some items (like certain tools) that you need at craft shows and at home. If it is not too costly, consider buying doubles of any items that you need for craft shows and for home use. That way you can keep everything related to selling at craft shows packed up together. You'll be more organized, and there will less chance that you will forget to bring an important tool to your next show.

Be sure to store stock in a way that it does not get damaged or require extra care. As noted above, I store my silver jewelry in plastic baggies between shows (with anti tarnish strips). This extra step goes a long way toward preventing tarnish on my jewelry. The last thing I want to do before a big show is re-polish all or my stock! Any steps you take to keep your stock in good repair is time well spent.