With the trade show season drawing to an end, there was just one remaining show this week, followed closely by the start of a reorganising and tidying mission!
The season has been a busy one, with floods of sample requests coming in each week and not much time to fulfil them. By Tuesday afternoon however we had got ourselves caught up and with the last of the current requests going out, we were given a chance to breath. This didn’t mean that the hard work stopped their though. The remaining show of the season was Textile forum, based in central London, this show attracts more of the student community, along with the smaller businesses. I had heard about Textile Forum before but had never given it any further thoughts. However hearing that it was the one show where suppliers were more open to talking to students, made me promise to myself that I would take a trip there when the next show is on mid-October. It was interesting to hear about the show from a suppliers perspective and I learnt about how the best way to approach a stand and talk to the industry experts.
While the show was going ahead, it gave us a break in the sample requests and a chance to start on the next challenge! The aftermath of the shows had left the swatch department in the showroom a muddle of abandoned fabrics, unorganised boxes and very few shade cards. When it comes to organisation, I have to admit, it’s something that I quite enjoy doing! Looking around me at my room right now, you may not believe me… but when it comes to anything work related, I am known for being a super organised person! (I even won the Little Miss Tidy award back when I left school!) So when I was assigned the job of tidy the fabric boxes, I happily accepted the challenge. Working in a busy environment has highlighted the need for organisation and tidying up after yourself even more. When fabrics get left out and not put away, it’s easy for labels to fall off and them to become unidentifiable. This then has a knock on effect. It takes longer to find where they came from, alongside having to ask others what fabrics they are! The other problem I noticed was the labels on the boxes. The fabrics had previously been roughly categorised and put into alphabetical order; but in the last few months things had been thrown into the wrong boxes, meaning things had gone missing and again, it added precious time onto tasks.
Working in a messy environment makes it hard to stay focused and get on with what you’re doing. With this in mind, during final year I am going to keep as tidy as I can. Everything will stay labelled and organised into boxes and folders, hopefully eliminating loosing important items which adds to unnecessary stress!
By Friday, the department was back looking to its best self, with my colleges happy with job I had done and life at work being made just that little bit easier!
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