Ever start to design your home and get a million small packages at your door? How did that make you feel? Probably excited at first, but then slightly annoyed and overwhelmed as it continued, huh?
When we work on a project, we never want our clients to feel overwhelmed, so we often suggest hiring a receivership. A receivership is a warehouse (usually associated with or run by a moving company), that receives our clients’ furniture, lighting, and deliveries, inspects each piece for damage, and stores them all in a safe, temperature-controlled designated space for a few weeks to months, until the designer is ready to have it all delivered on install day. It is an expense that is completely worth it, especially if you want that HGTV ‘reveal day’ experience and don’t want to piecemeal the design. Not to mention, living with boxes in your space for an indefinite amount of time is a major inconvenience and headache—especially in small spaces.
How does it work? Well, the storage facility usually charges a few cents per item, per day, plus a storage fee per month. The storage fee is usually calculated based on cubic square feet,—so a sofa taking up space in the warehouse will certainly cost more per month than a very small box. All deliveries are ‘sidemarked’ with the clients’ name/item’s room location and put into a specific section of the warehouse. At the end of the project, they take 1-2 days to provide white glove delivery and assembly, which usually involves 3-4 men, depending on the size of the project. This is billed in addition to storage fees.
If the storage facility is great (like ones I have worked with in the past), they will go the extra mile and keep a digital inventory for your pieces, complete with pictures, manufacturer name, date delivered, tracking number, the works! This makes it so much easier for us to realize whether or not we are missing something essential to the project, weeks before install day. One of the worst feelings as a designer, is scheduling everyone for a certain day, and having to reschedule say, an electrician, because a light fixture is missing.
Hiring a receivership is a sure way to streamline everything and lessen the chance of errors/mistakes + damaged items. For instance, there are many brands we work with that 1. don’t deliver to residential addresses and 2. only accept returns within a window of 2-10 days! It puts everyone at ease when we know the receiver will catch any damage right away vs. sitting in a client’s home for some time until install day, only to find something is broken or damaged, with no option to return (and consequentially losing money).
Additionally, it makes the Interior Designer’s life easier because we can schedule to visit in one fell swoop, and hire the art installer or handyman on the same day, to install all of the finishing touches and pieces. This makes the excitement of the client coming home that much greater and so much more rewarding, for both parties!
Consider enlisting this service as a part of your next design project! I promise, it will be SO worth it.
