Warehouse reorganization can be a daunting and intimidating prospect, but it’s a challenge that comes for nearly every warehouse eventually.

Whether you need to refocus your product line on something else, you need to shift stock around to free up space, or your workers are just having too much trouble finding the goods they need, warehouse reorganizations are something every warehouse will face eventually.

And when this time comes around, you’ll probably be asking yourself one very important question: where do I start?

The answer can vary depending on what your specific goals are and what you mean to achieve with your reorganization, but there’s always a few places to start and things to keep in mind as you progress:

Identify your best-selling products: The chances are good that you’ll want to start your reorganization by focusing on the things you sell through the most of, or items that sell the fastest. Take a look at the goods you have and sift through them to see which ones your workers need to pick through the most – this will help you define a better layout and give you an idea of what items you should be focusing on instead.

Define a ‘wheelhouse’ area: After these best-selling SKUs have been identified and tracked, part of your reorganization method should involve setting up a ‘wheelhouse’ area where these items can be easily accessed. Define a space on your pallet racks between waist-high and shoulder-high to help access these items more quickly, and plan the rest of your reorganization around this priority area.

Sort by aisles first, then bins: A lot of warehouses make the mistake of trying to reorganize by barcode, but in most cases you should go location-by-location. Decide which aisle between your warehouse shelves will hold which item, and then assign codes and locations to your storage bins to help organize items along the way. This can help reduce clutter throughout the process and give each of your goods a more well-defined home.

Barcode after setting a destination: Finally, even after your aisles are planned out, you’ll want to avoid generating barcodes until everything is placed in their new home. This will prevent you from having to reprint all of your barcodes in the event that you need to change a product’s location due to space or quantity concerns.

After this you should be all set to start your big reorganization project. You still have a lot of work from here, but after these initial steps you’ll be in a much better place to get everything done effectively.