“I didn’t know we had that!” 

It’s a common phrase we hear a lot from residence life professionals. If you keep residence hall inventory under a desk or behind a closet, there’s a chance you may find yourself saying the same thing. 

Managing inventory rentals in a residence hall environment can be difficult. While keeping track of rental items might seem like a minor concern compared to overseeing one or multiple residence halls, it can still present unexpected issues. Even with RAs staffing service desks and managing check outs, your inventory is still in a closet or under a desk–out of view from your residents. There may even be situations where your RAs discover inventory that’s been locked out of sight so long that you forgot it existed! 

Luckily, taking account of your rentable inventory is easier than you think. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the how and why of organizing your rental inventory, including how to optimize your management strategies and expand inventory access to students.

Address Your Inventory

The first step is to dig into your existing inventory. You may have a few of those “I didn’t know we had that!” moments, but that’s okay! It’s best to know what you have, even if it’s something you haven’t seen in a while. 

Addressing your inventory accomplishes two important steps towards expanded inventory management. First, it gives you a sense of your current offerings. Knowing what you can provide residents is crucial to establishing a rental system. Second, you can identify gaps in your offerings. Whether inventory is damaged, lost, or never existed in the first place, finding any gaps to fill before figuring out a management system will save you time in the long run. 

When it comes to residence halls, there are a few must-have pieces of equipment and rental inventory that can help increase resident engagement and promote cleanliness and sustainability within the hall. 

Room Cleaning and Maintenance Supplies

Keeping room cleaning supplies in your residence hall can be a game changer for residents. All-purpose cleaners, glass cleaners, mops, brooms, vacuums, and other forms of cleaning supplies can encourage students to keep their spaces clean without having to dip into their wallets. 

Additionally, tool kits can provide the same savings and give residents quick access to maintenance supplies. Some students may come to college with their own tool box, but for those who don’t a set of rentable tools can help in a bind. 

Moving Equipment 

Residents love the humble moving cart. They use them at the beginning and end of the year, but what about during the academic year? If your residence hall doesn’t allow access to moving carts during the year, it may be a good idea to make a few available. Residents can use these to bring in furniture, take out larger loads of trash, and transport heavy equipment across campus. The possibilities are endless! 

Moving carts are a great way to expand accessibility by making it easier for residents to move cumbersome items to and from their rooms. 

Outdoor Recreation Items

Recreation equipment is not just for campus rec departments. If your residence hall has green space attached to it or is positioned near an outdoor recreation area, you can provide residents with inventory to encourage use of those spaces. Hammocks, sports balls, cornhole sets, and other outdoor recreation items are extremely popular among college students and the perfect addition to any residence hall inventory. Not only do they encourage use of green space, they also encourage healthy lifestyles by enabling students to get outside and exercise. It’s also a great way for residents to enjoy time together. 

Advertise Your Inventory

This next step may seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many residence halls don’t advertise their inventory. Residents may be told at the beginning of the year or reminded by an RA that there is inventory available at the service desks, but they could just as quickly forget. 

Creating signage or smaller advertisements that remind residents what you have behind your desk or in your closet can help activate your inventory. When residents know they have resources at their disposal, they’ll be more likely to seek them out. 

Advertising inventory can also get residents excited about their living space. Rather than leave the residence hall for a student center or campus recreation space, they may be able to stay closer to home after classes or on the weekends. Of course, this isn’t to say students should spend their entire college experience inside or around their residence hall. But increasing your offerings and advertising them can promote resource awareness in your residents and give them a sense of connectivity. 

Activate Your Inventory

One of the final steps in getting your inventory in check is activating it in your residence life community. What does this mean? Let’s talk about it. 

Addressing your inventory helps you sort out what you have and don’t have so you (and your staff) know what you have at your disposal. Advertising your inventory lets your residents know what you have that can help elevate their residence life experience. The final step, activating your inventory, puts your inventory in motion. It’s a step that benefits both you and your residents. 

Activating your inventory can look different depending on your setup. At the University of Cincinnati (UC), they found the best way to activate their inventory was to deploy an automated rental solution. Even though they had a well-advertised inventory with residents who were interested in renting, UC’s RA staff had trouble with tracking their inventory. Not only were they facing accountability issues, but they were also dealing with inventory loss. 

RecRe’s automated rental platform offered their housing department a way to store their inventory in lockers where residents could simply scan a QR code, select the item they wanted, and then use it for a pre-set amount of time. In doing so, UC activated their inventory by removing the barriers between students and inventory. 

Whether you’re looking to offer residents cleaning supplies, outdoor equipment, or gear for their next game night, it’s important to take a few easy steps to get it in their hands.

In review: 

> Address your inventory by digging into what you have and determining what you need. 

> Advertise your inventory with signage or events to get residents interested. 

> Activate your inventory with an innovative solution that fits your needs. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how UC activated their inventory, check out their campus success story today.