Published September 23, 2026 · EasyStagecraft

How to Run a Costume Stocktake in a School Drama Department

A costume stocktake is a systematic count and condition check of every garment in your school's wardrobe store — what you have, what size it is, what state it's in, and whether it's worth keeping. Done properly, it takes one or two focused work sessions and leaves you with a reliable record you can actually use when casting and costuming your next production. Here's how to do it from start to finish, without losing your mind or your volunteers.

Why Bother? The Real Cost of an Unmanaged Costume Store

Most school drama departments inherit costume stores that have grown organically over decades — bin bags of mystery fabric, rails crammed with unlabelled formals, and a shelf of hats that belong to no known era or production. The result is that teachers spend hours digging through stock before every show, duplicates multiply, and genuinely useful items get buried under unwearable junk.

A costume stocktake fixes this. It also protects you from WHS liability: an overcrowded, unshelved wardrobe store can become a fire hazard or a trip risk, both of which sit clearly under Safe Work Australia's general duty of care provisions. If you haven't looked at your performing arts spaces through a safety lens recently, the performing arts centre safety audit guide is worth reading alongside this one.

Before You Start: Gather Your Tools

• Tape measure and sizing charts (see below)
• A camera or phone — you will photograph every item
• Sticky labels or masking tape for temporary tagging
• A spreadsheet or dedicated inventory tool
• Garment bags, acid-free tissue, and cedar blocks or lavender sachets for re-storage
• Large bags for culls: one for charity/op-shop, one for textile recycling, one for repurposing
• Volunteers with a half-day to spare — budget roughly one person per 80–100 items

Step 1: Clear the Space and Sort Roughly First

Pull everything out. Yes, everything. Sort into broad categories before you record a single item: tops, bottoms, dresses and full costumes, outerwear, accessories and hats, shoes, and specialty/character costumes (period dress, uniforms, mascot suits). Sorting first means you're recording like with like, which makes data entry far faster.

While you're clearing, deal with anything obviously unsalvageable — mould-damaged, pest-eaten, or structurally destroyed items. These go straight to textile recycling. Do not let sentiment slow you down here.

Step 2: Record Every Item — What to Capture

For each garment, record the following fields. A clean HTML table helps visualise the structure:

Condition Grading Explained

• Grade A: Clean, structurally sound, stage-ready. No visible repairs needed.
• Grade B: Usable but needs minor repair or a good press. Worth keeping.
• Grade C: Significant wear, fading, or repair needed. Keep only if the item is hard to source or has specific value (period costume, expensive fabric).
• Cull: Damaged beyond economical repair, poor fit that can't be altered, or simply surplus to any realistic need. Remove it.

Step 3: Sizing and Labelling for the Real World

Australian garment sizing has shifted considerably over the decades, and second-hand stock reflects every era. The rule is: always measure, never trust the tag alone. Record both the label size and the actual chest/waist/hip/length measurements in centimetres.

When you re-label items for storage, use a durable tag — sewn-in cotton tape or a cable-tied luggage tag is far more reliable than a sticky label on a hanger. The tag should show the Item ID and the measured chest or waist. This means next year's wardrobe volunteer can pull the right garment without hunting through your spreadsheet first. For a deeper look at making a labelling system that survives multiple shows and multiple hands, see a labelling system for a props and costume store that survives three shows.

Step 4: Clean Before You Store

This is the step most stocktakes skip, and it's the reason stores end up with moth damage and mildew. The rule is absolute: nothing goes back into storage dirty.

1. Machine-wash anything with a care label that allows it, using a gentle cycle.
2. Send woollens, silks, and heavily structured garments (suit jackets, corsets) to a dry cleaner. Budget $8–$18 per item — it's far cheaper than replacing them.
3. Air everything thoroughly before it goes into a bag or onto a rail. Moisture is the enemy.
4. Press natural fibres. Folded, uncleaned fabric deteriorates faster.

Moth and Damp Prevention in Storage

Cedar balls or blocks are effective and non-toxic — replace them annually as the scent fades. Lavender sachets work similarly. Do not use mothballs (naphthalene) in a school environment; they're toxic and the smell transfers to costumes. For long-term storage of woollen and natural-fibre items, garment bags are worth the investment. Keep the store ventilated and check twice a year for damp — especially in older school buildings where the drama store is in a basement or portable.

Step 5: The Cull — What to Do With Items Nobody Will Ever Wear

Culling is not failure. Keeping every donated item "just in case" is what creates the problem in the first place. Here's how to dispose of culled items ethically:

• Op-shops and costume hire companies: Good-quality items in Grade B or C condition. Ring ahead — not all op-shops accept costumes.
• Drama departments at other schools: Particularly useful for period costume and specialty items. Post in your state drama teachers' association network.
• Textile recycling: For items in poor condition. Most councils have textile recycling bins; some charitable organisations (e.g. Upparel in Australia) collect directly.
• Repurpose for props or set: Damaged fabric can become curtains, bunting, or soft furnishings for the set. Cut up unusable garments before storage so the fabric is actually usable.
• Student upcycling projects: Tie-in with textiles or visual arts — worn garments become raw material for a design brief.

Step 6: Record It Digitally and Keep It Current

A spreadsheet works, but it degrades fast — photos don't embed cleanly, volunteers don't maintain it consistently, and you lose the search function when columns drift. EasyInventory, EasyStagecraft's dedicated store management tool, keeps photos, measurements, condition grades, and production history in one searchable record, which means your next wardrobe coordinator isn't starting from scratch. Whatever system you use, the inventory is only useful if it's updated every time an item leaves and returns.

Link your costume inventory to your production planning documents. When you're building your props and costume inventory for school theatre, the stocktake data feeds directly in — you know exactly what you already own before you start shopping or hiring.

How Often Should You Run a Full Stocktake?

A full costume stocktake — every item, condition graded, photographed — every two to three years is realistic for most departments. Between full stocktakes, run a quick check at the end of each production: return everything, spot-check for damage, update the last-used date, and flag anything that needs repair before it goes back on the rail. That takes an afternoon and prevents the next full stocktake from becoming a horror show.

Schedule it. Put it in your department calendar the week after bump-out, while the production is fresh and before the costumes get buried again.