BTS: Moving Shop Locations

We’re moving!

If you’ve ever moved a home, you know that moving is a lot of work.

Now imagine moving an entire children’s boutique while still running the store, keeping up with everything that comes with owning a small business, and, in my case, figuring out childcare along the way. That’s what we’re in the middle of right now.

From the outside, it probably looks pretty simple: Lorelei’s for Littles is getting a new location!

But behind that announcement is a very long list of things that need to happen before we can actually open those (new) doors.

I thought it would be fun to give you a little peek behind the scenes!

First: Figuring Out When We Can Actually Move

One of the first things you realize when moving a business is that nothing happens quite as quickly as you’d like it to.

There are dates to coordinate, schedules to work around, and, of course, the all-important question of when exactly we can get the key to the new space. So much of the move depends on that one little detail.

And because I’m also a mom, there’s another logistical puzzle happening behind the scenes: childcare.

If I need to spend several hours at the new store measuring, planning, building or working on the space, I need to figure out where the kids are going to be. Which means coordinating with my husband, finding windows of time when he can help, and trying to squeeze as much as possible into those precious kid-free hours.

There are definitely moments when I think it would be nice to just have an entire week to work uninterrupted....but that's not quite how this works.

Saying Goodbye to Franklin Street

Before we can really move forward, we have to finish up at our current location on Franklin Street. That means undoing some of the things that made the store feel like Lorelei’s so it's a clean slate for the next business. 

There are holes to patch, spots to touch up.

And the mural needs to be painted over....that one is going to be a little bittersweet.

Franklin Street has been such an important part of Lorelei’s, and it’s strange to think about taking everything down and returning the space to a blank slate.

Then there’s the counter. The giant counter that was built directly inside of the store without thinking about how it would be moved in the future.

And now it needs to come out. We’re hoping it can be removed without completely falling apart but we won't know until we try it on September 27th. I’ll let you know how that goes.

And Then We Get the New Space

This is where things start getting really exciting. The new space is completely different from the current store, and I’m having so much fun thinking about what it can become.

One of the things I’m especially excited about is the large display windows across the front of the store and the completely open layout.

They give us so much opportunity to create fun, seasonal children's displays and really show off Lorelei’s for Littles from the street.

I’ve already started thinking about what those windows could look like...little outfits, special collections, holiday displays and all the fun things that make a children's store feel whimsical.

But before any of that happens, there’s some work to do inside.

Designing a New Lorelei’s for Littles Location

I’m figuring out an entirely new rack and display layout.

Where should everything go? How should customers move through the store? Where should the baby clothes live? Where should the bigger kids' clothing go? How do we display books and accessories? How do we make the store feel full and fun without making it feel crowded or too sparse?

And then there are the projects. Giant pegboards to build and install. Wall racks to assemble. Displays to figure out. And, perhaps most ambitiously, wallpaper. I have never wallpapered anything in my life. But apparently now is the time to learn. So we’ll see how that goes.

There are going to be a lot of moments during this move where I have to remind myself that I don't actually need to know how to do everything before I start.

Sometimes you just have to figure it out as you go...which is something I've had to do A LOT since starting my own business. Anyone trying to start their own business: keep that in mind: you don't actually need to know how to do everything before you start.

The Part You Don't See

I think this is the interesting part about a small business. When you walk into a store, you see the finished product. You see the clothes hanging on the racks, the displays, the windows and all of the little details that make the store feel like itself.

You don't see the hours of planning that went into putting everything there. You don't see the boxes. The measurements. The floor plans. The endless rearranging. The trips back and forth to Home Depot. The patching and painting. The DIY projects. The childcare juggling. The late nights spent thinking about...everything.

Or the moment when you move something for the 10th time and finally think, Okay. I think that's where it's going to stay. And that's what this move has been so far.

A little bit of excitement. A little bit of chaos. A little bit of sentimental attachment to the old store. A whole lot of work. And a lot of dreaming about what comes next.

A New Chapter for Lorelei’s

As excited as I am about the new space, I don't want the new Lorelei’s for Littles to feel like we're leaving everything behind.

I want it to still feel like the space you've all loved. Just a new version of it!

A little more space to play with. New displays. Those big windows. New ideas.

And hopefully lots of little details that make you walk through the door and immediately it feels familiar.

Right now, we're somewhere in that messy middle — Franklin Street isn't wrapped up, we don't have access to the new store yet, and there are approximately a million things waiting in limbo to be completed. 

But slowly, it's getting closer and closer to crunch time.

And I'm excited to bring you along for all of it — the good, the messy, the projects that go according to plan and the ones that absolutely do not.

Because this is what moving a small business really looks like.

And I can't wait for you to see the finished result.