Tackling a Mess in Stages

This family moved a ton of stuff into their garage temporarily during a remodel. They must have been in a hurry because it appears things were randomly stashed with no attempt to create zones for like items.

The remodel is finished and now they have to move it all back in. What a good opportunity to evaluate, eliminate and integrate their belongings.

We started the move with some big items - the file cabinets above and the clothes racks below - and did it in stages.

Most of the clothes - costumes for theatrical productions - were consolidated into one rack:

Then, after emptying the file cabinets we removed a tall one from the home office closet...

..and replaced it with three smaller, matching ones...

...which in turn inspired the owners to whittle down the costume collection and hang it above these shorter file cabinets.

Project Plus: one pleasing closet with easy to find papers and costumes.

Project Minus: reams of paper, two clothes racks, several bags of clothes and an ugly file cabinet - which I guess makes this a Project Plus.

Check back for the progress on the rest of the garage.