Local group helps N. Charleston family get organized

Boxes were piled on top of boxes. Children's toys were stacked in heaps. Yard supplies, bicycles and fishing equipment, old clothes. You name it, the Panish family of North Charleston had it stacked nearly ceiling high in their garage.

Cliff and Angie Panish admittedly needed some help. Enter the Charleston Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers, whose mission is to "develop, lead and promote professional organizers and the organizing industry," according to its Web site.

In January, which is recognized as National Get Organized Month, the association launched a contest for the most cluttered garage in the Charleston area. The contest involved an essay as well as several rounds of interviews so the team could determine if the garage fit the organizers' criteria for size and clutter. The family also had to be willing to get rid of some stuff, said Bess Burkhardt, association marketing director.

It took the team of volunteer organizers about 14 hours over the course of two days to install shelving, paint, label and throw out nearly 75 percent of old belongings from the garage. Many of the purged items were donated to Goodwill, which partnered with the association to sponsor the garage makeover, Burkhardt said.

For this year's contest, the Panishes' garage fit the bill, and so did their story.

The Panishes have three children. Their second oldest child, Alyssa, 4, was diagnosed in February 2004 with neuroblastoma during a routine checkup with the family's pediatrician. Neuroblastoma is an aggressive and often fatal pediatric cancer that begins in nerve tissue. She was diagnosed just as the family was about to move into their home in the Hollow Oaks subdivision off Otranto Road.

She's fine now, but for about a year, the family "lived in the hospital," Angie Panish said.

She resigned from her position at a local law firm to take care of Alyssa. The grueling schedule of chemotherapy treatments left little time or energy to clean the garage. She also had to make time for Kaitlyn, 9, her eldest, now a fourth-grader at Northwood Academy.

"I just let everything go. I really did," Panish said of that difficult period for her family.

Just as the family was getting past Alyssa's illness, the Panishes' third and youngest child, Camden, was born in November 2005 with bladder and hearing conditions.

All the while, the garage became more and more cluttered.

Alyssa and Camden, now 2, are full of energy and in better health now, Angie Panish said.

The family is grateful for the garage makeover. Cliff Panish looks forward to going on fishing trips now that he can find his fishing rod. Angie Panish can bring groceries in through the garage and into the kitchen.

"The garage is gorgeous and the kids are absolutely loving it," Angie Panish said. "The design team did a really good job with it."

Her husband agrees.

"We needed (the makeover) bad. We had no idea what was in there," he said.

For more information about the association's Charleston chapter, visit napocharleston.org.

Reach Jasiri Whipper at 745-5863 or jwhipper@postandcourier.com.