Need your garage organized? It'll cost you

Consultants help make cleaning up the clutter a booming business

CNBC VIDEO

Cash from trash
March 9: CNBC’s Diana Olick reports on the growing business of clearing up garage clutter.

CNBC

By Diana Olick

D.C. Correspondent

CNBC

updated 10:20 a.m. ET March 10, 2006

Behold the American garage. Once the most underused and abused space in the house, it is now a $2.5 billion gold mine – the fastest growing sector in home remodeling today.

But Bill and Nedra Trahan didn’t know where to start.

“My philosophy is 'when in doubt, throw it out,'” Bill Trahan said.

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Enter the consultant from Clutterbusters.

“Professional organizing is a huge booming profession -- in fact just this year alone there's been a 40-percent increase for professional organizers,” said Betsy Fein of Clutterbusters.

Fein is one of more than 3,000 professional organizers, but the first to franchise the service. Her average client will pay up to $5,000 to organize their stuff.

Once the clutter is confined, the renovation company moves in. In this case, Garage Tek. The firm is one of the biggest, selling $800 million worth of organizing products last year.

“We’ve had cluttered garages forever,” says Barbara Butensky of Garage Tek. “It's part of America. Why does the garage have to be gorgeous now? Because it's not going to be part of America in the future.”

Not when some homeowners are willing to spend up to $35,000 to revamp their domestic dumping ground.