Sadie Rogers was planning to park her car in the garage Tuesday night.

"That's something I've never done," said the 69-year-old widow from Locust Grove, an admitted pack rat who recently won a messiest-garage contest.

RENEE' HANNANS HENRY/AJC (ENLARGE)

Sadie Rogers recently lost her mother. Then moved her things and her mother's things into a new home. She was left with a lot of junk.

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This week, crews from 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and The Orderly Touch Inc. are removing piles and piles of junk — boxes of papers, a plastic M&M dispenser, even leather hair rollers from 60 years ago. Next week, with the help of donated shelving from GarageTek, Rogers and her helpers will reorganize her garage.

"It's wonderful. They are really helping," Rogers said as she sifted through debris. She divided her loot into three piles — donate, keep and haul away. Decisions were sometimes painful. Many of the items were from the home of Rogers' mother, who passed away recently. Still others were her own from the Atlanta condo she called home before moving to Henry County in 2005.

"Every piece of paper tells a story," Rogers said.

Rogers beat out 17 other Henry County applicants to win the garage makeover, said Sherry Lee Denton, a professional organizer with The Orderly Touch, which sponsored the competition.

The makeover is more about education than renovation, Denton said.

"She's beginning to understand the decisions that got her in this situation and learning from it to see that it doesn't happen again," Denton said.

Denton said many people keep things around with good intentions that never come to fruition.

Take Rogers' bag of hand-picked Tennessee cotton from several years ago.

"I was going to put it in a huge floor vase, but it never happened," Rogers admitted.

Rogers said she looks forward to proudly raising the garage door once her makeover is complete next week.

"I'm so embarrassed now, I just open it real quickly to put the garbage cans out, then close it," Rogers said. "That's about to change."