Tips on Tearing Down a Built-In Closet

I'm on vacation from my 9-5 this week!  YAY!!!  I decided to start vacation by tearing out the built-in closet in my office/ guest room.

As you can see, there was a lot of debris and trash in this closet that I didn't want to touch.  There were hats and beanies left from the previous owners.  There was a dirty towel on the floor that was also left here.  Also, there were pieces of plaster (?) left here from my last contractor who had to patch a huge hole in the closet because his team accidentally knocked a hole in the closet when they demo-ed the restroom on the other side of the wall...oops.

So here are my tips for attacking a small project like this:

1. If you can, ask someone to help.  I could have done it all by my lonesome self, but another set of hands to help with the long pieces of MDF or wood is always good.
2. Safety first!  Wear goggles, gloves, and SHOES when you are tearing something down.  You wouldn't want your little piggies on your little footsies to be smashed to smithereens would you?!
3. Assess the situation.  This sounds like a no brainer, but you want to look at the closet and find were the screws were placed.  Can the shelves be removed without screws?  Are the hanging rods screwed into the unit?
4. Remove the small pieces first and work slow.  You don't want to attack the closet and unscrew the big pieces first because you'll be left with one big piece of MDF to carry.
5. Designate a spot for all the trash to go so that the aftermath is contained.  I personally coordinated this closet teardown with the arrival of my demo guys who were tearing down my half bath.
6. Having the right tools help too.  This unit was attached using screws so I made sure I had my power drill.
7. Clean as you go.  When there are nails and refinished floors involved, you want to make sure that your work area is clean so that you aren't stepping on nails and you aren't tracking dirt throughout your home.

For me, I started by removing the trash.  Then I unscrewed the shelves and hanging rods.  I was left with the long vertical planks and the top shelf.  I needed an extra set of hands to help me hold the vertical planks while I unscrewed them from the top of the closet.  All in all, the teardown took about 30 minutes.  

The closet is still disgusting and the shoe-string hanging from the light fixture gives me the heebie jeebies, but it's still a work in progress.  Today, I plan to fix my contractors patch job then I'll paint and install a new closet system.  I'll be sure to show you the after pics very soon!