picking up the pieces

Rebuilding after disaster

Picking up the pieces is recovering from a disaster or failure by salvaging what remains and rebuilding.

The image is of something shattered—a relationship, a business, a life—and the slow work of restoration: After the scandal, the company spent years picking up the pieces.

Often implies starting over from a diminished position.

Related

resilience · reconciliation · making amends · salvaging · reconstruction · prioritizing · planning · forgiveness · trust-building · hope · coping · mending · fixing · clean up · strategizing · innovating · collaboration · patching

Opposites
temporal position relative to disaster

picking up the piecesprevention

Stopping something before occurring

forestalling · pre-empting · preventive measures · risk mitigation · safeguarding

repair vs. destruction

picking up the piecesshattering

Breaking violently apart

making a mess

acceptance vs. denial

picking up the piecesburying one's head in the sand

Ignoring obvious problems deliberately

denial · looking the other way

Family

picks, picked, picker, pickers, picking, piece, pieces, pieced, piecing

Familiarity
Top 50,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Negative · Everyday, not technical · Rated G