The suggestions to move things of he area, and then to sort and fold are excellent.
Some of us don' t have other temporary areas.
The first thing I would do would be to fold things into uniform sizes and stack things neatly.
In my case, I would have two stacks of fabrics - washed and not washed.
Then you would have some bare spots .
Just having things piled neatly makes the space look less cluttered/ trashed.