Training in the theory and practice of preventive conservation needs to be balanced with a mastery of project management skills, which have proven essential for the successful completion of preventive conservation projects. This paper describes how project management practices can be used to benefit conservation goals. Over several years, starting in 1992, the Textile and Costume Section of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) implemented a systematic approach to preventive conservation. Limited by the constraints of existing storage units and facilities, the strategy has been to work within a project framework on a series of small, distinct sections of the collection, each of a manageable scope given available human and material resources. Using a ‘holistic’ approach, the project goals have been to improve storage conditions and object documentation, reduce unnecessary handling, and to provide improved safe access to the collection for research, exhibition and publication programs. How these goals have been realized is illustrated with case studies from the 18th century women’s shoes, cold storage and the Peruvian textile collection projects. Further, project management practices to collect, analyze and use data on project tasks and activities, and or space, human and material resources, are detailed.