A method for controlling a storage and order-picking system, wherein the storage and order-picking system comprises: a manual work station, which is a packing station, including a defined working area in which an operator is to manipulate a piece good by its hands in a default manner in accordance with a picking task, which is communicated to the operator visually and/or audibly, so that the operator takes the piece good within the working area from a source location, moves it and delivers it to a target location on an order pallet positioned within a packing frame on a lifting device; a motion-sensor system which detects motions (46; 146) of the hands and/or forearms of the operator within the working area of the work station and which converts same into corresponding motion signals; and a computing unit, which is connected, in terms of data, to the motion-sensor system and which is configured to convert the motion signals into corresponding time-dependent trajectories in a virtual space, which is an image of the working area and where the trajectories are compared to reference trajectories, for generating and outputing control signals in terms of working-area control instructions, comprising the steps of: - scanning the actual motion of the operator's arms and/or hands in the real world by means of the motion-sensor system, and converting same into at least one corresponding trajectory in the virtual world by means of the computing unit; - by menas of the computing unit: comparing the trajectory to the reference gestures which are generated in the virtual world and refer to a set of defined gstures respectively corresponding to a unique motion or resting position of the operator's arms and/or hands and distinguishing sufficiently from normal motions in the context of desired manipulations of the pice good within the working area, wherein each of the reference gesture has assigned at least one working-area control instruction; generarting the assigned working-area control instruction if the comparison result in a sufficient match, and directing the generated assigned working-area control instruction to the lifting device; and - executing the assigned working-area control instruction by the lifting device, wherein the working-area control instruction causes the lifting device to lower, that lowering of the order pallet is ended, that the order pallet is lifted, or that the order pallet is exchanged when the order pallet is completly loaded. - scanning the actual motion of the operator's arms and/or hands in the real world by means of the motion-sensor system, and converting same into at least one corresponding trajectory in the virtual world by means of the computing unit; - by menas of the computing unit: comparing the trajectory to the reference gestures which are generated in the virtual world and refer to a set of defined gstures respectively corresponding to a unique motion or resting position of the operator's arms and/or hands and distinguishing sufficiently from normal motions in the context of desired manipulations of the pice good within the working area, wherein each of the reference gesture has assigned at least one working-area control instruction; generarting the assigned working-area control instruction if the comparison result in a sufficient match, and directing the generated assigned working-area control instruction to the lifting device; and comparing the trajectory to the reference gestures which are generated in the virtual world and refer to a set of defined gstures respectively corresponding to a unique motion or resting position of the operator's arms and/or hands and distinguishing sufficiently from normal motions in the context of desired manipulations of the pice good within the working area, wherein each of the reference gesture has assigned at least one working-area control instruction; generarting the assigned working-area control instruction if the comparison result in a sufficient match, and directing the generated assigned working-area control instruction to the lifting device; and - executing the assigned working-area control instruction by the lifting device, wherein the working-area control instruction causes the lifting device to lower, that lowering of the order pallet is ended, that the order pallet is lifted, or that the order pallet is exchanged when the order pallet is completly loaded.