The one thing I have learned here is, "you can't organize clutter." I used to have stuff everywhere and could never be organized. Slowly I have thinned out my stuff. Now if I don't have a specific place to put something I can't keep it. That means for me if I had a tall file cabinet and I haven't touched it in years, I would throw out most everything inside and use the space to actually organize something I use regularly.

Only you can decide what you really need and what is unneeded. It is hard work but gets easier as you toss stuff. My life is much less stressful now and I find I have a lot more time for things I like to do compared to always moving things and "cleaning up."

It feels overwhelming if you think you have to get everything perfect immediately. That is always an impossible task. Break it down into tiny small tasks and set a timer. I have found that things that I avoid doing usually only take 5 minutes and are done. And once done I feel a great weight off my shoulders.

Good luck. Let us know how you are doing.

Learn what questions to ask yourself that will help you differentiate between what you should keep and what you should not keep.

For me, with fabric, it was "What am I going to make with this?" and "When am I going to make that with this?", and I had to keep asking myself, "No, really, what am I going to make with this?" I had out of date fabrics that I needed to get rid of--I was never going to make anything out of them. I pruned my fabric stash by more than 2/3.

Another organizing technique (Marie Kondo) says to get everything that is 'alike' all in one place--all of your books, all of your shirts, all of your sewing accessories--whatever it is. And then go through them--I had so many duplicates and gave away a ton of craft stuff to the local Girl Scout service unit. I did all the ribbon. Then all the elastic. And then all the velcro.

When I was done with each grouping, I found a home for what was left and labelled the drawer--that drawer is where elastic goes, and if it's not elastic, it can't go there. (these are small drawers). If you have bigger drawers, use a container for each type of item and label the container--shoe boxes will work. (And if you don't have a stash you can get inexpensive/not sturdy ones at the Dollar Tree)

Also, as many people have noted over the years, think about how much calmer you will be when there is less stuff around you. It really is calming and relaxing to not have clutter that screams "do something with me". Once you get used to that feeling, you tend to want it back!

BTW, even though Marie Kondo goes a bit whackadoodle at time (I don't think my socks have feelings), I still found her book quite useful. I used lots of her techniques, and the key thing to remember (as hmorton said), "you can't organize clutter". Until you purge those things which you don't need/won't use, it doesn't make sense to organize.

Beth and HMorton are right on. "A place for everything, and everything in its place" will make it easier to keep things under control, but getting to that point is the hard part.

We remodeled our kitchen 4 years ago. Before, it was too small, and the storage space was inefficient. There were too many things on the counters - knife blocks, small appliances, canisters. After the remodel, I had a place for each of those things - and when the counters were clear of extra clutter, and everything had a logical place, it became a lot easier to put things away. Not only that, the clean, fresh space has made us WANT to keep it clean and uncluttered.

I am the first to admit - other areas of the house are NOT as well organized! But in the kitchen, where the most effort was made to have a plan, it's easy to keep it nice.

I also agree that purging gets easier with practice. I've found that it can be very therapeutic!

So what exactly is overwhelming about the computer desk? What is in the file cabinet? We can perhaps offer specific suggestions, with more details about the problem.

You can do this!

The file cabinet has all my important papers and Insurance, health and all the information I all need. I just hate digging into that mess. I don't even know where to star or how to toss it or if its needed, I've been putting it off for YEARS!

Nothing is to over whelming about the computer desk except for all the computer related CD's I just don't know what I need and don't. Then I also have boxes for my ebay selling, another mess. I may just have to toss all of that and forget about selling it. I guess I just have to me in the right mood to get this started.

Here is a pretty good reference on papers to keep :

Your Important Papers

This is definitely an eating-the-elephant-one-bite-at-a-time situation with the paperwork. I've found it helps to just grab one file and go to another room- then you are only dealing with that one stack of papers and not looking at all the rest. I bet when you get started, you will find that you know pretty quickly what things to toss and what things to keep.

Another tactic I've heard is to imagine what it will look like when it is all done. That's suppose to motivate you to get it done :^)

More and more I have applied that Marie Kondo theory about keeping like things together. It does help especially with craft supplies. Just grouping stuff that goes together all together has eliminated a lot of unneeded duplicates. I've also found that sometimes when I get all the supplies for a particular craft together, it was very uninspiring and the whole lot goes to donation.

The one craft I still enjoy above all others is sewing and in particular, sewing scrap style quilts. That means I have a lot of smaller pieces of fabric to get organized. Right now they are grouped with like fabrics, folded and put in gallon ziploc bags. Then those bags are all in a large, opaque rubbermaid tub. I've been going back and forth lately with the idea of moving them all to clear under bed style boxes (that will still fit in the closet) which would give better organization and easier access to them. Still don't know if I will eventually do that, but I wouldn't do that with all my craft supplies, only the ones that most interest me. Once you identify that, then they aren't clutter, they are something to organize. I also keep a couple of drawers of rather disorganized craft supplies- these I have little interest in and am keeping them for DD in case she has some interest in crafting with them. When she has outgrown them, out they will go, but until then they aren't worth the time to organize, only to hide away.

You can do it. It might not happen overnight, but it can happen!

I have begun. I am halfway through 1 file drawer, Maybe I will stay motivated long enough to get the cabinet done.

Wow!! You are doing great. I too lose motivation, but that is when I start setting a timer for only 15 minutes and go at it for the 15 minutes. Often I keep going but if I don't it is ok I did the 15.

JoAnn, you've inspired me to clean up a pile of junk in my family room. Thanks!

I am almost done with the file cabinet, I bought a new shredder, and today I burned a full bag of old bills, statements and papers, It feels GOOD! Come jump on this cleaning train with me.

Well done! I cleaned up the family room pile (only took about 10 minutes), and my son's room. My kids are both grown, so their rooms are my responsibility.

Ah JoAnn, you're encouraging me, too. I was gone to Arkansas for nearly a month. Now I'm playing "catch up" with the small amount of gardening I'm doing this year and s-l-o-w-l-y getting more paperwork and "stuff" out of the sewing room.