General

• Make a place for everything. If you're not really sure where batteries go, how will you put them away? In the junk drawer again? Make certain that everything has a place to be stored. Lose the junk drawer and use boxes, zip lock bags, and labeled envelopes to store miscellaneous items. You'll eliminate clutter if you make space now for everything.
  
  
• Avoid using miscellaneous and pending. You need to make a decision about that paper, even if it means tossing it.
  
  
• Make it easy. Always store items in the room where they will be used, and in the room location where they will be used.
  
  
• Manageable tasks: if you can't face an entire room, break the job down into manageable tasks - the kitchen junk drawer, the letter pile, the hats, coats and shoes area. That way you won't put off decluttering because it's too big a task.
  
  
• Keep often-used items at close range. Items you use daily belong on your desk. Your computer, pens, calendar, message pad and anything else that's part of your daily routine can stay. Other items such as scotch tape, stapler, calculator, writing paper and so on should be stored in your desk drawer -- handy to get at, but not in the way when you don't need them.
  
  
• Clean up as you go: when you leave an area - or finish a project or task - clean up everything you just used.
  
  
• Keep it clear: make it a rule that clearing the kitchen counters is part of doing the dishes.
  
  
• Everything, plus one: besides putting away everything you've used, go a step further and put away one additional thing that is out of place.
  
  
• Don't put it down: get into the habit of putting away all the things you carry into the house instead of setting them down on the foyer table or kitchen counter.

Office/Home Office

• Handle every piece of paper, every e-mail, every fax page only once when a piece of paper crosses your desk, make a decision about it, rather than stack it on top of or alongside other papers. Before you decide to keep a piece of paper, make sure that it's information you need to keep for future reference, rather than something that you need "just in case." If you keep something, yet can't find it, it's of no value to you.
  
  
• Replace written notes by using a tape or digital recorder.
  
  
• Remove everything from your desk accept the information you are currently working on.
  
  
• Master the system of the FOUR Ds - do it, delegate it, decide or dump it.
  
  
• Empty workspace of everything but the project you're working on to cut down on distractions.
  
  
• Stamp out unwanted mail. Send a signed request to mail preference service, c/o Direct Marketing Association, P.O. box 9008, Farmingdale, NY, 11735-9008. Include all versions of your name as well as common misspellings to which junk mail is frequently addressed.
  
  There are only two types of paper worth filing: records (what you have to keep) and resources (what you want to keep).
  
  
• Recent statistics reveal that the average executive wastes 150 hours per year searching for lost documents. One in 20 documents is lost and never recovered. Remember 80% of what we file is never even looked at again.