Even if you’re more clean than messy [1], it’s still easy to end up with more than a few disorganized piles of stuff lying around the house, office, car, or even in the depths of your purse. Most of us function better in an organized environment, so if you have some clutter getting you down, see my tips and .

• Determine where your serious problem areas are. The closet is a big one for most people, as are desk drawers and any other nooks or crannies where it might be easy to stuff things out of sight.
• Don’t try to get everything done in one sitting. It’ll seem much more manageable if you do it over time, so choose one spot, and start sorting until it’s completely organized before moving on to another area.
• Don’t be afraid to throw away (or recycle) things — you really don’t need to keep everything. My ongoing rule is that if I haven’t used it in the last year, then it must not be a necessity. Salvation Army [2] or Goodwill [3] stations are great alternatives for clothing and other items that you don’t want to take to the dump, but can’t sell.
• Once you’ve sorted the keepers from everything else, it's time to come up with an organization solution. Buy extra bins to store winter clothes instead of the floor of your closet or move loose papers off of counter-tops by getting file folders for holding your bill stubs and other important documents.
• I’ve always found that maintaining a semblance of organization is far more difficult than going through and organizing things every once and a while so try to de-clutter your life as much as possible on a daily basis. Throw away the silly knick knacks you’ll never use. And if you see a pile growing, go through it before it gets to that overwhelming point. You'll thank yourself later!

Source [4]