What kinds of systems can I set up to help manage my clutter?

What kinds of systems can I set up to help manage my clutter?

Mary Astadourian (Professional Organizer) gives expert video advice on: What typically makes up 'clutter'?; Why does so much clutter collect in my home?; What's the most important thing I can do to cut down on the clutter? and more...

The biggest system you can set up to manage clutter is to find a place for everything. Most people, their clutter is of a paper type. They don't know where to put all this paper, they know they want to keep it, there's a reason for it, but they don't know what to do with it. Create places for it. If it's tax papers, get yourself a plastic box, a file box. Even if you don't want to create file folders to separate it out, just putting it in that box will cut down on the clutter that you have in the rest of your environment. If it's magazines that you want to get to read, get yourself a basket and put the magazines in there. You can have all these things around you, you just have to find a place to put them. If you have that, it's certainly not going to seem as cluttered as it does when it's just all piled together in a space.