Cut Clutter

According to Brooks Palmer, author of Clutter Busting, you can't organize until you toss the clutter. Here are some of his tips:

• Toss out anything that is broken, that can't be fixed, or that you won't take to be fixed. According to Palmer, broken things cause disorder in the home. They spread, like a crack in the windshield of a car that eventually spreads across the entire windshield.

• Limit your CDs or MP3 albums to fewer than a hundred. Keep only the music that you will actually listen to now.

• Toss anything that makes you feel that the past is more special than right now. That gives you the feeling that life will never be as good as it once was. I like the following statement: The past is as insignificant as old dishwater.

• If you find yourself defending the object because of how much it cost you, it's clutter.

• If it doesn't fit anymore, physically or psychologically, let it go.