I have a shameful secret: My home office is a pigsty. I've hidden a basket of unfolded laundry behind my desk, where it remained until I had run out of clean underwear, and I've left half-eaten Pop-Tarts in my pencil drawer, where the ants found them before I did.

I'm hardly alone, however, in my slovenliness. Members of the National Association of Professional Organizers say home offices present far more clutter problems than your average room, and they're building an entire industry on straightening out our messes--and easing our guilt. "Disorganized people should stop calling themselves names. They're simply faced with the challenge of living in the new millennium," says professional organizer Michelle Passoff.

Clutter-wise, the odds are against us from the start. As home workers, we make decisions someone else likely shouldered in the corporate office. That's why we save articles on buying new computers and stash receipts for tax time. We scarf down meals while sitting at the computer, forgetting that we no longer have a nightly cleaning crew. We end up with the household appliance guarantees, insurance policies, and mutual fund reports because we control the filing cabinets.

Not only do we have more stuff, but we have fewer places to put it than our corporate counterparts. That's a convenient excuse, but excuses don't help you get rid of clutter. Here's how to wrest control from the paper stacks, piles, and stashes.

Forget about the rules. There is no right way to organize. Do it however it works for you. Passoff believes that 90% of people would successfully rid themselves of clutter if they correlated organizing to accomplishing goals rather than to being neat.

Wastebaskets are good--very good. Tossing, pitching, chucking--call it whatever you want, but just do it. Warning: If you start with the piles, you'll never finish this job. "Clutter comes in the front end faster than you can make decisions about the backlog, so solve today's mail, then yesterday's" says Barbara Hemphill, author of the popular book, Taming the Paper Tiger at Home. (Also see www.thepapertiger.com.)

Good anti-clutter campaigns require five elements in Hemphill's world: a reason to organize (e.g., "I want to find whatever it is I need more quickly"), a positive attitude, time, the right tools, and maintenance.

Self-discipline is as effective as fancy accessories. Office supply stores are crammed with a variety of accessories designed to conquer clutter. Each of them works for someone. But before you buy new containers, assign a distinct purpose to each one you already have. Second, allow yourself a certain amount of space for an item and refuse to expand it. For instance, if your container for paper clips overflows, toss a handful of those fasteners rather than installing a second container.

Handle the piece of paper as much as you need to. Forget about "handling a piece of paper only once." Do it as often as you need to decide whether to file, act, or toss. How do you know when to toss? Hemphill says you should ask yourself these questions:

1. Is it recent enough to be useful? No one relies on year-old advice to purchase a computer.

2. Is this the only form or location in which it exists?

3. Does throwing it away have any tax or legal implications?

4. Can you identify the specific circumstances when you would use it? ("Just in case" doesn't cut it.)

5. What's the worst possible thing that could happen if you didn't have this?

These questions are appropriate for household-related papers, too. "The more organized we are, the less we keep," Hemphill notes.

Separate business and personal papers that you keep. Don't put medical claims and sales contracts in the same cabinet or electronic file folder--at least Hemphill wouldn't. She keeps business and personal separated into their designated filing drawers or electronic file folders so she can find them more quickly.
While you're at it, scratch the A-to-Z filing method. Instead, choose broad categories such as marketing, financials, contracts in the business drawers; insurance, repairs, warrantees in the personal ones. Then subdivide your manila folders in those sections to contain relevant brochures, memos, manuals, and receipts.

Be creative about finding a niche. Creative thinking solves space problems that Hemphill encounters in hundreds of home offices each year. For instance, most hallways could host a six-inch-deep bookshelf or filing cabinet without blocking the traffic flow. Plastic drawers slide underneath the bed. Unused walls provide excellent backgrounds to build shelves upwards. "I've never tackled a situation where we couldn't make the necessary space," she says. So if it's empty, figure out how to make that space earn its keep.

Apply your new skills throughout the rest of the house. Unorganized storage cabinets, bedroom bookshelves, and dresser drawers are all a drain on your time ("Where is that navy belt?") so don't quit until you've tamed those tigers, too. "Have nothing in your home which you do not know to be useful, think to be beautiful or love," Hemphill says.

Want more information on getting organized? See www.organized-living.com and www.exitstageright.com. Curious about the relationship between storage and your peformance at work? Check out this research.

JULIE STURGEON is a business freelance writer currently digging out from piles of research notes in Indianapolis, Indiana.