I like your 'bomb went off' descriptions.

When my son was in 2nd grade one of his school papers came home. It was a mimeographed paper and the teacher had written the beginning of a sentence and the kids completed the sentence with their own words. One sentence was "After dinner, the dinner table looks like: (and my son wrote) ... a bomb went off". Ha. Truth be told that's what it looked like before dinner, before a space was cleared so we could USE it for dinner.

Getting organized.. Start with prioritizing. What one thing would you like most to have organized? You might start with your car and commit to cleaning it out every day, taking trash and 'stuff' out of it at the end of every day so each morning you get into a nice uncluttered car, a nice way to start the day.

There is a website if I can think of it, that is about organization and keeping things uncluttered: FlyLady.net. I am not too familiar with it but it is or was very popular and I knew a few who picked up good tips there.

I had a T encourage me to use lists. I would write down the things I wanted to do, clean, etc. and cross off what I did. It sounds so simplistic, but it does help you feel you've accomplished things and that is kind of motivating to keep going. Sometimes when I was really in the pits the lists were more detailed: instead of "Clean the kitchen" it would be "Wash the dishes." "Put the clean dishes away." "Wipe off the stove." "Clear the countertops." "Take out the trash".. very detailed so I felt I was getting so much done. Other times I used broader lists. I scoffed at the idea of using lists for cleaning and de-cluttering but it really did help me.

There's also another system where you to through the house weekly with 3 boxes to put things into: Put Away (still use and need on a regular basis), Give Away (still good but I don't need it anymore), and Throw Away. Done regularly it keeps clutter to a minimum.

...........If all else fails,