Clutter comes from many sources; a primary one is what we call delayed decision making. That's when things pile up because you haven't made a decision to move them on to their next stop: being put away, thrown away, taken to the cleaners, returned to their owner, tossed in the Goodwill bag, shredded, mailed back or foisted off on someone else.

Clutter can also come from projects in progress. It's understandable to want to leave everything out until you finish whatever you're working on, but if you're working on more than one thing at once and you've got the kitchen table, the dining table, your desk and the living room coffee table covered with projects, there's no room to eat dinner or set down a tea cup.

To combat this problem you want to:

• Make it easy to put things away
• Get in the habit of putting things away
• Embrace the idea of completion

Make it easy to put things away by getting a box or special case (for jewelry making, for example) to keep your project supplies in. Use a container if the place you work is different from the place you store the supplies so you can easily carry them back there. Or set aside some space on a bookshelf or in a drawer in the room you work in to stash your project.

Get in the habit of putting things away by remembering and visualizing how you want the space to look when you're not working. Also, think of putting things away as setting them up for your next session. These techniques make tidying feel like a positive and beneficial activity, rather than an onerous task.

Completion means that even if your project is unfinished, you still put things away after each session of working on it. For each session there are three steps: get out your supplies, work on the project, put everything away. Don't stop after step two!