Clutter Control

Michelle Passoff, author of “Lighten Up! Free Yourself From Clutter,” offers these tips to help keep clutter under control.

* Set up a home-management center to process papers, typically the most burdensome type of clutter. You need a desktop and one or more file cabinets. If you have a computer, it too should be in this spot.

* Allot a specific time every week to deal with clutter. Give up on the idea that you will do away with it once and for all. As long as there are delivery services, it will keep coming.

* In a process Passoff calls trafficking, set up pathways so items can be routed correctly from the beginning. For example, accumulate bills in one spot as they come in, so that they can be paid all at once in a short session.