Clutter happens to the best of us, whether it's unrecycled materials piled up on the porch, photos that never made it into albums, old furniture waiting to be refinished in the garage, toys in corners, shoes under the bed, unfolded laundry on the sofa, junk drawers galore, or knickknacks you inherited from your grandmother but never figured out how to display. Whatever sort of clutter has possessed your home, you're not alone—the need to declutter is nothing short of an international phenomenon. Googling "declutter" turns up more than 220,000 entries, while online booksellers list over 130 titles. "Declutter" became a household verb in part thanks to the growing industry known as professional organizing. The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), a nonprofit professional association founded in 1985, is the largest international association of professional organizers, with 3,200 members worldwide. NAPO's membership includes organizing consultants, speakers, trainers, authors, and manufacturers of organizing products, with improving clients' lives "using organizing principles" and educating the public about organizing solutions as its mission. For decluttering and organizing resources and local consultants, visit www.napo.net.

Professional organizer Sue Story, proprietor of the Woodstock-based ClutterBusters, believes that the decluttering phenomenon goes hand in hand with the boom in home decorating. "Martha Stewart has to be given credit—she got a lot of people interested and then magazines like Real Simple got started on decluttering and organizing," she says. "All the TV shows on home makeovers also helped. People are learning from them and taking more interest in their home's appearance. Decluttering has snowballed—there are even national conventions devoted to it." (ClutterBusters serves clients throughout the Hudson Valley; call (845-679-7995.)

TIPS FOR DECLUTTERING 1. SET REALISTIC GOALS. Don't plan to declutter your entire house in one week. Give yourself a few months, suggests Story. "I'll go into a house that's really gone to hell in a rowboat, I know it won't take two visits to do it. I'll ask them, 'Did it take two days to get this way?' Some houses wind up being an ongoing project that need working on once or twice a week for months." 2. SET DEADLINES. Post reminders to yourself around the house and stick to your declutter day schedule. 3. ONE ROOM AT A TIME. First, list what needs to be done room by room. Set priorities. Who needs help most? A work area? A child's room? "Have a family meeting—who's most frustrated by clutter? Their room needs attention first," says Story. "If you live alone, which room feels worst?" 4. GET SUPPLIES. All you need, says Story, are some markers, plastic bins, labels, and trash bags or paper bags with handles. Label the bags as follows: Giving away (for family and friends); Charity; Recycling; Garbage; Keeping; Yard Sale (optional); and In Doubt. Whatever you keep or can't decide about, pack it away in a clear plastic stackable bin and label it. 5. GET SUPPORT. It's always easier to do anything with a group. Rally a family member, call a friend, hire a professional organizer, or seek an online decluttering support group. 6. MAKE HOMES FOR EVERYTHING. The aphorism "A place for everything and everything in its place" sounds old-fashioned, but couldn't be more modern. When everything belongs somewhere, you feel in control of your life, says Story. 7. CLEAN UP AS YOU GO. Once the sorting is over, the cleaning begins—there's no point putting orderly containers back on top of dirt. Continuing to clean up during every project will help maintain a clutter-free existence. 8. CELEBRATE! Reward yourself with something you've always wanted, once you've cleared space for it, or do something the clutter has made you miss—like cooking for friends or throwing a cocktail party.

Most clutter stems from materialism, our desire to accumulate and acquire goods we probably don't need—"Don't buy another thing unless you really, really love it," says Story—and leading far-too-busy lives, but clutter can also be emotional. Clutter often begins, Story believes, when things get difficult or people get overwhelmed, a fact born out by the testimonies of members of an online decluttering support forum (http://declutter.meetup.com/groups). But whatever the cause, the result is always a house so cluttered with useless, unsatisfying items that no one can visit. Story finds that all many clients need is companionship to declutter. One client's clutter situation got so bad that "for an entire year, she only left the house to go to the store or to work," Story recalls. "Finally, she called me. After working on her house together, she finally called some friends and went out. When we finished, she told me, 'I don't know why I paid a therapist all these years; we've accomplished so much.'"

Clutter is a depressant, says Story. "It starts when people just get a bit depressed, I think, and they sort of let things go, or they just get really busy and let things go and then looking at the clutter depresses them," she explains. "But then, because they're depressed and overwhelmed, they let it go worse, and looking at it depresses them more, and it becomes a vicious cycle. And it just spirals and keeps getting worse. For some people, the problems just get out of hand because they get distracted. We all get distracted. The phone rings, we stop doing one thing and start doing another thing. Even I do it!"Professional organizer Sue Story, proprietor of the Woodstock-based ClutterBusters, believes that the decluttering phenomenon goes hand in hand with the boom in home decorating. "Martha Stewart has to be given credit—she got a lot of people interested and then magazines like Real Simple got started on decluttering and organizing," she says. "All the TV shows on home makeovers also helped. People are learning from them and taking more interest in their home's appearance. Decluttering has snowballed—there are even national conventions devoted to it." (ClutterBusters serves clients throughout the Hudson Valley; call (845-679-7995.)

The secret to dealing with clutter, says Story, even among professional organizers, is to establish systems for dealing with it, and look for the light at the end of the tunnel. "Decluttering is making order out of chaos," says Story, and finding hitherto unforeseen beauty and meaning in that order. "When I declutter for people I frequently uncover beautiful things they forgot they had. Recently, I found this beautiful old tin can in this woman's house, and it now holds her jewelry and sits in a place of honor in the bathroom. Part of decluttering is decorating. If there are things particularly beautiful, that I love, I'm happy. If I'm surrounded by things that are ugly, that I don't love, I'm not happy. And I don't feel good about my surroundings when there's too much clutter to enjoy nice things."

But the financial benefits of having a clutter-free home are perhaps even more important than the aesthetic value. According to the philosophy of feng shui, decluttering is basic to a full life because it means ridding our homes of stagnant chi, or life energy, and making room for new opportunities to come into our lives. "Feng shui ideas are so popular that the phrase is now a verb—'Oh, have you had your house feng shuied?'" says Story. "Feng shui has to do with movement of energy and placement of things. Two things that really block energy are clutter and dirt; where there's clutter, there's always dirt because you can't clean those areas. After I finish decluttering a room, and it's all cleaned up, I always stand there with my client and savor it and I look at them and say, 'Can you feel it?' And they are always amazed at how much lighter everything feels. That feeling affects our entire lives—mental, emotional, financial, spiritual."