Pick one spot in your home that you'd like to keep clean, clear and clutter free this year. I don't mean a whole room like your office, pick a small spot where clutter gathers - your family room coffee table, your kitchen sink (yes, dirty dishes are clutter!), dining room table, laundry room counter.

Now decide that you are going to keep it clean. You need to stand there and make a firm decision, make a promise to yourself.

My personal approach is to remove everything from this spot all at once. If there's a lot in the space put it all in a box and move away from the space. Take your box and sit someplace else. Look at the stuff in another context. A pile of papers and other assorted "stuff" will look much different when you move it somewhere else. If something is just sitting on a counter or table, we tend not to see it after a while.

Quickly sort through the box for easily discarded trash, junk mail that can be tossed and things that obviously belong someplace else. Anything left over needs to be acted upon. Either decide to let it go or find a logical home for it.

Now that your spot is clear, what steps are you going to take to keep it that way? What do you need to change to make that a reality? Think back on what was in the box. What types of things were landing in that space?

MAKE A PLAN! Behaviours don't just change themselves. You need to make decisions and promises to yourself that you do in fact want things to change. Just like weight won't suddenly drop off because you wish it were so, getting organized requires an effort on your part. I promise it will be worth it.

All right- everyone has a "spot." Even those who are organized or are organizers have a "spot."

My spot is the top of a closet were photos, slides, journals, newspaper clippings, war medals, baby shoes and other family treasures reside. With the passing of family members and gifting from other family members, we now have a museum. At least it is all in one spot! But that spot has got to get inventoried and organized. Then we can decide what to copy and share with other family members.

So that is my spot. What is your one spot you want to work on?

I'm going to pick two since I couldn't decide! The counter between the family room and kitchen. It's technically in the kitchen but papers, etc tend to gravitate there. It annoys me to no end. I need to speak to DH and DD about it. I don't think either one of them have EVER put anything away off of it. They always say, we don't know where you want stuff.

And the other one is the end of my desk by the door. I have an L shaped desk that is 7' on that side and 9' on the other. The 9' spot is my primary desk area. That's where my laptop sits and I can reach everything I need.

The 7' area is where I have a desktop, lamp, routers, etc. There's a spot about 18" at the very end where things tend to stick. It's easy to ignore since I don't really see it when I'm at the other side of the desk. Time to make it a priority.

I am also going to pick two spots one at home and one at work.

My One spot at home is my dining room table (I could also add in my coffee table too) which seems to collect alot of papers and just stuff. I don't have alot of storage space/solutions in my home. I need to figure out some short-term solutions and also start figuring out what I want to keep (what I want to send home) and what I can sell before moving in 6 months.

My One spot at work is my desk. I have real issues achieving a clean desk but also trying to figure out some real (short-term and long-term) storage solutions at school.

Counter! I've done this multiple times in the past 3 years. I've slipped because I bought my shredder upstairs and it's just not working for me. Now that I moved the futon downstairs, I will move the shredder back where it belongs and I'll do my attic shredding there while watching tv. And I'll clean the counter! We may actually start eating on it

These are great spots! If anyone needs tips for their "spot" post some info and we will all chime in!

My "spot" is going to be my ironing board! I like to keep it set up so I can touch up work clothes if needed (because of my stuffed closet) and it's handy to plop the basket of stuff from the dryer on it when I turn back to close the door. The last few times I had to iron, I had to move stuff to do it.

I have a decent size laundry/sewing room but in the last couple days, working on a home office cleanout(it's going away), I been putting personal stuff in my laundry room until I can determine it's fate and naturally some of it also landed on the ironing board.

I've noticed that there is a growing pile of stuff to mend/iron/alter and I need my board free to do this so today the goal will be too clear up what needs pressing, evaluate the mend/alter stuff and no more piling on the board!

My spot will be my side of the bed(room). I want to get one of those ribbon display boards to put all my love notes. I also have a tendency to stack clothes that i've worn once and can be worn again. Not sure where else to put them...

Ironing done and put away, turned out a couple things could go. Still need to to through the mend pile but lunch and workout first.

Not sure if it will work for you, I personally hated it but.... my exh hung a rack on the wall (like a wooden bar with 4-5 pegs) that he would hang is re-wearables on. I think I hated it because it was always overflowing.

I also wear things more than once (jeans, sweatshirts, even sweaters if they've been worn over something) and I tend to just put them on my hope chest. I don't often have a big pile though.