Clutter Queen

I am a Clutter Queen. I inherited the syndrome from my mother, who inherited it from her mother. I remember my mother telling me about a time my grandmother pitched all my mom's stuff out her bedroom window ... usually she was threatening to do the same thing to my overstuffed bedroom.

I do attempt to control the clutter. But I've got that packrat mentality. Someday, I might need that highschool paper I wrote. And sure enough, I'm wanting to get my hands on a paper I wrote for English on Beowulf ... my honors teacher wants thoughts on the art of translation and I read three different translations for that paper. So far I haven't found it-my packrat tendencies have failed me!

This issue comes up today because I'm setting up our school room/office and I have mounds of paper waiting to be filed/shredded. And I don't have enough room on the bookshelf we have in here for our school stuff because I have last semester's stuff still on there. And although I have a HUGE hallway closet I can stuff things into, I can't bear to look inside because then I confront all of my scrapbooking supplies. And pictures I'm not currently using. And the boxes full of stuff I can't classify.

I try to go through stuff at least once a year. School stuff once a semester. Other than that I don't have a good system for conquering the clutter in my house. And that clutter stresses me out. Some of it is the kiddos, and I won't be rid of that til they're older. But the stuff I can control-what should I do? Anyone know of a good system/book? What has worked for you?

Totally disappearing in clutter,

Wulfa