A lot of messiness comes from having lots of stuff. As a long-time pack rat who's trying hard to reform, I'd like to tell people about this book, which I found to be brilliant and inspirational: Clear You Clutter with Feng Shui, by Karen Kingston. What I found so helpful about this book was not the Feng Shui part, which you can take or leave (the jury is still out on it, as far as I'm concerned). The best parts are things like this:

"Keeping things 'just in case' is the number one reason that people give for keeping clutter...It indicates a lack of trust in the future....Often it is not just your own future you are concerned about providing for. You may also sincerely want to be able to help others in need. So then you save absolutely everything 'just in case' someone else needs it. This makes it virtually impossible to throw anything away! ...The more you can learn to trust that life will take care of you, the more life will take care of you."

And: "People hold on to their clutter because they are afraid to let it go--afraid of the emotions they may experience in the process of sorting through the stuff, afraid they will make a mistake and later regret getting rid of something, afraid they willleave themselves vulnerable, exposed or at risk in some way. Clutter clearing can bring up a lot of 'stuff' to be faced and dealt with, and intuitively everybody knows it. However, the rewards for clutter clearing are well worth it. Letting go of clutter leaves you free to be you, which is the greatest gift you can ever give yourself."

I know that's not going to resonate with everybody, but it sure as hell helped me, especially when I moved from my too-big house to an apartment by the beach. I still have quite a ways to go...but it feels great already.

Aloha,
Mark