I find that when I clean my room(s), they never really end in a state of "clean" but rather a state of "reduced" clutter. I'm sure everyone goes through the same thing. Big steps towards clean are made as you sort through piles of paper, mounds of clothes, and you start putting these things into boxes, shelves, or drawers where they belong. And then, there are those thing you come across that prompt the question: now what do I do with this? It's something you don't want to throw away, but at the same time, you have no appropriate place to put it. It could be a printout of some interesting or useful information that you're sure you'd want to look at in the future, but you just know that if you file it away right now, you'll never see it again. So what do you do with it? Well, you create a new pile on your desk of "special items" that don't have anywhere else to go, just so they aren't spread over the desk. And that becomes your new pile of mess. Then, the next time I clean my room, I see that same pile, look through it, and see that the dates are from 2001 and realize that I'll never look at them again because they're dated... so I chuck them. Of course, by that time, I have new indispensible items that require a corner of the desk.