Things are a little chaotic around here. Part of it is the simple fact that I'm not very good at keeping everything in its place. I don't have socks and underwear all over the floor of my bedroom, the way I did when I was a kid. But my whole house is the adult equivalent of a kid's bedroom. Things just end up wherever they happen to be when I'm through with them.

Since my job and whatever you call the rest of my life overlap to such a degree, it's like a double layer of disaster. Let's say you haven't cleaned up from the hurricane yet and an earthquake hits. That's my house. Picture that.

But I'm taking steps, and I give all credit to the Food Network. I've been watching cooking shows nonstop for a week now, and I'm in awe of how those people keep what they need in a place where they can find it.

I'm serious. If they want to use cayenne pepper, they go to the cabinet, get it out, and then when they're through they put it back. They don't have to hunt for it, or look under piles of other spices, or wonder whether of not they've run out. It's a concept I'd like to adapt to everything in my life, if it's not too late.

Some problems arise, of course. Getting uncluttered means throwing things away, which I'm not good at. I've already filled the loft with bits of this and that and whatever. I have no idea what's up there, and I'll never have any use for it, but it's where I put stuff. And there's no more space. How do I make the downstairs neat when I can't toss things upstairs?

But I made a start today. While I was at the office supply store, I bought some file boxes. One of these days (real soon) I'll put these boxes together and gather up the file folders strewn all over the room and find some kind of system to keep them in order. File boxes are great because you can put them in a row and then you have another flat surface to throw things on.

Oh wait. That sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

The idea comes from Rachael's kitchen, which always has a clean surface she can work on, even while she's preparing three dishes at the same time. I'm going to make my kitchen that neat, even though I'll never be able to do more than one thing at a time. I just have to find some place to store all the stuff that's all over my kitchen counters now. It's too bad the cabinets are already full of pots and pans and utensils I don't use.

I think you can see what I'm up against.

The cleanup project should probably take precedence over reorganizing my CDs, although I'm never more than one bored weekend away from diving into that. Maybe once the cleanup gets started I'll come across the insurance file I spent half of last weekend looking for in a state of mild panic. It has to be here somewhere.