The disorder in America's homes and offices produces enough stress and shame to sustain a whole industry of organizers.

And that industry is growing: the National Association of Professional Organizers has doubled to 4,000 members since 2003, says the group's president says Barry Izsak.

"Organization is about creating a simple system that works," he says. "Being organized is not about looking pretty."

While the merits of organizing have come under attack, the professionals stand by their craft. (The book "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder," which argues the time and money spent organizing are better spent on other tasks, has grabbed headlines since coming out earlier this month.)

Here are some tips for the messy office worker, from the pros.

STYLE YOUR PILES

The organizationally challenged may let papers pile up in disarray on desktops, but piles aren't inherently a sign of chaos. Visually inclined workers rely on piles of papers to provide clues that trigger ideas and productivity, says professional organizer Stephanie Winston.

These are people for whom "juxtaposition and serendipity lead you to a certain kind of creative imagination," she says.

But if you pile, pile with style. Pendaflex produces a line of products to organize piles, including document clips with attached labels that claim to speed your search for that buried document. They sell for about $3 for a pack of 12. Each can hold 20 sheets of paper, and is color coded.

Pile devotees should put that day's work in a "hot" pile, which they clear out before the day is done. And resist the urge to start a "miscellaneous" pile; you'll just be stacking with no structure.

CHAOS THEORY

How does clutter form? According to Winston, it's poor decision-making. Every paper that lands on your desk, and every e-mail you receive, needs a decision: trash it, refer it, act on it, or file it.

Winston calls it her TRAF system, and she's even written a book about it.

"There are only four decisions to make," she says.

Referring papers to colleagues and bosses needn't take up much time. Start a folder or pile for each person on your team. Once a week, or more often, whip out the folder and use it to start a discussion. Hand over the papers, and be rid of the clutter.

Scared to throw out papers for fear your boss will come hounding you for them? Give each paper an obsolescence date by when it will certainly have no value. When you come across that file later, toss it.

BREATHING ROOM

The computer age has caused one big organizational casualty, according to Izsak: many people no longer have work spaces on their desks.

"Their computer is in the middle of their desks," he says. "They have stuff all around them, and they don't have room to spread out and work on a project when they need to." One of the first things he tells clients is to move the PC, or to create a second space that's clear of everything. He recommends a three-foot wide space to work. Many, he says, "have nowhere to move, nowhere to breathe."

TAME YOUR TECHNOLOGY

Much of the struggle against clutter has moved to the computer desktop. The problem, says Izsak, is that "most people use programs to 10 percent of their capacity."

Luckily, organizing virtual documents can be much less taxing than paper. Search folders can relieve much of the burden of organizing e-mail, for those who use Microsoft Outlook. They can be set up to show all e-mails from certain people, sent to certain people, or those that include keywords you specify. They dynamically update when new messages come in, so manual filing into folders become unnecessary. Outlook messages can also be flagged so key messages don't get lost in the list.

Even unalterably messy inboxes can be tamed, using search. The LookOut toolbar searches through Outlook contacts and messages in an instant. Bulkier desktop searches are also available from Microsoft and Google. Desktops can also get cluttered with Web windows. Use tabbed browsing to keep your Web surfing on a single window. It's available on the latest version of Internet Explorer, and also the Firefox browser.

asap contributor Daniel Sorid is a business reporter for the AP in New York.

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