One desk down, one to go

I work from two desks (doubling the insanity.) One is my home office just off our kitchen, the other is in our bedroom.

Both wind up piled high with bills, junk mail, seed packets, birthday cards, rebate offers, more seed packets, health insurance stuff, tax receipts, DD's "artwork" from school, DS's semester grades (they don't have to be signed and returned, but I *do* have to fax them to our insurance company for a good student discount); newspaper clippings, bits of paper with passwords or phone messages scribbled on them....

Well, you get the picture. It's beyond ugly.

In a cleaning fit this week, I cleared off one desk, sorted out the throw-away stuff (nearly filled a 13-gallon trash bag), sorted out the to-be-filed items versus the to-be-acted-upon items and the desk now looks almost normal.

I will do the same to the other desk today, Lord willing.

But how do I keep it from returning to this messy status quo? I know I should go through the daily mail and pitch the junk mail. But I don't. I know my seeds belong in my seedbox. But sometimes they wind up elsewhere. Sigh.

I am a fairly organized person in other aspects of my lfe: I know what's in my pantry, fridge and freezer at all times - rarely do we run out of milk, toilet paper, soap, lightbulbs or other household necessities. Bills get paid on time (usually!) DD gets to school and practices on time every day. All activities are posted on a family calendar, and I have (somewhat organized) files for seed catalogs and spaces for my reference books (since I refer to them very regularly.)

But my desk(s)......argh. They are my downfall. Anyone else have this frustration? (Or successful tips and hints to counteract the clutter that seems to gravitate towards these surfaces?)