Many of us have computer desktops that are more cluttered than our bedrooms or our offices. We save files, downloaded applications, temporary icons, PDFs, and games to our desktop. Whenever we don’t know where to put something or don’t care where it goes, this item inevitably ends up on the computer’s home screen and begins to collect dust. In fact, many of us have desktops that are large enough and crowded enough that they require practically require additional storage from Digital Realty Trust and other data solutions simply to function properly.

How can we effectively keep are desktop clean? Here are six methods you may want to consider:

-First, you can always use a specified desktop-cleaning program:

1. Deskcretery. This free application can be run manually or automatically whenever your desktop starts getting too cluttered. It goes through all the items on the desktop and creates archived (and searchable) databases that stay out of your way yet are easy to access. The program allows users to exclude key files from the archive process. The result? Your desktop includes only excluded files and one Deskcretery archive folder.

2. Clean Desktop. This app, created for Vista and Windows 7, looks for desktop items that have not been used in the previous month. It then provides the user a list of these items with the options of deleting them, cleaning them, or restoring them.

3. Zum. A highly-reviewed application launcher, Zum can create a database of your videos, games, web browser, and much more. For our purposes, however, it is especially useful for its ability to move items from your desktop to its database. This insures that your desktop is cleaner and that, in the future, your applications remain more organized.

-But if you don’t want to go through the effort of downloading new software, here are a few other tips and tricks for insuring that your desktop stays clean:

4. Create a junk folder. You can create your own version of Deskcretery by putting a generic folder on your desktop that can contain anything you don’t want openly displayed. Title this folder “Desktop II” or “Other Items” or something of that nature, and then drag any icon to it when you’re looking to cut down on clutter.

5. Take advantage of useful gadgets and widgets. Many of us have gadgets on our desktops that display the weather, the news, or a snippet view of our email. Such gadgets, when useful, keep us from neglecting our desktops by forcing us to regularly return to the screen. When we do, we are more likely to clean up the desktop on a routine basis.

6. Make your background exciting. On a similar note, using interesting, exciting, and rotating desktop background pictures can compel you to return to the desktop on a consistent basis. On doing so you will hopefully tidy things up in the process.

These are six of the best ways through which you can make a concerted effort to keep your desktop clean. While a cluttered desktop certainly isn’t the end of the world, our computing experience can ultimately be a more organized and more appealing one when our home screen can be kept under control.