I completely agree with you Lynn...I would have to call my desk* an organized mess as well - but about 3 days ago, I realized my scanner was non-existant so I made a resolution to clean it off permanently and what I did was:
1) Remove every single thing that was not a computer or piece of computer hardware from my desktop and place it somewhere else (bed, floor, what have you...)
2) I took a deep breath and said "aaaah....clean"
3) Went through each of the items individually and created "priority piles" and decided based on whether I needed to reference a document repeatedly, sometimes, or sporatically. Once that was done, I placed them on specific levels of my stacking file trays (yes, I had those, and they were empty ROFL).
4) I also have a filing cabinet, which I placed all "reference only" documents that never get a second look, but still need to be kept
5) The non-computer items I allow on my desk are only: the stacking file tray, a pad of paper, my password list*, a pencil holder, and a color wheel.
* Because of my desk structure, I have a lot of cubbies (which I am thankful for) and I put all the supporting items (such as books, CDs, printer paper, etc.) in those sections.
**As for organizing of affiliate programs...um, well, I can use a better organization system ROFL - my primary occupation is a web designer so the one thing I have a lot of are passwords, so I developed a password list (PM me if you want a copy - not of the passwords, just the template I use) and I keep
all my passwords on it for later reference.
Hope that can help someone
Teli