Hearing the word “organize” may conjure up images of color-coded files and sock drawers, but you don’t have to run to Ikea or The Container Store every time you want to simplify your life. Sometimes those things can actually lead to even more clutter! Here are a few things that could certainly benefit from being streamlined.

1. Facebook

Spring cleaning doesn’t just apply to closets and cabinets, you can also clean virtual house by going through your Facebook account and weeding out people you don’t talk to anymore. Sure, it was nice of you to accept Suzy, who you haven’t seen since elementary school, but if she’s never said hi and was just requesting to creep your photos, then give her the boot. She came, she stalked and she’s deleted.

2. Thoughts

You’re a busy gal, life throws a lot at you and even when it doesn’t you tend to find a way to take on more. Don’t let your thoughts on life get away from you though; take some time to record what you’re thinking. Whether you write it out in a journal or Word doc or get all Woodward and Bernstein with a tape recorder, you may be amazed with what you find when you let your train of thought run right off the track. After all, you’re going to want to refer to your notes when it comes time to write your best selling memoir.

3. Your Computer

Start with your desktop (not your physical desktop, although you may need to start there, if you can’t even find your computer). Get rid of any unused icons or randomly downloaded files. That picture of your niece you’ve been using as your background will look a lot cuter when she no longer has an AOL icon as her nose. Then dive into your folders. Separate pictures by dates or events and give file names to anything that was randomly assigned a number. Unless your brain is on Number Lock there’s no way that system’s working for you. If you’re feeling particularly perky why not prune your iTunes and get rid of any half-tracks or low-quality recordings you may have downloaded from Limewire… accidentally of course.

4. Gifts from Exes

This one’s simple: get rid of it! Check out Greg Behrendt and Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt’s “It’s Called a Break-up Because it’s Broken,” the fabulous follow-up to “He’s Just Not that into You,” if you’re looking for motivation and/or inspiration. The Behrendts’ hysterical anecdotes, combined with surprisingly solid advice, will have you putting the whole mess behind you and putting all of those parting gifts on eBay. Then you can go ahead and buy yourself something fabulous with the profits.

5. Car Compartments

No one likes to hear the dreaded woop-woop of a squad car’s siren signaling you to pull over, but why not be ready for it when it happens? Clean out your center console or glove compartment and make your registration, insurance card and any other potentially important documents accessible. Be sure to have your car’s user manual in there too in case you have engine trouble or get a flat tire. It’s easy to get flustered in any of these situations, so why add to the frustration by having to dig through napkins and ketchup packets of road trips gone by?

6. Accessories

This one may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Take pictures of all of your shoes, handbags, hats, belts, jewelry – any item that gets put in a box or drawer and forgotten about – and store them on a flash drive. Divide the folders on your drive by item type (you can do subfolders by season or color if you really want to get crazy) and then make the title indicative of where it’s stored (i.e. BrownBoxGoldWriting) Now when you want to pack or accessorize an outfit you know exactly what you have without digging through all of those boxes!

7. Phone Contacts

When switching from one phone to another your contacts can get seriously scrambled. Go through and merge multiple numbers for the same contact or delete numbers that are out of date. Even if you think your sim card is perfectly formatted, why not add groups for take-out and delivery places or work contacts? This will narrow things down and can eliminate awkward mis-dials. Lisaaaaa – what’s uuuuup? I’m at the concert – where are you? Lisa? Lisa…? Oh, hi Mrs. Jones, I’m so sorry… No, no, I’ll just see you at the office on Monday… Yeah, maybe you move this to the top of your to-do list.

8. Greeting Cards

Having a supply of birthday and holiday cards on hand comes in handy more than you might think. Rather than keeping them in a drawer somewhere where they’re liable to get creased and crinkled–how embarrassing–why not pick up a greeting card organizer? Take a rainy Sunday to stock up on cards for a variety of occasions and then organize them by month or by occasion and you’ll be able to quickly grab a card expressing just the right sentiment when the need arises.

9. Valuables

Simply having insurance isn’t enough to cover your valuables. No claim adjuster is going to care about Grandma’s fur if you can’t prove the pristine condition it was in, so it’s important to document any items you would want replaced in case of a robbery, flood, fire or other extenuating circumstances. Check out websites like Insure.com to familiarize yourself with how these things work and then check with your insurance company for more details as they relate to your specific policy and needs.

10. E-mails

Go beyond the standard folders within one e-mail account and create an entire e-mail account just for junk mail. You shouldn’t miss out on the opportunity to get extra coupons or free samples just because you’re trying to keep a tidy e-mail account, but you also shouldn’t let important e-mails fall through the cracks because you just had to join every sample sale website known to [wo]man kind. Compartmentalize and sift through the slush when you have some downtime instead.

Written by Kimberly Coughlin for Moxy Magazine, April 2011. Image courtesy of Flickr.com user Alborzshawn.