There's a great technique for retraining yourself to be neat if
   you're normally messy: Pick one surface, say a dresser top. Dig
   in, get everything off of it and clean it. Then, every day, make
   sure you take everything ...off of it before you go to bed. Do
   that for a MONTH. Then, say, the bathroom sink top. Do THAT for
   a month (along with the dresser top). "