The quest for (less) stuff

The past few days, John and I have been rearranging furniture and reorganizing our little apartment (different couch, moved the table, etc.). This means that right now we have a TON of stuff in disarray. As many of my friends know, I am messy. (I'm trying to be better every day, but most days its a losing battle). John is messy, too. To compound this problem, we are both "savers" as opposed to "purgers". We tend to hang onto stuff FOREVER. So we live in a one bedroom apartment and we have probably 4x as much stuff that could comfortably and cleanly fit into our space. Pretty much every weekend recently has been spent trying to purge. We systematically get out some of our boxes of stuff (that we store in my parent's basement- thanks, guys!) and try to eliminate it. We have trash piles, D.I. piles, Ebay piles, put away piles... it's pretty funny to see some of the stuff we have kept. Then, we run out of steam and we are left with *fewer* boxes but boxes of stuff nonetheless. This battle for a simpler, more organized life has led me to have STUFF on the brain. I came across two great posts that kind of touch on consumerism (which is a big part of it all.) C Jane from C Jane Run writes about the vortex of online shopping and the case of "I want" that it gives you. Quimby at Feminist Mormon Housewives writes about her Year of Non-Consumerism. I've also been reading some organizational blogs for ideas...

Mostly, I want to be more mindful of what I buy and bring into my home. I can feel the tide starting to turn... now that our life is in a more normal schedule (no more campaigning) we have been able to really organize and use our small space efficiently. The kitchen, bathroom and bedroom have been completely reorganized. I feel that we will be able to pare down to the essentials soon. I feel like we need to get OUR stuff together before we even think about adding a baby and all of THAT stuff to the mix.

Anyway, long post, but what are your thoughts on conquering clutter and organizing stuff? What's your biggest challenge in staying tidy? (Mine for sure is laundry and papers!)