One lateral thinking puzzle you can try right now involves nine dots, layed out three by three. You have to connect them all with four straight lines, and without lifting pen or pencil from paper. Figure this one out and you'll appreciate expression "thinking outside of box."

Mind Games For Groups

Some group mind games are especially good for long trips in a car. For example, someone looks out window and randomly chooses an object. Everyone in car then tries to imagine a new way to make money with it. Street signs become places to advertise, trees are sold with names, and a truck becomes a traveling grocery store.

Of course, when you practice "home organization" and "clearing clutter" together you do inevitably get a neater and more organized home. Why? Because you can find your stuff when you need it AND you're not tripping over your stuff. So instead of allowing yourself, or your family, to consistently put your shoes in entryway (where you do know their location), you designate another spot such as a shoe rack in foyer closet. That's blending home organization with clutter clearing techniques. Here are 9 strategies for home organization that also may help you clear clutter in your home:

1) CLUSTER LIKE ITEMS - When you organize an office storage closet at home or work, put different types of paper beside each other on a shelf. And what goes with paper? Envelopes. Put different types of envelopes adjacent to paper. Adjacent to that you might put writing instruments used on paper like pencils and pens. And so forth. Organizing holiday ornaments? Keep bins of Christmas supplies together. Keep bins of Easter decorations together. Then put all of these holiday storage bins in one clustered area in your garage or attic. You can also use cluster mindset for toys and sports equipment.

2) MAKE THINGS CONVENIENT - This simply means put most frequently used items toward front of shelves or on shelves within arms reach or at eye level of user (whether that's you, your spouse or your children). Put infrequently used items in those hard to reach cabinets in corners, cabinets above your refrigerator, in attic, etc. Put shelving or other organizers in convenient places such as put shoe racks, umbrella stands and hanging baskets for gloves in a closet near entryway you use most often.

3) LABEL IT - Invest in an inexpensive label maker. You'll have fun labeling items (e.g. home recorded DVD tapes) or labeling places where items should go so they always get returned to same spot. For example, label specific garage shelf spaces for hand tools or power tools. That way nobody in your family will ever forget where they got an item they're using and they'll know where its exact "home" is.