Congratulations to Randall Koll, a designer, and Casey Ellis, a writer, for taking a realistic approach to the biggest headache of any theoretically neat person: how to live an actual life in a home without a) driving you and your family/friends/others crazy because you have developed the personal skills of a drill sergeant; or b) consigning yourself to the persistent mess that wants to pile up in every corner of your house, and one day eat you while you sleep.

Koll and Ellis treat the reader as a friend who's tried, really tried, to keep things in good order and ends up losing the daily to-do list in yet another morass of stuff.

As they write in the introduction of "The Organized Home" (Quarry Books, $24.99), their book is no sermon "that clutter control is simply a matter of hardening your heart and throwing away."

If you insist on a glass figurine collection, no one's — cough — telling you to get rid of it, but they will show you how to display your objects so they draw attention and not dust.

"The Organized Home" recognizes what most of us feel about all the objects and furniture pieces we hold near and dear: They're part of our memories and make plain rooms into spaces for living. But why do I have to keep tripping over your shoes, dear?

Working room by room, from entryway to office, with form and function in close partnership, Koll and Ellis walk through an extensive practical menu of options for hanging, sorting, piling and otherwise secreting.

Each section comes with a host of genuinely useful tips, such as aligning your organizing with other household rituals like spring cleaning. Seriously.

Over several sections, the message can become repetitive, although it's refreshing to see them pay homage to the joy of tending bar, or follow their advice to test drive social rooms for gatherings, or easily change color palates for the seasons.

There's also considerable room given to the subject of kids and clutter ("Taming Children's Rooms"). This is the war which, frankly, everyone knows you have to lose, so you might as well make it colorful (the message here: Containers are good).

If the book had to be summed up in a single word, it would be drawers. Lots of them. OK, shelves, too. Put the two together and you have the essential secret of their approach.

It would be helpful to see how the rules created here might apply in cramped or unlikely spaces. Such a straightforward book shouldn't plant us only in the land of well-appointed living rooms and hallways and not help out with challenges like that skinny closet, the unfortunate bedroom or three people sharing one bath.

In other words, anyone can get uncluttered with a maid. Short of one, though, consider this good help.