Controlling Clutter, Upstairs and Down

Being a family of two working parents and two active kidlets, one of our main jobs in life is keeping clutter under control.  Generally I feel like we do a fairly good job of clutter-busting, mostly due to some simple systems we've put in place.  The simplest of all?  A basket that waits at the bottom of the stairs.  Rather than piling up shoes, books, toys and other random things on the first step, fill up a basket with junk that needs to find its way to the second floor and bring it up once at the end of the night.  After you've unloaded upstairs, do the exact same thing in the morning for items that need to get to the first floor.  So simple, yet totally effective. {There are terrific baskets actually made to fit stairs -- usually called step baskets -- but becuse of our narrow staircase and clumsy boys, we just place a Reisenthal market tote on the floor.}