Clutter

A man believed to be in his 60s was found dead early yesterday in a burning Canton rowhouse, where the clutter of personal possessions and debris hampered rescue efforts by city firefighters. Witnesses told of heavy smoke pouring out of the corner rowhouse in the 3000 block of Elliott St., one block south of O'Donnell Square in Southeast Baltimore, about 2 a.m. The smoke was so thick that it set off smoke alarms in neighboring homes, residents said. Arriving firefighters could not get far inside the home because of the clutter.

Somebody has finally said "boo" to the idea that every bathroom needs to be a spa and every kitchen a gourmet palace. That somebody is Dan Ho. A recovering decorating addict -- he'd finish one house and buy another -- Ho believes that we're going about style in the wrong way. "Style can't be bought," Ho says. "Your spirit is your style." On both The Dan Ho Show, which had its debut this month on the Discovery Health Channel, and in his new book, Rescue From Domestic Perfection (Bulfinch, $19.99)

Be like MikeGOV. PARRIS N. Glendening was photographed in helmet and tank on a tour of Aberdeen Proving Ground last month.From this, we must conclude one of three things:1) He doesn't plan to run for president of the United States -- ever.2) He isn't the political science college professor he's cracked up to be.3) His field staff is too young to have heard of Michael Dukakis.Calling Dr. SpockLET'S BE upfront: when it's 2 a.m. and baby's wailing, bringing the little one into mom and dad's bed is the quickest way to restore peace.

Clutter. It fills up our lives and spills out of our kitchen drawers. It arrives at our homes in great stacks of junk mail. It eats up our time as we look for the car keys, the cup measure, the homework assignment, the silk scarf among all the miscellaneous stuff we've collected over the years. Stuff without a proper home. Stuff we never use or might use at some uncertain future time -- if we can put our hands on it or even remember it's there.Americans waste more than 9 million hours each day looking for misplaced or lost items, the National Association of Professional Organizers reports.

There's trouble in Paradise -- a small community on the rim of Catonsville, just off Interstate 695.Plans by Rite Aid Corp. to expand its store in the heart of the small neighborhood have been bitterly opposed by community leaders and Baltimore County politicians who say a larger, 24-hour store will clutter roads and alter the small-town ambience.Some residents talk of picketing or even boycotting the current store, a 7,000-square-foot brick building in the 6400 block of Frederick Road, said Pamela Fetsch, president of the Paradise Community Association.

The on-again, off-again Baltimore County sign bill is on again -- this time in a version that would prohibit most roof signs, pennants, streamers and portable signs and freeze the number of billboards throughout the county.The bill, to be introduced at Monday's County Council meeting and voted on next month, is designed to reduce visual clutter along commercial corridors by limiting the number of signs on businesses and in neighborhoods.The council has struggled for years to amend the sign law but has been unable to agree on changes.

MAYBE IT was the poplin suit I got for Easter 1965 that makes me associate this time of the year with below-ground shopping. The basements of Baltimore's vanished downtown department stores housed what were politely called budget stores, featuring overloaded tables, stuffed racks, cut-rate prices and singing cash registers.Occasionally some copy writer would get carried away, as one did in an ad for the long-gone Bernheimer-Leader budget basement: "Below the street, but above the level."Nobody was fooled.

The Margolis sisters (Kelley and Jamie) from Pikesville High are on the brink of playing each other in another championship match showdown and both girls are horrified by the thought.The score is 1-1 in title matches and they prefer to leave it that way."I hate to play Kelley," said Jamie, a sophomore. "It upsets the whole family."Kelley said, "It's hard for me to accept Jamie as a tennis player and not just a sister. I used to kill her all the time and now she can beat me. It makes me wonder what is wrong with me now but I should just realize that Jamie has become an outstanding player and is so much more focused now than she used to be."

If you look inside the fantasy life of a woman, you will not see her on the cover of a romance novel in the bodice-busting love-grip of Fabio. And you will not see her touring her New York City pied de terre or her Aspen retreat with Robin Leach.No. Steal a glimpse into a woman's favorite daydream and you will see her as she truly wants to be: off work for a month, husband and kids mysteriously gone, and moving from room to room in her house "getting organized."There is a Salvation Army truck out front, tomorrow is bulk trash pick-up day. She gives away and she throws away.

The South Carroll bandwagon gained more momentum last night, rolling past four-time defending Central Maryland Conference champion Linganore, 69-52, for the Cavs' 15th straight victory.The Cavaliers (15-1, 7-0 in the CMC) played textbook basketball almost the entire game and the win was secured with a little more than two minutes left when Amber Clutter hit two free throws for a 62-48 lead at South Carroll.That was the signal for South Carroll coach Al Skierski to clear his bench in the final minutes and allow his reserves to play against a team that had dominated the Cavaliers the past couple seasons.

The pictures in the newly painted hallway of the Robert C. Marshall Recreation Center on Pennsylvania Avenue tell the sad "before" - clutter, broken computers, old TVs, dirty floors, an old stove. Coming Thursday : Efforts by a West Baltimore community to reopen a closed PAL Center are met with continued delays and bureaucracy.

Small-business owners face a daunting task of breaking through today's nonstop advertising clutter to reach buyers. Don't give up. There are ways to win the small-business advertising game. "For the average business owner, creating and placing an ad is like learning a foreign language," says marketing consultant Andrew Griffiths. "Advertising does work, and the more time and energy you put into your advertising, the greater your results will be." Time, energy and creative thinking are key. You can find low-cost options in almost every advertising category.

University of Baltimore and Maryland Institute College of Art officials are focusing attention and money on the areas adjacent to Baltimore's Penn Station with a goal of wresting a more attractive and recognizable neighborhood from parking lots and random, underused spaces. They have identified a spine along Mount Royal Avenue, from North Avenue to Calvert Street, as a unifying corridor the two educational institutions can enhance. They are thinking beyond trees and new curbs to apartments and shops, a joint student-community recreation center and, in their distant dreams, a soccer field above the Jones Falls Expressway.

The economic downturn is putting a new twist on spring cleaning. Tamme Wisinski discovered how much unnecessary stuff she had amassed after losing her job in January. Looking to raise some money, the 36-year-old Chicagoan began going through her closets, discovering clothes and books and jewelry that she says she "went nuts purchasing" before she found out that her company was shutting down. She is selling the goods online at Craigslist, marking her first foray into the secondhand marketplace.

For Stephany Smith Gonser, being organized has been a way of life ever since she was a kid, and she has the proof to back it up. "We have home movies of me at Christmas folding wrapping paper as we opened gifts," Gonser said. Because she grew up in a cluttered household, Gonser said she developed the habit of putting things in their place early on. What started as a means to keep her things organized eventually turned into a business. Ten years ago, she founded Work Simplified in Modesto, Calif.

Trying to get a handle on the clutter in your home? Before you go out and spend a bundle on storage containers and organizational paraphernalia, take a look around. You may be able to make that clutter do double duty. Real Simple magazine offers some ways to organize your home using stuff you already have: Use your coat rack as a jewelry organizer. An unused coat rack is a perfect way to organize and display necklaces, while adding a hint of color to the room. Use a tissue box to store plastic shopping bags.

Amid the stately elegance of Mount Vernon's tree-covered squares and rows of city mansions, the home of Maureen and Louis Van Dyck, an 1854 Federal-style rowhouse, stands out for what it has on top: an outdoor living area with ipe wood decking and a stainless-steel lined pool. What's on the bottom is even more tempting for city dwellers: a spacious two-car garage. The modern yet vintage interior of the home is the beautiful bonus. "It's a very cutting-edge house and we've kind of continued that tradition," says Maureen, who worked closely with an architect to renovate the space, which once housed a dentist's office.

A man believed to be in his 60s was found dead early yesterday in a burning Canton rowhouse, where the clutter of personal possessions and debris hampered rescue efforts by city firefighters. Witnesses told of heavy smoke pouring out of the corner rowhouse in the 3000 block of Elliott St., one block south of O'Donnell Square in Southeast Baltimore, about 2 a.m. The smoke was so thick that it set off smoke alarms in neighboring homes, residents said. Arriving firefighters could not get far inside the home because of the clutter.

Somebody has finally said "boo" to the idea that every bathroom needs to be a spa and every kitchen a gourmet palace. That somebody is Dan Ho. A recovering decorating addict -- he'd finish one house and buy another -- Ho believes that we're going about style in the wrong way. "Style can't be bought," Ho says. "Your spirit is your style." On both The Dan Ho Show, which had its debut this month on the Discovery Health Channel, and in his new book, Rescue From Domestic Perfection (Bulfinch, $19.99)

Peter Walsh is the charming Australian organizational guru behind TLC's Clean Sweep. He's also a no-nonsense taskmaster when it comes to detaching you from your clutter. Don't tell him you'll need it some day. Don't tell him your Great Aunt Tillie left it to you. If it doesn't have a place in the life you dream of for yourself -- and he has everyone define that vision before he'll hand them a single Hefty bag -- it has no place in your life today. Because it's not about the stuff, as Walsh puts it in his new book, It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life With Less Stuff.