Webpage and Blog Clutter

How do you know when you go too far in trying to present a useful but pleasant site? This is a question that has been asked over and over again by just about anyone who tries to build a Website or Blog.

There are a lot of options in choosing templates, just about every service offers them. You can get them for free or for a price, but they are mostly bland when you start out. Sure there are a lot of colors and layouts you can use, but what do you do after the initial setup?

Once you have made a decision on the basics, you have to start concentrating on what it is really going to look like. Where to place your information, ads, and the like is important. Another thing is to make sure you don't over do it.

I am the type of person that constantly tweaks. When I come across something new and I think it will benefit my readers or enhance the page, I try to find a way to incorporate it. I hate wasted space, so it seems that I fill every nook and cranny.

I am also a pack rat. If I add something to my page, I hate to "throw it away". If I thought it was useful before, then it must be useful now.

When I go to other sites, I constantly assess the looks. Are the colors right, are the ads placed correctly, is it overpowering? When I find a nice site, I try to incorporate the idea of how things are laid out into my own site. However, when I try to employ the concept, I usually run out of space.

All this is made even more evident because of the template and service I chose to use. Sure, Blogger is free, but that only serves to limit my options in trying to redesign the layout.

I have added so many choices in the sidebar, that I have to look for things, even though I know where they are. So, things that are not useful anymore, or don't seem to fit quite right will be stored away (since I am a pack rat). But they will be taken out of the Sidebar, or any other place that they just take up space.

If you don't notice them missing, then they probably didn't really need to be there in the first place.

Are you the pack rat type, or of the neat-nick persuasion? How do you handle clutter on your site?

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