I am among those people whose desktop is always full of icons. I surf net alot. And I am in a habit of saving almost all the things on desktop for easy reference. This makes the desktop cluttered with various files and folders. And messed up desktop is like a messed desk, seeing it you will not feel like working. If you are alike me. The following simple trick will surely help you to make your desktop clean, as it helped me.
Right-Click anywhere on your desktop -> Select View -> Uncheck Show desktop icons.
All your desktop icons will get hidden. To get them back simply repeat the steps.