Desktop cluttering was an annoyance until I found the RocketDock by Punk Software. A small nifty customizable toolbar with icons of programs, files, and paths that you use frequently. No more desktop icons and quicklaunch. I have a necessity to open multiple programs at the same time and now they are at a simple click away. You can customize the programs on the bar, the size, the zooming, the background style and position (even in which monitor to display in dual monitors setup).
If you are like me with more than 40 installed programs with 20 of them in constant demand you definitely need to give RocketDock a try http://www.punksoftware.com/