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Gone are the days when all you needed to enjoy a video game was a joystick, a console and an affinity for Mario and Luigi's adventures.

As the gaming industry seeks to broaden its appeal, playing a game may mean picking up a guitar, laying down a dance mat or juggling a bunch of specialized controllers.

Many of the hottest games unveiled at last month's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Santa Monica, Calif., come with bulky accessories.

Containing these gadgets in one tidy corner may be tougher than battling the zombies of Resident Evil.

"We had a dedicated Nintendo area, but the kids grew out of it really fast," says Cherri Hurst, a Toronto-based professional organizer and mother of three sons, ages 15, 23 and 25.Now she's got a plastic guitar stuffed in one corner, controllers for the Nintendo Wii in a cupboard, plus assorted old and new consoles, games, memory packs and power cords stashed around the house.

Electronic clutter of all sorts is the second most common reason people hire her as an organizer, after paper clutter, says Laurene Livesey Park, another professional organizer and the mother of two gaming teenagers.

The proliferation of gadgets will continue, experts say, as game makers follow in the lucrative steps of games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero, the wildly popular guitar-playing simulation game that helped propel publisher Activision's sales to $1.5-billion (U.S.) in the most recent fiscal year. Those breakout hits have set a new standard for games whose appeal lies in their physical presence as much as their onscreen action.

Last year, gaming accessory sales rose 19 per cent, according to market research company NPD Group, while hardware sales jumped 43 per cent and software sales increased 6 per cent. MTV and Electronic Arts are coming out later this year with Rock Band, which boasts guitars, a drum kit and a microphone.

Nintendo has announced plans for a Wii "balance board," a device about the size of a scale upon which users can stand, hop and lunge to play active games. Dan Birlew, a Las Vegas-based gaming expert and author of You and Wii: Everything You Need to Know , says he expects Nintendo to continue rolling out new Wii wireless controllers and accessories.

Building fun accessories into games is smart business, says Mr. Birlew, himself the owner of a Dance Dance Revolution dance mat that falls out every time he opens his entertainment cabinet. Hardcore gamers have always collected specialized controllers such as light guns and steering wheels. Now the big gaming companies are discovering that accessories are a way to attract more casual gamers using a lucrative business model - accessories cost little to produce, Mr. Birlew notes, but can add $20 or more to a game's price.

"You can invite people over and play," he says. "It's not something that requires a lot of expertise or explanation."

You may, however, have to explain to your non-gamer friends why your home is strewn with plastic accessories.

Ms. Hurst highly recommends cabinets with doors. She says the most important thing is sorting like with like (so PlayStation controllers don't get mixed up with Wii stuff) and finding a space for everything. Ms. Park swears by large baskets on open shelves. Bookshelves, cleared of pesky books, make great storage for games and accessories as well.

"If it's easy, it's more likely to be put back properly," Ms. Park says. To solve the problem of wires proliferating through her house, she runs power cords through lidded baskets with two holes punched in the bottom - one end plugs into the power source, the other end goes to the controller, and the jumble of extra power cord stays in the basket.

Stuffing everything in your kids' rooms is one solution, but many parents hesitate to allow unfettered or unsupervised access to video games.

"It really has been a negotiating point for us," Ms. Park says. Her 13-year-old son keeps one gaming system in his room, with the caveat that he must let his sister in whenever she wants to play.

Video game gadgets are not designed with home decor in mind, the organizers note. The more stylish accessories may be bright purple or emblazoned with orange flames. "They're made to appeal to teenage boys," Ms. Park says.

To that key demographic, video game clutter is not a decor problem - it's a solution.

"I've got a billion wires going through my house, it's disgusting," 19-year-old Jordan Kennington says, with more pride than shame. Mr. Kennington says he understands why video game accessories sell so well at the Toronto-area Gamerama store where he works.

"You can interact more with the game. It brings you more out of reality and into the escape," Mr. Kennington says. He cleared room for consoles and controllers in his bedroom by getting rid of his bookshelves and dressers.

"I'm fine with it," he says. "Between my computer and my gaming systems, that is my room."