<snip>I do have 30 icons on my desktop. Shortcuts are a good thing.
Yup. This was the case for me 4 or 5 years back. Then one day I sat and worked out how to de-clutter my desktop.
A few shortcuts are on dektop.
A few constantly running apps are on tray.
A few shortcuts are on taskbar.
And finally some are on start menu.
So thats how I de-cluttered and this has been maintained by me for years.