File my piles! Or as farrarmay there are piles of files!! Goodness, can I relate!

My recycle bins are next to the back door. It makes it easy to file the unwanted junk mail before it gets into the house. When the paper recycle bin is full, it gets shredded and added to my compost pile.

I sort the mail and open it, toss/recycle the junk and envelopes. Pile the papers until the weekend, pay the bills and then file or shred as needed.

piler then filer....

I do both. I pile and pile and pile until I realize it takes me forever to find what I need then I file

My system is similar...cubbies with removable trays. I' m a piler, and the cubbies organize my piles!

fgivelis - I use the Paper Karma app on my iPhone. It's very easy. You just take a photo of your junk mail & they take care of contacting the sender.

Briliant. Will try this.....Thank you.

I used the dmachoice.org to stop all those catalogs coming the mail. It stopped for about a year or so and now they are back again. I guess, it needs to be redone every year or so...a bit of hassle

My husband has every paycheck & Income Tax form he has ever gotten (he is 72). It has been a challenge. We have a two drawer filing cabinet in his Study. I manage to keep them in order along with all the other "stuff" he keeps (yes, I know hoarder) and keep it filed. On top of cabinet I keep two boxes for things he needs to get his hands on NOW!! On his computer desk is another issue. Being a minimalist married to a hoarder has its challenges, but only his Study is he allowed to keep all his stuff. The rest is open and clutter free!!

Both. By nature I am a piler, but I also hate clutter, so I am trying to become a filer. At work, I pile paperwork on my desk (neatly) until it's resolved, then every few days I file.

At home, about a year ago, I got tired of the piles of paperwork so I went to the Container Store and got a label maker, file folders and portable file boxes. I tried to start a system in which everything gets filed straight away. Unfortunately, husband (retired) is the one who opens mail and piles it, and I can't get him to follow the system. So I am stuck every few months trying to go thru the piles and file everything, only to have new piles pop up the next day.

I'm actually both! I do have piles that eventually get filed. : )

I love this! I always pile until I can get around to filing. This would eliminate me having to look at things twice!

The freestanding storage unit for us pilers that revolutionized my husband's and my piling nightmare is the Birch Elfa decor freestanding island (unit) from the Container Store. You basically can have as few or as many drawers as you want and can add on to the unit later as well. It is a very elegant looking piece, there are several wood finishes, and you go in and design the unit and the number of pull out baskets that you want. They have catalogs there. My husband and I are about to get another one for our basement for our piles that we don't sort through as often.

While the system above looks wonderful, they would get to overflowing at my house. I stop at the recycling bin on the way from the mail box, it never gets to the house. But other paperwork, periodicals, things to read later (I rarely do) is in piles. I detest it!

I multi task and have to make split second decisions.... well, not nearly as much any more - but that's how it was for years; so nothing gets put away. I am telling on myself now in an effort to move forward from this disturbing habit which is no longer working for me, nor really appropriate for my lifestyle today. So I currently pile & want to move into file. The wall is delightful and will definitely incorporate in my redesign of my office/studio. (River Drive home above).

I'm a filer, husband is a piler......but my habit is lists...lists after lists that get put into piles then I forget the list of what I need to do at the bottom of that pile.:)

I am both. Professionally, as an administrative manager in the years when you actually had files full of paper, I was meticulously detailed and filed correctly in a timely manner. At home I still have files of decorating ideas I cut out of magazines in 1989, files of quotes, stories, poetry and my own writings, and my financial files are in order and up to date. . . well, almost.

Last year we moved 1200 miles away and before we left, I sat many evenings going through all those old files and THREW AWAY THOUSANDS OF PIECES OF PAPER. It was one of the most freeing things I've ever done. So now I have two 4-drawer filing cabinets that are only partially full. The thing is. . . I LOVE cutting out articles, pictures, stories, quotes, decoupage possibilities, craft ideas, scrapbook material, sewing inspirations, gardening ideas. . .well, you get the picture. So now, I just need to get to that pile of "stuff" on my desk, the coffee table, and . . . by for now - gotta' get busy.

NeatReceipts. Scan and discard. We're not 'quite' paperless, but pretty doggone close.

I'm a bit of both. I love to organize, but I don't like keeping things organized. I pile, but it drives me nuts, so I file within a few days.

Scan, shred and file what's left....best inventions: scanner and shredder. Wish they would make a machine that does all three!

Definitely a piler! Especially when working on a new project, lots of paper as the ideas flow. One thought leads to another until something takes focus then the bad stuff goes in the "round file" and I whittle down the pile until just the necessities remain.

I am a bit of both. Depends on my mood and what I'm doing!

I pile my files. :)

I have themed piles... Bills go in that stack, gardening notes go over there, catalogs/ periodicals I might find interesting if I ever find 5 minutes to thumb through sit here. Drives my husband mad.

I do file stuff periodically, like every 6 months when the piles get out of hand, but mostly I feel like I need the visual reminders these papers give me. I can't always deal with a bill or call up about an account immediately, but if I put the invoice away I'm likely to forget about it.

My biggest problem with paper has cropped up since moving to the suburbs. Each week I receive (and throw out) about 2" worth of glossy circulars stuffed into pennysaver-type newsprint. I've learned that they never contain anything that interests me so I don't even bother looking before tossing in the bin. But the worst thing is I'm not sure that kind of glossy paper is actually recycled locally!

At work, I am a filer, but at home I have small to medium baskets and bowls all over my house that I pile things into, then once a month or so I go through them and try to sort everything out

My daughter and grandsons moved in. Now I have Piles on my Files. :) We are working on it.

Kind of a mix of both. I have organized piles.

I do both...

First I pile.

Then several weeks later

I go through my pile. Toss half of what I piled

Then file what I truly want. I find this

Is the most effective way to keep my

Files under controll.

Pile initially then file if it still seems important after a week or two

Pile, then file. By the time I get around to my semi-monthly filing - a lot of the things in the "piled pile" are ready for the recycling pile! yeah!

• @ Mary Bolts...and all the other pilers: How many piles can a piler file if a piler would file piles?

Both, I pile, then file

I was a piler until I bought file boxes and turned my files sideways in my bottom right hand desk drawer. So easy to file all my monthly bills and tax deductions! The drawer also has room for two 3 ring notebooks, one has 3 Bank's info in it and one has all of our investments in it. My husbands and my health/medical folders are sitting on the top right hand corner of my desk. All other things that I pay only once or twice a year,,, like auto & home insurance goes in a filing cabinet. So my only other pile on my desk is the weekly "to do" pile. I know most people are now keeping all of their paper piles in their computer, but I still need to have hard copies,,,, just in case my computer dies or the internet dies.

I am also a piler then filer..everything gets stacked on my desk..then I pay..toss, file what I need. and shred. I have folders for tax things, auto, monthly (these I save for a year then go thru and compare utility bills year before just for curiousity then toss. Have a 4 drawer thing for stuff I don't need often but still need to find. under my computer desk (which is a door made into a desk) I have a plastic drawer container that has computer paper, envelopes etc stuff that hubby needs to find. So most of my stuff is filed. I hate the junk mail also. thanks for some address and apps to get rid of them! My hubby is retired and I told him just open mail if it is junk toss it, bills put on my desk (never happens)

Ideally a filer but mostly a piler...always have stacks in transition, which eventually get filed. But! My newest direction is filing digitally. As new things come in, I am scanning them into computer files and then also keeping those files in Dropbox. Even though it may even out time-wise (piling/filing vs piling/scanning) I have the added liberation of being able to shred the actual papers and remove them from my house. Yay!

I have a basket that I pile in, and file everything in there every couple of weeks. I hate clutter, so at least my pile is hidden until I can file it. :)

Piling first, then filing later-sometimes quite a bit later. I too keep the pile out of sight. However, throwing away seems the most effective decluttering method. After all, there is only so much room.

I am a horizontal organizer. When I am working on projects, I need to see everything laid out. When I'm finished, things are stacked and put away.

I once had a client couple who had perpendicular organizational approaches. She put her considerable battery of kitchen tools in easily accessible vertically stacked cabinets while hubby took over every horizontal surface in the house, neatly organizing every document and receipt into adjacent stacks. That's fine if you're like starca01 who has an end in mind but can be extremely challenging if it's an habitual indulgence.

catalogchoice.org It's not just for catalogs, but for any mail you no longer wish to receive. You simply register with the site and then start listing organization you do not want to receive mail from. It seems to work.

I am a filer; my husband is a piler. After more than two decades of marriage, I can say it doesn't mix well, and I have adapted by lowering my standards and piling some myself. :(

PhD in piled higher and deeper at home and formerly at work. Working at newspapers I often had a stack of stuff (agendas, press releases, notes, etc) 18" high in a letter tray, so while I was waiting for call backs on some stories I could get started on others. But if I was asked to retrieve an agenda or anything else, I had an uncanny ability to reach into my stack and quickly find it.

I like to be a filer, but end up being a piler....because I will eventually get to filing it...or so I hope.

Life-long filer here but try to be as paperless as possible. My desks (work and home) only have piles of active, in-progress papers. Everything else is either on the computer or in clearly labeled files in drawers. Hubby prefers to leave paper anywhere and everywhere, and he has no idea where to find anything. I have lowered my expectations and learned to choose my battles, but I don't think I'll ever adapt to his way. After all, someone has to know where to find the jury duty summons and all the tax documents!

piler it my filing system

I file medical bills, property tax, IRA contributions etc i.e. stuff needed for tax return, by year. Utility bills or credit card statements are online, so no paper bills to file. My husband is a minimalist and neat freak. Something's gotta be piled before we decide to file or throw away.

The greatest advice I received from my mother was "Once you read it, if feasible, get rid of it". I hate clutter, and paper work is clutter-it hurts my eyes-and get in the way of my space. Thanks to junk mail I recycle everyday.

تستنشقها

Pile. Into the "to be filed" basket. Unless I remember that I will need it for taxes. If so, it goes into the current year's tax file. That being said, the first day of doing taxes usually consists of sorting through the basket to find the things that didn't make it to the tax file. Sometimes everything gets filed at tax time, and sometimes the basket sits for another year. LOL