How To Better Organise Piles Of Paperwork

Some people manage their files by piling them, rather than using file cabinets. It might look messy to conventional filers, but stacks of paper can be very functional. Here’s how.

Photo by Liz

Debbie Bowie, a feng shui practitioner and certified personal organiser, writes that people who prefer to pile their paperwork (“horizontal filers”) do that because they prefer to have all their papers in plain sight.

If you’re one of those people, she suggestions you can make more functional piles by:

  • Giving each pile one identity (e.g., bills to pay)
  • Not mixing categories within a pile (e.g., in your insurance pile, keeping real estate papers)
  • Making the piles neat with the pages going in the same direction—no diagonally placed papers ( “neat piles have a more positive energy than disheveled stacks of paper”).

An important tip she offers is to separate the papers you need to act on and keep those action piles close to you.

These are all pretty basic tips, but it’s easy for paper piles to get quickly disorganised and disheveled. This, at least, is a plan to make those piles more functional.

Are you a neat and organised paper piler? Or is it time to upgrade your piles of paperwork?

Paper Piles: Functional or Dysfunctional? [Rock Scissors Paper Institute]


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