I’ve noticed recently that I’m starting to develop little piles around the house. A pile of books/notebooks/papers/pens where I write at the table. A small pile of papers related to meetings I attend that accumulate on the kitchen counter. Assorted things that piled up over the holidays on one of the desks in my office.

As you probably already know, I’m a Piler to the core, but I was really hoping my piles wouldn’t follow me to the new house. But they evidently did. At least it’s just a few small piles and not a houseful.

So I have to take what I know about working with my Piler tendencies and find ways to tame them.

I need to identify what’s in the piles and then either find homes for them or get a “pile container” of some sort to contain the piles. I know I need to keep my writing-related pile close to the table, because otherwise writing won’t be as apt to happen. It’s a fact of my life that as soon as I put things away in a file cabinet, it’s like the things have vanished from my mind and cease to exist. For my writing stuff, I think I might get a nice basket of a size and shape that will hold things well. It’ll look nice enough to keep in a visible area of the house.

Maybe a little basket for the tiny pile on the kitchen counter, too. The pile on my desk is going to take some serious consideration. Real filing is going to take place with some of those items.

Anyone remember the chapter from my A Simple Choice book where I shared about a friend’s techniques for Pilers and why attempting to become a Filer just doesn’t work? I have a nice file cabinet that someone gave me when I moved. Perfectionism stops me in my tracks …. I have to have the perfect filing system. I actually don’t have to have a perfect filing system, but I’m frozen about getting started with the cabinet. I think I might work on it this week while I have some extra time off (and I’m avoiding the cold weather outside).

I think the Pilers/Filers chapter of the book might be online somewhere. I’ll look and see if I can find it.