Including files in php

I seem to be having trouble with including files into my pages. I like to structure my site into folders so that I can keep the root folder relatively clean and only necessary files go in there. For example: \DocRoot\ \folder1\ \folder2\ \folder3\ -- etc -- I've noticed that in order to include a files into pages or call other files, I have to specify the path of the folder in my php.ini include directive. I've tried to specify the path of the file in the include() or require() statement, such as include("..\folder1\includefile.php"); Or just include("\folder1\includefile.php"); but that doesn't seem to help. Is there an easier way to this? Thanks a bunch, Jim