How to organize?
November 22, 2023 4:36 PM Subscribe
I've always been a very disorganized person. I'm trying very hard to organize my physical and digital belongings right now, but I seem to only manage to move things around pointlessly and create more chaos. I'm not sure how to begin a system of organization when things are everywhere.
I could start one if I could somehow get all my stuff out of the house/off my computer and put things back one by one once a system was in place, but I don't have a second place to store them. People do this all the time. What am I missing here?
I could start one if I could somehow get all my stuff out of the house/off my computer and put things back one by one once a system was in place, but I don't have a second place to store them. People do this all the time. What am I missing here?
This post was deleted for the following reason: --User requested Brandon Blatcher
1. Look at a thing.
2. Figure out where it belongs.
3. Put it there.
4. If you use it in the future, put it back there when you're done.
5. If you don't use it in the future and you could use the space, get rid of it.
Repeat.
You will find that it helps to put similar things together. How you define "similar" is up to you, although there are lots of systems. It is helpful in these cases to have a thing for putting other things into, like a folder for your computer docs or a box for your physical stuff. Putting descriptive labels on these things for putting other things into helps.
posted by adamrice at 5:05 PM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
2. Figure out where it belongs.
3. Put it there.
4. If you use it in the future, put it back there when you're done.
5. If you don't use it in the future and you could use the space, get rid of it.
Repeat.
You will find that it helps to put similar things together. How you define "similar" is up to you, although there are lots of systems. It is helpful in these cases to have a thing for putting other things into, like a folder for your computer docs or a box for your physical stuff. Putting descriptive labels on these things for putting other things into helps.
posted by adamrice at 5:05 PM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
You start with one drawer. Go through the house, gather all the pens and pencils and put them in one drawer/container. Sort them. Label the drawer and sections. Put a sticky note on the fridge “pens are in X”.
Then you sort your t-shirts. Then you sort your takeaway containers, etc. The key is to pick one sub-category of item and focus on just that single thing. Not a whole room or a whole category. You don’t organise your bathroom. You organise your toothbrushes, then your shampoo bottles, then your towels, etc.
This method has worked for me in the past with a declutter and I’m about to do it again as my household has just changed.
That’s another big rule of organising - you don’t do it once. You have a system and then you need to keep doing it again and again. Not with the same giant initial effort, but there is regular upkeep, e.g Wednesday tidy.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:19 PM on November 22, 2023 [13 favorites]
Then you sort your t-shirts. Then you sort your takeaway containers, etc. The key is to pick one sub-category of item and focus on just that single thing. Not a whole room or a whole category. You don’t organise your bathroom. You organise your toothbrushes, then your shampoo bottles, then your towels, etc.
This method has worked for me in the past with a declutter and I’m about to do it again as my household has just changed.
That’s another big rule of organising - you don’t do it once. You have a system and then you need to keep doing it again and again. Not with the same giant initial effort, but there is regular upkeep, e.g Wednesday tidy.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:19 PM on November 22, 2023 [13 favorites]
I find it easiest to start with areas that have discrete purposes, specifically: bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and laundry rooms. The only items that go in those places are things I use in those rooms.
So, as an example, to organize a bathroom:
1. Sort items into categories. If you encounter an expired thing, a thinning towel with holes in it, a broken thing, toss it immediately.
2. After the initial sort, a reassessment. Do I need 7 toothbrushes? Am I *really* gonna use that ziplock of hotel soaps, ever? Pare down, simplify routines, replace items that don't work well with items that do. Anything that definitely does not belong in the bathroom should in an "out" basket. You don't need to decide right then exactly where it goes, just that it doesn't belong in the bathroom.
3. Create frontstock and backstock. Frontstock is easily accessible items used on a daily or weekly basis. Backstock is a clear container with backups for your skin care, toothbrush replacements, etc. When you open a new thing, check your backstock to see if you have any more and add it to your shopping list if not having a backup will be inconvenient.
4. Consider what's missing. For instance, I store the materials I use to clean my bathroom IN my bathroom. I have identical copies of my bathroom cleaning kit (it's small) in each bathroom so I don't have to make any extra effort to clean.
5. Consider moving some things elsewhere. For instance, I found out that medications can be negatively affected by storage in a humid environment so I moved all my prescription drugs to that weird corner cupboard in my kitchen.
Then as you clean other rooms and areas, make a bathroom basket. When you encounter a new tube of toothpaste in a RiteAid bag from 7 months ago in your front closet, toss it in the bathroom basket and return that misplaced item to its rightful room.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 5:21 PM on November 22, 2023 [14 favorites]
So, as an example, to organize a bathroom:
1. Sort items into categories. If you encounter an expired thing, a thinning towel with holes in it, a broken thing, toss it immediately.
2. After the initial sort, a reassessment. Do I need 7 toothbrushes? Am I *really* gonna use that ziplock of hotel soaps, ever? Pare down, simplify routines, replace items that don't work well with items that do. Anything that definitely does not belong in the bathroom should in an "out" basket. You don't need to decide right then exactly where it goes, just that it doesn't belong in the bathroom.
3. Create frontstock and backstock. Frontstock is easily accessible items used on a daily or weekly basis. Backstock is a clear container with backups for your skin care, toothbrush replacements, etc. When you open a new thing, check your backstock to see if you have any more and add it to your shopping list if not having a backup will be inconvenient.
4. Consider what's missing. For instance, I store the materials I use to clean my bathroom IN my bathroom. I have identical copies of my bathroom cleaning kit (it's small) in each bathroom so I don't have to make any extra effort to clean.
5. Consider moving some things elsewhere. For instance, I found out that medications can be negatively affected by storage in a humid environment so I moved all my prescription drugs to that weird corner cupboard in my kitchen.
Then as you clean other rooms and areas, make a bathroom basket. When you encounter a new tube of toothpaste in a RiteAid bag from 7 months ago in your front closet, toss it in the bathroom basket and return that misplaced item to its rightful room.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 5:21 PM on November 22, 2023 [14 favorites]
I find it very helpful to think in terms of "zones". Like, rearranging my room so my dresser is next to my closet, instead of my dresser on one side of my bed and my closet on the other. Then all the clothes are in one "zone" and it makes keeping that space tidy and organized so much easier!
Honestly, I also decided to work with a professional organizer to help me take the best advantage of my small apartment. She's very clever at (1) learning how my life works, and (2) designing how I set up the space, so that it works better for me.
I find organizational systems can be durable, or brittle, and for me it's based on how easy they are for me to keep using even as difficult, new, or unexpected things happen. Brittle systems mean I am constantly having to put a bunch of energy into reorganizing -- "moving the mess around", basically. Durable systems mean I organize once and they help me stay organized -- they kind of do the work for me, in a way.
I'll post an example of a durable system I applied to my email inbox and it's making email -- formerly a pit of stress and chaos for me! -- much more manageable now.
posted by cnidaria at 5:26 PM on November 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
Honestly, I also decided to work with a professional organizer to help me take the best advantage of my small apartment. She's very clever at (1) learning how my life works, and (2) designing how I set up the space, so that it works better for me.
I find organizational systems can be durable, or brittle, and for me it's based on how easy they are for me to keep using even as difficult, new, or unexpected things happen. Brittle systems mean I am constantly having to put a bunch of energy into reorganizing -- "moving the mess around", basically. Durable systems mean I organize once and they help me stay organized -- they kind of do the work for me, in a way.
I'll post an example of a durable system I applied to my email inbox and it's making email -- formerly a pit of stress and chaos for me! -- much more manageable now.
posted by cnidaria at 5:26 PM on November 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
The text in italics below is from the email newsletter Home Organizing with Lisa Holtby. I haven't worked with her, but I do subscribe to her newsletter and I found this one *extremely* helpful! I applied to my email inbox and it's been a huge positive shift for me.
When your home is uncluttered and organized, it feels relaxing and calm. It's easy to find what you're looking for. You don't lose stuff.
The same holds true for your digital life.
For example, keeping an empty inbox streamlines your email experience. Too often, managing email is like living in a swarm of bees: the constant distractions are exhausting. But by decluttering, triaging, and archiving, your email experience will be visually calm and functionally efficient.
To be clear, the goal of getting to inbox zero is not to make yourself work harder, nor to respond to every email. Rather, the goal is to create protections around your time, energy, and focus.
Here's my email inbox and the process that works for me:
If you’ve worked with me, you know we follow the same process in every room that we organize together: declutter, categorize, & store. The process is the same for managing email.
Declutter: Start with the most recent 50 emails in your inbox. Feel free to ignore the rest. (More on the power of archiving later.)
First, delete anything extraneous, unsubscribing as you go. Turn off all notifications. This way, you can visit sites at your convenience rather than being bombarded by their updates.
If you want to remember a website or article or product, bookmark the link instead of keeping the email as your reminder. (You can see that I store bookmarks by category for easy reference: banks, finances, media, etc.)
Categorize: Still addressing only your most recent 50 emails, categorize what remains after you declutter. I recommend categorizing incoming emails not by their subject but by their urgency.
You can see that I categorize by using one of three task-oriented labels: ‘do soon,’ ‘do later,’ and ‘waiting for.’ When I receive an email that’s related to a task, I either handle it right away or drag it into one of the three labeled folders. In this way, I keep my inbox empty and my incoming emails triaged.
Then, when I have time, I work my way through my ‘do soon’ folder. Once I’ve completed a 'do soon' task, I then archive or delete the corresponding email.
Periodically I’ll check my ‘do later’ folder to see if I need to move any of those tasks to the ‘do soon’ folder. My ‘do later’ tasks are not urgent. I may not ever get to all of them because I have more meaningful things to do with my life.
I use the ‘waiting for’ folder to store emails that are not related to a task, but instead to something I’m waiting for: a date to be confirmed, an invoice to be paid, a package to be delivered, a return to be credited, an event to attend. Once the 'waiting for' item is complete, I then archive or delete that email.
(Not only do I label incoming emails 'waiting for,' but also outgoing emails that require a response. After sending an email that requires a response, I go into the ‘sent’ file and label that email ‘waiting for.’ In this way, I don’t have to remember if or when I sent something; my system remembers it for me.)
Store: Archiving emails is like putting items in a cupboard and shutting the door. You can’t see them, but they are still there. I archive any emails that I want to reference again and/or that are completed tasks.
Then, when I want to find an email in the archives, I type keywords into the 'search mail' bar. (For example, ‘Jane Doe’ will bring up all correspondence with Jane Doe. ‘Bike rack’ will bring up all references to bike racks.)
If you have lots (!) of emails in your inbox, try working through the most recent 50 as described above, then archiving the rest. If it makes you nervous not to see all your emails, practice archiving from the most recent 50 and then retrieving them again using keywords. Then consider taking the archive leap.
Alternately, consider a fresh start. Sign up for a free Gmail account, give your new email address only to people and businesses you choose, and then follow the declutter, categorize, & store steps above to maintain a zero inbox.
I added one more label "readings", since I get some non-time-sensitive newsletters that I still want to keep and peruse at my leisure. Otherwise I pretty much am following her system. It's awesome having an empty inbox, with labels (folders) categorized by urgency and need for follow-up that I can sort through all at once when I have the time to do so (rather than needing to interrupt my day to address things immediately or risk forgetting about them).
posted by cnidaria at 5:32 PM on November 22, 2023 [8 favorites]
When your home is uncluttered and organized, it feels relaxing and calm. It's easy to find what you're looking for. You don't lose stuff.
The same holds true for your digital life.
For example, keeping an empty inbox streamlines your email experience. Too often, managing email is like living in a swarm of bees: the constant distractions are exhausting. But by decluttering, triaging, and archiving, your email experience will be visually calm and functionally efficient.
To be clear, the goal of getting to inbox zero is not to make yourself work harder, nor to respond to every email. Rather, the goal is to create protections around your time, energy, and focus.
Here's my email inbox and the process that works for me:
If you’ve worked with me, you know we follow the same process in every room that we organize together: declutter, categorize, & store. The process is the same for managing email.
Declutter: Start with the most recent 50 emails in your inbox. Feel free to ignore the rest. (More on the power of archiving later.)
First, delete anything extraneous, unsubscribing as you go. Turn off all notifications. This way, you can visit sites at your convenience rather than being bombarded by their updates.
If you want to remember a website or article or product, bookmark the link instead of keeping the email as your reminder. (You can see that I store bookmarks by category for easy reference: banks, finances, media, etc.)
Categorize: Still addressing only your most recent 50 emails, categorize what remains after you declutter. I recommend categorizing incoming emails not by their subject but by their urgency.
You can see that I categorize by using one of three task-oriented labels: ‘do soon,’ ‘do later,’ and ‘waiting for.’ When I receive an email that’s related to a task, I either handle it right away or drag it into one of the three labeled folders. In this way, I keep my inbox empty and my incoming emails triaged.
Then, when I have time, I work my way through my ‘do soon’ folder. Once I’ve completed a 'do soon' task, I then archive or delete the corresponding email.
Periodically I’ll check my ‘do later’ folder to see if I need to move any of those tasks to the ‘do soon’ folder. My ‘do later’ tasks are not urgent. I may not ever get to all of them because I have more meaningful things to do with my life.
I use the ‘waiting for’ folder to store emails that are not related to a task, but instead to something I’m waiting for: a date to be confirmed, an invoice to be paid, a package to be delivered, a return to be credited, an event to attend. Once the 'waiting for' item is complete, I then archive or delete that email.
(Not only do I label incoming emails 'waiting for,' but also outgoing emails that require a response. After sending an email that requires a response, I go into the ‘sent’ file and label that email ‘waiting for.’ In this way, I don’t have to remember if or when I sent something; my system remembers it for me.)
Store: Archiving emails is like putting items in a cupboard and shutting the door. You can’t see them, but they are still there. I archive any emails that I want to reference again and/or that are completed tasks.
Then, when I want to find an email in the archives, I type keywords into the 'search mail' bar. (For example, ‘Jane Doe’ will bring up all correspondence with Jane Doe. ‘Bike rack’ will bring up all references to bike racks.)
If you have lots (!) of emails in your inbox, try working through the most recent 50 as described above, then archiving the rest. If it makes you nervous not to see all your emails, practice archiving from the most recent 50 and then retrieving them again using keywords. Then consider taking the archive leap.
Alternately, consider a fresh start. Sign up for a free Gmail account, give your new email address only to people and businesses you choose, and then follow the declutter, categorize, & store steps above to maintain a zero inbox.
I added one more label "readings", since I get some non-time-sensitive newsletters that I still want to keep and peruse at my leisure. Otherwise I pretty much am following her system. It's awesome having an empty inbox, with labels (folders) categorized by urgency and need for follow-up that I can sort through all at once when I have the time to do so (rather than needing to interrupt my day to address things immediately or risk forgetting about them).
posted by cnidaria at 5:32 PM on November 22, 2023 [8 favorites]
It is ok to be not good at a thing, such as organizing. I'm sure you are good at other things. Do you have anyone who you know who is good at organizing who can help in person?
posted by RoadScholar at 5:45 PM on November 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by RoadScholar at 5:45 PM on November 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
This is a common experience in people with undiagnosed/untreated ADHD, and it is extremely difficult to address the organizational challenges without first treating the underlying condition.
posted by cape at 5:56 PM on November 22, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by cape at 5:56 PM on November 22, 2023 [8 favorites]
Clutterbug and How to ADHD are Youtube channels that might be of interest. They recognize that not everyone's brain works the same way and thus different approaches are needed.
posted by oceano at 6:43 PM on November 22, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by oceano at 6:43 PM on November 22, 2023 [6 favorites]
Most people's storage furniture is way too small. Get larger storage furniture. If you have a 3-drawer dresser get one with 6 or 8 drawers instead. If you have a waist-high bookshelf, replace with a ceiling-high one. An Ikea Pax wardrobe with 5 shelves inside (Note - you absolutely MUST reinforce the shelves with large L-brackets) is amazing for storing stuff. It will hold 10 big clear bins with some space in between for smaller items. Get one of those and then you'll actually have enough space to start organizing for real.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:48 PM on November 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:48 PM on November 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
For the digital, I use keepass to keep my passwords and info about services etc. Whenever I sign up for a paid service I make a google calendar reminder a few weeks before renewal (or cancelation) is due.
Indexing everything with Wincatalog is a good first step to organize your digital files. For dealing with email, Thunderbird will let you sort by sender and do mass selection/move/delete easier than most web based mail readers.
For physical things, clear plastic shoeboxes are fantastic for organizing things.
posted by Sophont at 6:48 PM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Indexing everything with Wincatalog is a good first step to organize your digital files. For dealing with email, Thunderbird will let you sort by sender and do mass selection/move/delete easier than most web based mail readers.
For physical things, clear plastic shoeboxes are fantastic for organizing things.
posted by Sophont at 6:48 PM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Here's a quick post I wrote for someone else about theories of organisation.
General guidelines:
- store thing where you would look for them (Dana K White). She was only talking about physical things, but it's also very useful for digital. Her book "How to manage your home without losing your mind" is an easy read, and was a game changer for me.
- store things with other things that are similar (Marie Kondo).
- store things so that you can see them all at the same time and take them out without making a giant mess e.g vertically (Marie Kondo)
- work out whether you personally like to be able to see all your things or not, and whether you like things micro organised or not (clutterbug)
posted by kjs4 at 10:39 PM on November 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
General guidelines:
- store thing where you would look for them (Dana K White). She was only talking about physical things, but it's also very useful for digital. Her book "How to manage your home without losing your mind" is an easy read, and was a game changer for me.
- store things with other things that are similar (Marie Kondo).
- store things so that you can see them all at the same time and take them out without making a giant mess e.g vertically (Marie Kondo)
- work out whether you personally like to be able to see all your things or not, and whether you like things micro organised or not (clutterbug)
posted by kjs4 at 10:39 PM on November 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
I think organizing our digital lives can have different goals, so thinking a bit about what kind of chaos I create and what I want from organization has been helpful.
I generate lots of files. I screenshot things, save jpgs of book covers I am interested in, download articles, have text files full of random notes and quotes, bookmark sites, and then on my phone I have lots of photos, mostly mine, some shared by friends. I've tried different apps and online platforms for notetaking but I find right now the easiest is to use (when on the internet) Google Docs / Google Slides for my catch all documents and a boring ole .txt file for when I don't have internet access. I have a Google Doc for creative writing projects and another for all life stuff, like restaurants I want to try, ideas for gardening, etc. I have a Slides labeled TEACHING IDEAS 2023 and put links and images and whatnot in there.
Sometimes I just want to be able to look at my desktop without 400 files cluttering up the view. In that case I just create a new folder, label it DESKTOP randomness to be sorted DATE and then shove everything in there for dealing with later. I also do a hard drive version of declaring email bankruptcy and put all unsorted files from 2022 into a folder labeled 2022 TO BE SORTED. Later, when I'm procrastinating from answering emails or something, I'll take 30 minutes to trawl through a batch of files and put them into folders, new or existing ones. I try to name folders useful things that covers all the potential search terms I might use in the future to track down that folder. I have a folder labeled GROWN UP STUFF TAXES CAR FINANCIAL BANK and then, for example, another folder labeled CREDIT CARDS nested within.
Sometimes I want to be able to find and review things to help me think through a project or to get reinspired. I have used Zotero as my citation / academic file manager for a while, so it has most of my academic texts, books and articles and other types of media. But I mostly want to be able to sort by topics (all my science fiction and cities related stuff in this folder for a writing project that is moving along fitfully; all my teaching ideas in this folder) and sort by type (all my academic ebooks, all my silly gifs of cats and birds).
Sometimes file type (and auto-save location) is hugely helpful here (aka with finding all my .gifs or going through my .png screenshots and ruthlessly deleting the things I definitely don't need like a screenshot for an online order that I've already received.
Sometimes I need to go through and impose order. All books are renamed [Author] Book Title (Year).pdf (or epub). All academic articles are renamed Last Name Year - Article Title. Those are the two big ones.
Oh! I have paid for both Dropbox and Google Drive to create more room to shove things, and with the selective sync option in Dropbox, I can file away a big project from a few years back that has a bunch of huge video files and then unsync it with my laptop but still have access to it via Dropbox online.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:41 PM on November 22, 2023
I generate lots of files. I screenshot things, save jpgs of book covers I am interested in, download articles, have text files full of random notes and quotes, bookmark sites, and then on my phone I have lots of photos, mostly mine, some shared by friends. I've tried different apps and online platforms for notetaking but I find right now the easiest is to use (when on the internet) Google Docs / Google Slides for my catch all documents and a boring ole .txt file for when I don't have internet access. I have a Google Doc for creative writing projects and another for all life stuff, like restaurants I want to try, ideas for gardening, etc. I have a Slides labeled TEACHING IDEAS 2023 and put links and images and whatnot in there.
Sometimes I just want to be able to look at my desktop without 400 files cluttering up the view. In that case I just create a new folder, label it DESKTOP randomness to be sorted DATE and then shove everything in there for dealing with later. I also do a hard drive version of declaring email bankruptcy and put all unsorted files from 2022 into a folder labeled 2022 TO BE SORTED. Later, when I'm procrastinating from answering emails or something, I'll take 30 minutes to trawl through a batch of files and put them into folders, new or existing ones. I try to name folders useful things that covers all the potential search terms I might use in the future to track down that folder. I have a folder labeled GROWN UP STUFF TAXES CAR FINANCIAL BANK and then, for example, another folder labeled CREDIT CARDS nested within.
Sometimes I want to be able to find and review things to help me think through a project or to get reinspired. I have used Zotero as my citation / academic file manager for a while, so it has most of my academic texts, books and articles and other types of media. But I mostly want to be able to sort by topics (all my science fiction and cities related stuff in this folder for a writing project that is moving along fitfully; all my teaching ideas in this folder) and sort by type (all my academic ebooks, all my silly gifs of cats and birds).
Sometimes file type (and auto-save location) is hugely helpful here (aka with finding all my .gifs or going through my .png screenshots and ruthlessly deleting the things I definitely don't need like a screenshot for an online order that I've already received.
Sometimes I need to go through and impose order. All books are renamed [Author] Book Title (Year).pdf (or epub). All academic articles are renamed Last Name Year - Article Title. Those are the two big ones.
Oh! I have paid for both Dropbox and Google Drive to create more room to shove things, and with the selective sync option in Dropbox, I can file away a big project from a few years back that has a bunch of huge video files and then unsync it with my laptop but still have access to it via Dropbox online.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:41 PM on November 22, 2023
And similarly, I know that my top priority for physical papers is to be able to find the paperwork when I need it, so I just have a tub that has all my important paperwork. Tax stuff. Vet records for the cats. Mechanic/car stuff. Apartment lease. Random insurance stuff. My first step is to just put all of that in the same small file tub. It might not be immediately organized (though I do love a good binder clip) but at least I know where to start looking for things. In that tub I also have a clear plastic pouch that has IDs/cards I don't need daily, like transit cards for cities I visit, and my checkbook and a piece of paper with a bunch of passwords. It doesn't need to look pretty, I just need to know where to look for it (a la Dana White's question in kjs4's comment above).
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:56 PM on November 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:56 PM on November 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
Seconding a KeePass database as the centrepiece to a well-organized digital life.
I actually use KeePassXC because it loads faster than KeePass and I like the UI a little better, but the organizational win comes from the centrality of the database file itself, not the particular tool I use to get at it.
I use a KeePass database file to hold all my digital vitals (site credentials, government photo ID, TOTP authentication, financial account details, the lot) because (a) it has general-purpose text notes and file-attachment facilities as well as credentials storage and (b) I absolutely do not trust any "cloud" service to remain stably accessible over the long term. I am not comfortable unless I know where my most important stuff is at.
I currently use Dropbox to back up my KeePass database file and synchronize it across my various devices, but when Dropbox goes belly-up or adds intolerably stupid restrictions on device counts and whatnot, I can switch to some other file sync provider with minimal effort and no change to my workflows.
The fact that my KeePass database is so essential to my digital life forces me to maintain a well-defined place for the authoritative copy of it. At present, that's inside a Keys subfolder of the Dropbox folder on my primary laptop. The fact of needing to know exactly where my KeePass database is at all times acts as a kind of mental anchor for my motivation to think about where I'm about to save any new thing.
That said, most of what I save goes into the default folder my OS provides me for saving that kind of thing. Photos go in a subfolder of Pictures, sounds go in a subfolder of Music and so on. If I can't think of an obviously good name for a subfolder, I just name it after today's date in yyyy-mm-dd format e.g. 2023-11-23. My Music folder has a subfolder per artist, the artist subfolders each have a subfolder per release, and the music files themselves go inside those.
The best part about organizing a computer, as opposed to organizing physical possessions, is that moving stuff around can be done in bulk at very high speed. There's actually no need to get more storage before starting out on an ambitious reorganization because just moving things to new places doesn't increase the total storage required to do so.
For a computer that's just full of stuff stored higgledy-piggledy to the point where things have become annoyingly hard to find, the first step I recommend is getting a clear understanding of how folders and subfolders work, along with getting comfortable with manipulating files and folders using the OS's inbuilt file browser. If you currently have an app-centric mental model of where your stuff actually is, so that the only tool you're accustomed to using to manipulate e.g. Word documents is Word, the whole thing becomes an impossible mountain before you even begin.
Next step is to understand that even though your stuff has always been saved without any particular organizing principle, every single file you own already does exist inside some kind of structure composed of nested subfolders. There is an existing organization to your digital assets, even if you're not familiar with it, and getting familiar with it will pay off big time.
The digital analog to turfing everything in the house out onto the lawn and starting fresh is to replicate the existing folder organization inside an Archive folder, which then becomes the first thing you need to open in order to dig out anything you have yet to reorganize. And the first decision that needs to be made is where to put that archive folder and how to organize its contents.
I recommend creating the Archive folder on the desktop to begin with. If it ends up annoying you there, it will be easy enough to move elsewhere later because Archive is just one folder.
Next thing is to open Archive and create a subfolder inside, named for today's date as above.
Inside that subfolder, you create a collection of folders that match the ones the OS gave you to begin with: Pictures, Music, Documents, Videos, Desktop and so forth. If you're on Windows, you might also want to create a folder just called C which will be where you put anything that got stored outside the bounds of your own user account's home folder.
Then you can move everything from your main Documents folder into its Archive/2023-11-25/Documents alternative; everything from Videos into Archive/2023-11-25/Videos; everything (except Archive itself) from Desktop into Archive/2023-11-25/Desktop, and so on. Avoid any temptation to improve things or discard things or to make any change to the way your stuff is organized other than exactly re-creating the existing folder hierarchy inside Archive.
At the end of that process, which should be achievable in well under ten minutes, you'll have what looks like a completely clean user account apart from one Archive folder on its desktop that conceals all the existing horror. Then you can make whatever policy decisions suit you for how you're going to organize your stuff going forward, and move stuff out of Archive and into new homes per that policy at a pace that suits you.
Anything you haven't yet made policy for can just stay safely inside Archive until you do.
And in five years, when the new policy proves to be every bit as annoying and inadequate as all storage policies eventually do, you just make a new date-named subfolder inside Archive, sweep the whole annoying structure inside that, and start over.
posted by flabdablet at 11:04 PM on November 22, 2023
I actually use KeePassXC because it loads faster than KeePass and I like the UI a little better, but the organizational win comes from the centrality of the database file itself, not the particular tool I use to get at it.
I use a KeePass database file to hold all my digital vitals (site credentials, government photo ID, TOTP authentication, financial account details, the lot) because (a) it has general-purpose text notes and file-attachment facilities as well as credentials storage and (b) I absolutely do not trust any "cloud" service to remain stably accessible over the long term. I am not comfortable unless I know where my most important stuff is at.
I currently use Dropbox to back up my KeePass database file and synchronize it across my various devices, but when Dropbox goes belly-up or adds intolerably stupid restrictions on device counts and whatnot, I can switch to some other file sync provider with minimal effort and no change to my workflows.
The fact that my KeePass database is so essential to my digital life forces me to maintain a well-defined place for the authoritative copy of it. At present, that's inside a Keys subfolder of the Dropbox folder on my primary laptop. The fact of needing to know exactly where my KeePass database is at all times acts as a kind of mental anchor for my motivation to think about where I'm about to save any new thing.
That said, most of what I save goes into the default folder my OS provides me for saving that kind of thing. Photos go in a subfolder of Pictures, sounds go in a subfolder of Music and so on. If I can't think of an obviously good name for a subfolder, I just name it after today's date in yyyy-mm-dd format e.g. 2023-11-23. My Music folder has a subfolder per artist, the artist subfolders each have a subfolder per release, and the music files themselves go inside those.
The best part about organizing a computer, as opposed to organizing physical possessions, is that moving stuff around can be done in bulk at very high speed. There's actually no need to get more storage before starting out on an ambitious reorganization because just moving things to new places doesn't increase the total storage required to do so.
For a computer that's just full of stuff stored higgledy-piggledy to the point where things have become annoyingly hard to find, the first step I recommend is getting a clear understanding of how folders and subfolders work, along with getting comfortable with manipulating files and folders using the OS's inbuilt file browser. If you currently have an app-centric mental model of where your stuff actually is, so that the only tool you're accustomed to using to manipulate e.g. Word documents is Word, the whole thing becomes an impossible mountain before you even begin.
Next step is to understand that even though your stuff has always been saved without any particular organizing principle, every single file you own already does exist inside some kind of structure composed of nested subfolders. There is an existing organization to your digital assets, even if you're not familiar with it, and getting familiar with it will pay off big time.
The digital analog to turfing everything in the house out onto the lawn and starting fresh is to replicate the existing folder organization inside an Archive folder, which then becomes the first thing you need to open in order to dig out anything you have yet to reorganize. And the first decision that needs to be made is where to put that archive folder and how to organize its contents.
I recommend creating the Archive folder on the desktop to begin with. If it ends up annoying you there, it will be easy enough to move elsewhere later because Archive is just one folder.
Next thing is to open Archive and create a subfolder inside, named for today's date as above.
Inside that subfolder, you create a collection of folders that match the ones the OS gave you to begin with: Pictures, Music, Documents, Videos, Desktop and so forth. If you're on Windows, you might also want to create a folder just called C which will be where you put anything that got stored outside the bounds of your own user account's home folder.
Then you can move everything from your main Documents folder into its Archive/2023-11-25/Documents alternative; everything from Videos into Archive/2023-11-25/Videos; everything (except Archive itself) from Desktop into Archive/2023-11-25/Desktop, and so on. Avoid any temptation to improve things or discard things or to make any change to the way your stuff is organized other than exactly re-creating the existing folder hierarchy inside Archive.
At the end of that process, which should be achievable in well under ten minutes, you'll have what looks like a completely clean user account apart from one Archive folder on its desktop that conceals all the existing horror. Then you can make whatever policy decisions suit you for how you're going to organize your stuff going forward, and move stuff out of Archive and into new homes per that policy at a pace that suits you.
Anything you haven't yet made policy for can just stay safely inside Archive until you do.
And in five years, when the new policy proves to be every bit as annoying and inadequate as all storage policies eventually do, you just make a new date-named subfolder inside Archive, sweep the whole annoying structure inside that, and start over.
posted by flabdablet at 11:04 PM on November 22, 2023
One of the nice features of an Archive organized as above is that anything that still hasn't been moved out of it five years down the track is more than likely not something you'll actually ever need quick access to again. Which means that when you're looking for a bit of extra space on your main drive, you can just copy your oldest Archive subfolder to two external backup drives and then delete it from your main one.
posted by flabdablet at 11:10 PM on November 22, 2023
posted by flabdablet at 11:10 PM on November 22, 2023
I strongly recommend reading "Organizing for the Rest of Us" (and also support the recommendation of "How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind" by the same author) and "How to Keep House While Drowning".
The first rule is to declutter as much as possible - don't keep things that belong in the trash or that you don't need.
The second rule is to then decide on a place for things. This doesn't mean it has to be the best possible place, but it has to be the place you immediately think of when you're looking for that thing.
And the third rule is to always put things back to their designated place.
Easier said than done, right? The above books go into it more eloquently and will give you plenty of advice and help to devise your own system.
posted by gakiko at 3:04 AM on November 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
The first rule is to declutter as much as possible - don't keep things that belong in the trash or that you don't need.
The second rule is to then decide on a place for things. This doesn't mean it has to be the best possible place, but it has to be the place you immediately think of when you're looking for that thing.
And the third rule is to always put things back to their designated place.
Easier said than done, right? The above books go into it more eloquently and will give you plenty of advice and help to devise your own system.
posted by gakiko at 3:04 AM on November 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Here's my system: Throw rarely used stuff in numbered boxes. When you throw something in a box, write an entry in a spreadsheet, e.g., "USB C cable, Box 5".
There's a high startup cost for this system, but once it's set up, it's great:
* Using the spreadsheet to find items, you never have to rummage through more than one box.
* You can do this incrementally and without much staging space (which is also a problem for me). There's no need to commit to a grand organizational scheme.
* Processing items the first time is a good opportunity to cull stuff you don't want or need anymore
It's too onerous to maintain the spreadsheet for commonly used things, but if you're like me, rarely used things take up the bulk of your storage space. Commonly used things you'll usually just remember where they are.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 1:13 PM on November 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
There's a high startup cost for this system, but once it's set up, it's great:
* Using the spreadsheet to find items, you never have to rummage through more than one box.
* You can do this incrementally and without much staging space (which is also a problem for me). There's no need to commit to a grand organizational scheme.
* Processing items the first time is a good opportunity to cull stuff you don't want or need anymore
It's too onerous to maintain the spreadsheet for commonly used things, but if you're like me, rarely used things take up the bulk of your storage space. Commonly used things you'll usually just remember where they are.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 1:13 PM on November 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
Most of the advice I would give is already above, but I would strongly reiterate the idea to take it in parts: whether that be rooms or zones or just a shelf in a closet. There is a quote from Holary Mantel's Wolf Hall that I really like to reread to remind me that I have to start these huge reorganizations focusing on a small, discrete thing:
"Ercole limps in, over the threshold. The man bustles about his own duties. He sits down on a
step, nearly weeping with pain. He looks around him. All he has is this floor. This floor is his world.
He is hungry, he is thirsty, he is over seven hundred miles from home. But this floor can be improved.
‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph!’ he shouts. ‘Water! Bucket! Allez, allez!’ They go. Quick they go. A pail
arrives. He improves this floor. He improves this house. He does not improve it without resistance."
posted by LingeringMoon at 8:56 AM on November 25, 2023
"Ercole limps in, over the threshold. The man bustles about his own duties. He sits down on a
step, nearly weeping with pain. He looks around him. All he has is this floor. This floor is his world.
He is hungry, he is thirsty, he is over seven hundred miles from home. But this floor can be improved.
‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph!’ he shouts. ‘Water! Bucket! Allez, allez!’ They go. Quick they go. A pail
arrives. He improves this floor. He improves this house. He does not improve it without resistance."
posted by LingeringMoon at 8:56 AM on November 25, 2023
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The only system that ever works for me is to have more storage space than I actually need. Then I can go with 'a place for everything and everything in its place' and not get stressed about optimizing, or have to dig through things in order to find other things, or find myself with something new that there's no place for because all the shelving is already taken up.
For digital stuff, getting more storage space is just a matter of getting an external drive or a bigger internal drive. This is a really good time of year for that.
posted by trig at 5:03 PM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]