Ever since I started blogging a little over a year ago I've had questions on how I organize files on my computer. I guess it's about time I share.
I'm not saying this is the best way to do it. This is my way and it works for me, you may need a different system for your files and your computer.
This is what's on my desktop. I make a mosaic of my most recent Flickr favorites.
1. the best box, 2. vintage-y berries, 3. fabrics, 4. pencils, 5. Feng Shui Bathroom, 6. Sarah Jessica Parker's Hampton home, 7. Via casa sugar wallpaper, 8. white bathroom, 9. Our bathroom companion, 10. ready, 11. white, 12. Saturday Morning Pancakes (gluten free), 13. something blue, 14. Scent : Pink Mini Rose, 15. new laundry basket, 16. Pom-pom garland, 17. {193/365} the nicest surprise, 18. {187/365} after hours, 19. use on display, 20. guest bedroom
I never keep files visible on my desk top at home, even though I sometimes temporarily throw something on there I always choose not to view desk top icons. You do this by right clicking on the desktop and choosing that option.
All three of us are users on my laptop although Martin and Wille very rarely use it. I keep my files under user Benita. I basically put everyhing either under Bilder (Photos) and Dokument (not sure if that's translated into Documents or Files in the english version).
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Photos
Under Photos I keep both the latest uploaded files (outlined in green) that have yet to be organized. Each of those date folders still need to be sorted. This means editing out the majority of the photos, deleting them and keeping the remaining few in their proper folders (outlined in blue). As you can see I'm running behind...
The folders outlined in blue are where I keep all the photos I want to hang on to.
I've named them; Trips & Travels, Craft Projects, Scans, Chez Larsson, Mosaics, At Home, Blog Posts, The Boat and Family. Most are self explanatory but in the Chez Larsson folder I keep blog and Etsy banners and icons and in the Blog Post one I keep folders with photos that I intend to use in future posts. After they have been used I file them in one of the other folders (if I decide it's worth keeping that is).
I'll give you an example of what my photo folders look like. Follow the yellow circle, it will take you through my family photo folder.
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I have one folder named Family. It in turn contains six folders, one with photos of Martin, one of Wille, one of me, one of the three of us together, one of Mini & Bonus and one with a family related event at our house.
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Example: In the Mini & Bonus folder there are three more folders. Because I've only had this laptop since 2008 I've moved some earlier photos from the other computer to this one and named one folder Mini and Bonus 0-2 years. The other folders are marked with the year the photos were taken.
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This is to show you an example of what one of the folders looks like inside. It's basically just a jumble of cuteness in no particular order.
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Here's another example of folders. This one is my Trips & Travels folder and inside are nine folders, each one for a different trip we've taken during 2008 or 2009. Each folder is marked with the destination and the year it was taken.
Documents / Files
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Under Documents/Files I keep things that are not photos.
I have folders called; Advertising (my ad rates), Book Proposals, Martin Div (drawings Martin has helped me with), PS Class (Photoshop class info) and Shop (ideas for Etsy or similar). There are also a bunch of recent files that I haven't sorted yet like a couple of interviews I've answered via e-mail, a couple of post drafts and some other stuff. Will sort those out any day now...
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Here's what one of the folders looks like inside. I still have the folder with my book proposals and related stuff. I'll be sorting that one out and decide what to keep and what to toss a bit later.
So, there you have it. It's nothing fancy but like I said it works for me. I basically try to edit as often as possible so the task is't too huge and I emty my trash can regularily. I used to save back ups on CD's but just the other day I decided to try out an online back up service. So far it's been trying to upload my files (estimated time several days) but it keeps stopping and I get error messages so I'm going to contact those guys later today. At the moment it feels kind of iffy but after I get it to work I'm looking forward not having to fiddle around with those back ups every week.
