23 votes

Ask Tildes: How do you organize the files on your computer?

Posted by petrichor
Tags: ask.survey, computers, filesystem, personal information management

I thought it'd be fun to see how some of you keep your computer organized. Do you follow some general scheme, keep it arbitrary, throw everything on the Desktop or in Downloads or just abuse the search bar?

Feel free to go as general or as in-depth as you want.

29 comments

  1. Wes
    Link
    I'll link my answer (and others) from this question last year. https://tildes.net/~tech/kcl#comment-4c6a

    I'll link my answer (and others) from this question last year.

    https://tildes.net/~tech/kcl#comment-4c6a

    7 votes
  2. petrichor
    (edited )
    Link
    I'll start off. My home directory is separated into eight folders, each with their own hierarchies and conventions. Applications/ ├── loose assorted binaries ├── applications (that aren't in my...

    I'll start off. My home directory is separated into eight folders, each with their own hierarchies and conventions.

    Applications/
├── loose assorted binaries
├── applications (that aren't in my package manager)
├── complicated and / or annoying libraries
├── video games (each in their own folders)
└── scripts/
Documents/
├── assorted notes, links, and musings
├── art/
├── books/
├── emulation/
├── linux/
├── prose/
└── wiki/
    └── my personal wiki
Downloads/
└── this is the "junk" folder - here be dragons
Music/
└── genre/
    └── album/
Pictures/
├── assorted pictures
├── backgrounds/
├── digital/
├── (custom) emojis/
├── face/ (profile pictures)
├── gifs/
├── nature/
├── photos/
├── posters/
└── screenshots/
    └── year/
Projects/
├── various project outlines
└── git repositories
Videos/
├── assorted videos
├── (movie) clips/
├── politics/
└── various author / theme specific folders
Work/
└── work-related items

    Occasionally (read: very often) my home folder is also used as a staging ground for whatever I'm currently working on. Notes, some software packages, configuration files, and Raspberry Pi images frequently find their way there before being moved to the perpetual mess that is ~/Downloads.

    6 votes
  3. [4]
    Pistos
    (edited )
    Link
    I have a few specialized dirs right off ~, but also these general dirs: ~/large for things to be excluded from backup. That means almost all video files, git repos, exported lossless audio (from...

    I have a few specialized dirs right off ~, but also these general dirs:

    • ~/large for things to be excluded from backup. That means almost all video files, git repos, exported lossless audio (from audio production), tmp, download, unpack (for unpacking zips and tarballs), and a few other things. For "raws" (files which come from physical recording devices), I store them in this dir tree by date of file transfer (offload from physical media).
    • ~/notes for .txt and .md files, most of which are in the form topicname-YYYY-mm-dd.md. When I phone service providers or vendors (e.g. ISP, bank, utilities), I take notes of every call in here.
    • ~/etc and a ~/usr/**/* tree, for when I want to make install as non-root
    • ~/bin for some convenience .sh scripts
    • some ~/orgname dirs named after organizations I'm a part of
    • ~/career
    • ~/music for compositions and songwriting. Chords, lyrics, sheet music.
    • A bunch of ~/.* dirs made by various apps

    I also keep /home on a separate disk (HDD) than the main / filesystem (SSD). I recently had a disk begin failing, and this separation made recovery from backup pretty smooth. More or less the only thing needing backup on / is /etc.

    I also use separate users and homedirs for certain kinds of work/clients. This also affords completely separate browser profile dirs and SSH keys.

    Steam is installed in a chroot, also with its own /home/steam dir within the chroot, totally separate from my main /home/* dirs.

    4 votes
    1. [3]
      streblo
      Link Parent
      That’s one thing that I genuinely hate about current Linux platforms is all the dotfiles and folders that litter my home directory. I wish everything respected a ~/.conf/ directory at the very least.

      A bunch of ~/.* dirs made by various apps

      That’s one thing that I genuinely hate about current Linux platforms is all the dotfiles and folders that litter my home directory. I wish everything respected a ~/.conf/ directory at the very least.

      5 votes
      1. [2]
        admicos
        Link Parent
        The Arch Wiki has a list of workarounds for specific programs, to configure them to support the XDG standards (.config, .local, .cache, etc.). Though, there are a fair few programs, where the devs...

        The Arch Wiki has a list of workarounds for specific programs, to configure them to support the XDG standards (.config, .local, .cache, etc.). Though, there are a fair few programs, where the devs don't implement any support (even just to add the option), for various reasons, both good and bad.

        4 votes
        1. streblo
          Link Parent
          Thanks for the link. I know XDG is entirely configurable but even the defaults frustrate me — why do I need a .local, .config etc. in my top level home folder? What I want is either a single...

          Thanks for the link. I know XDG is entirely configurable but even the defaults frustrate me — why do I need a .local, .config etc. in my top level home folder? What I want is either a single top-level folder in my home directory — or better yet /etc/${user} that’s writeable by the user.

          I could spend time setting up XDG to my liking but like you say it’s kind of up to each application dev whether or not they respect it.

          2 votes
  4. mat
    Link
    Well, "organise" is a very strong word. Some things are organised better than others. I have hundreds of GB of photos dating back to pre-digital days, which are organised by camera/year/month....

    Well, "organise" is a very strong word.

    Some things are organised better than others. I have hundreds of GB of photos dating back to pre-digital days, which are organised by camera/year/month. Occasionally camera/year/event (eg: wedding, holiday, etc, which may also contain some sub-structure). I'm vaguely hoping that one day I'll be able to point some software, perhaps ML/AI based, at my photos directory and have it make some sort of sense of things for me.

    My Music directory on my NAS is ridiculous. There's a top level directory labelled "sorted" which has sorted/a, sorted/b, etc. then letter/artist/album/song.mp3. But there's also unsortedX where X = 1-200 or so. Each unsorted directory may contain multiple subdirectories before you get to any artist/album structure, if there's even anything like that - some of them are just a few hundred files. Additionally there's a bunch of directories called things like "psytrance" and "techno bangers" and I have no idea what's in there, apart from the obvious. This mess dates back to student days when any suitably equipped visitor to the house plugged in their external drive or laptop and we cross-copied each other's mp3 collections. I do know it runs to about 250GB, I don't know what's in there and I don't touch it any more. Streaming has saved me from having to address the issue.

    My home directory is mostly just various scratch dirs like ~/downloads ~/projects ~/books for stuff I haven't dealt with/finished, until things get moved into ~/backup/ which is where syncing to cloud/NAS/etc happens mostly automatically. This folder contains, to my shame, multiple subdirectories of the format documents/backup/upback/old/, some going back to last century. They are at least backed up.

    On-disk organisation is very similar to how my physical work and living spaces are organised, small areas of high organisation - eg, my ~/backup/scripts and my ~/current-work dirs are very well structured - but overall it's just a loose shambles which I mostly just remember my way around. I'm better at remembering physical stuff (ask me where any tool I own is) than virtual but I can still tell you where most things are from memory. Music folder notwithstanding.

    3 votes
  5. novov
    (edited )
    Link
    Neat question. I generally use the default macOS directory structure with a few tweaks: ~/... Applications/ └─ apps that deal with personal stuff (my Mac is one-user, so only semantic) Desktop/ ├─...

    Neat question. I generally use the default macOS directory structure with a few tweaks:

    ~/...
Applications/
  └─ apps that deal with personal stuff (my Mac is one-user, so only semantic)
Desktop/
  ├─ uni/work projects, with a folder each
  └─ Miscellanous/
Developer/
  └─ programming stuff and custom Homebrew formulae
Documents/
  ├─ Archives/ (zip files of old projects, resources, tools, etc. that I don't use anymore)
  ├─ Backup/ (of data stored in online accounts; actual backups use Time Machine)
  ├─ Fun/
  └─ documents, graphs, spreadsheets, etc. (formerly books, which now live in my e-reader app)
Downloads/
  └─ downloads and temp/working files; try to keep empty
Music/
  ├─ GarageBand/
  └─ Music/ (my songs, by artist then album)
Pictures/
  ├─ Avatars/ (online icons I drew myself)
  ├─ Heraldry/ (heraldic art)
  ├─ Icons/ (custom icons for some of my apps)
  └─ Maps/
       └─ Data/ (GIS stuff)
  ├─ Resources/ (font packs, brushes, and other design/art resources)
  └─ Wallpapers/
       ├─ Current/ (my background is chosen randomly from here)
       ├─ Custom/ (source files of ones I drew myself)
       ├─ Former/
       ├─ Mobile/
       └─ zips of online wallpaper archives
  └─ misc art and photos, and my Photos app library file
Sites/
  └─ web dev stuff

    Note that the Desktop/ folder doesn't actually appear on the desktop; I use a hidden setting for it to not show anything.

    3 votes
  6. GreaterPorpoise
    Link
    I'd be interested to see what people think of my directory structure. It comes as the result of many years of re-organising, never fully satisfactory but I can maintain it, which is the most...

    I'd be interested to see what people think of my directory structure. It comes as the result of many years of re-organising, never fully satisfactory but I can maintain it, which is the most important thing.

    /inbox: the approved mess zone i.e. unsorted downloads and resources. Temporary folders of low importance that I need but will eventually move or delete when done. Contains sync folders, namely megasync and syncthing which I use for:

    • Phone transfer (including selection of books, photos I want to keep on my phone)
    • Phone camera roll
    • Whatsapp

    /codex: also synced to my phone with a ton of ignore patterns and folder exclusions to reduce the size down to primarily plaintext.

    • blog: hosts my wip private blog that I go back to when I feel the urge to code and customise.
    • journal: contains everything I need to function, from to do lists, shopping lists, calendars, password manager database, finance records, health tracking. Almost everything here is in a format I can read and edit on both my PC and phone.
    • projects:
      • art catch-all folder: sorted by topic/subject matter, each piece has a wip folder and reference folder with final versions kept in the project root.
      • writing subfolders: for each titled project, with subsubfolders for notes on characters, setting, plot, research, etc. My personal haven.
    • work: like projects but specific to professional or educational obligations IE boring shit. Actual work happens on a secured work laptop, in a folder structure that suits the people I work for.
    • notes: knowledge base of various topics, most notably my accounting notes and my linux documentation and cheatsheets. Everything else is a scanned image (e.g. cookbook recipes) or in old evernote databases, maybe someday I'll get around to converting them all into neat markdown but it's an ambitious undertaking I've been putting off for years.

    /media: music collection and other fun things. I run a local media server (minidlna) to stream to our phones or tv, samba share to handle books.

    /data: Not synced and never will be, ideally. Photo albums, backups, mailboxes, and softcopy of important records and documents. Thinking about it now, perhaps photo albums should be moved to media as a samba share...

    /home: I keep my personal data (above) in a big separate partition, and reserve /home for program installations, namely games and some scripts. Learnt to do this back on Windows, because C: drive is a mess, but it makes sense on Linux too.

    3 votes
  7. [6]
    nothis
    Link
    I don't understand people having stuff on the desktop. My Mac has exactly zero things on it, for years now. On my Windows PC, random apps and Windows itself keep throwing stuff in the corner but...

    I don't understand people having stuff on the desktop. My Mac has exactly zero things on it, for years now. On my Windows PC, random apps and Windows itself keep throwing stuff in the corner but it's still like 5 program links as soon as I get around deleting stuff.

    For my "files", I must admit I've become dependent on Dropbox. I've looked at just about every backup/cloud solution available and eventually had to give in, buying a yearly subscription of the default 1TB offer (now 2TB, actually). It handles everything so seamlessly it's basically invisible, yet I can quickly share large PDFs per link over mail and such. I hate each and every attempt by Dropbox to be "more" than syncing a folder in the background and actively have to fight it off. I hope it never discontinues "just running in the background" mode. The folder structure itself is basically just a huge "Dropbox/work/" folder (which I actually bought it for) and a few others for miscellaneous stuff (like recently, "Dropbox/programming/advent_of_code_2020/").

    I guess the only regular folder I still actively use is "Downloads/". I try and empty it every couple of weeks but it has a few files from a client still sitting on it I don't really need but don't quite dare to delete yet.

    3 votes
    1. [3]
      Pistos
      Link Parent
      (Speaking for myself): I just don't like the idea of putting potentially sensitive data up in the cloud, even encrypted. Anything that goes outside the home network is something I'm [relatively]...

      I don't understand people having stuff on the desktop

      (Speaking for myself): I just don't like the idea of putting potentially sensitive data up in the cloud, even encrypted. Anything that goes outside the home network is something I'm [relatively] okay with getting compromised/exposed.

      For a Dropbox alternative, I host my own Nextcloud, and it has been working well for me and the people I interact with, across multiple devices and platforms. Both for sending and receiving files.

      4 votes
      1. [2]
        crdpa
        Link Parent
        I think he was talking about the desktop where icons go, not having files offline. I almost never put stuff online too. I backup to an external HDD and some sensitive files are on google drive,...

        I think he was talking about the desktop where icons go, not having files offline.

        I almost never put stuff online too. I backup to an external HDD and some sensitive files are on google drive, but i encrypt before uploading.

        3 votes
        1. Pistos
          Link Parent
          Ah I see that you're probably right. He said:

          he was talking about the desktop where icons go

          Ah I see that you're probably right. He said:

          Windows itself keep throwing stuff in the corner but it's still like 5 program links as soon as I get around deleting stuff

          2 votes
    2. aphoenix
      Link Parent
      I treat my desktop like I treat the top of my desk. It houses things that I need to sort that I may be working on, but haven't dealt with. With some frequency, I move sort and move things into...

      I treat my desktop like I treat the top of my desk. It houses things that I need to sort that I may be working on, but haven't dealt with. With some frequency, I move sort and move things into their required folders / places. This is not how I deal with work related things which are always in a repository and in a particular folder.

      Much like the top of a desk, it's convenient to keep things there that haven't made it to their final organized location.

      My windows desktop machine, for example, has 2 icons on it: Recycle Bin and "wall_tile_bricks_28385.png" which is... probably going into the recycle bin right now.

      My work desktop has about a hundred things on it, mostly screen shots, but there are a couple of other photoshop files for personal stuff, and a few folders of test data for some projects.

      2 votes
    3. parsley
      Link Parent
      The desktop as a link collector made more sense when the only way to open a program was to click on the start button > programs > whatever the name of the publisher was > the actual program > the...

      The desktop as a link collector made more sense when the only way to open a program was to click on the start button > programs > whatever the name of the publisher was > the actual program > the program start icon. This has vastly improved in the latter versions of windows but there is no need to remove the functionality.

      It also serves as an ad space of sorts "You have installed software from us, let us put icons everywhere to improve brand awareness"

      2 votes
  8. Spanish_Inquisition
    Link
    I have large folders broken down into smaller folders. Nothing really too special. All my OS stuff and bigger programs are on an m.2 ssd and the rest is on a separate 1tb hdd. Back up stuff on a...

    I have large folders broken down into smaller folders. Nothing really too special. All my OS stuff and bigger programs are on an m.2 ssd and the rest is on a separate 1tb hdd. Back up stuff on a 500gb hdd.

    2 votes
  9. tomf
    Link
    On my desktop I have _Projects _Process _Convert _Convert is pretty much only for converting files (video, audio), and _Process is my working directory; pretty much all temporary stuff. On my NAS,...

    On my desktop I have

    • _Projects
    • _Process
    • _Convert

    _Convert is pretty much only for converting files (video, audio), and _Process is my working directory; pretty much all temporary stuff.

    On my NAS, _Projects, its all organized by Client/YYYY-MM-Project Name. Within every folder is a _Process subfolder for working in (not temporary), and a _Final directory for finalized stuff. If I have to work away from home (rare), I copy down the relevant folders to the local _Projects directory, then sync up when I get home.

    All of my personal documents are also in _Projects under _Personal, then sorted in the same way.

    I don't keep anything of value on this or any of my systems.

    All media is sorted off by type on the ol NAS. TV has TV (current shows), TV-Other (stuff I'll eventually watch), and TV-Watch (older stuff I want to watch right away), Movies has the same structure. All music is Artist/Date Album/No. Title

    ... and that about sums it up. Pretty much everything is one of two structures. Not very exciting.

    I don't have any photos or videos, but if I did, I'd probably sort them YYYY-MM-Event or something.

    2 votes
  10. [2]
    admicos
    Link
    This is how my home folder is organized: - /bin > Shell scripts and some wrappers to always run some binaries with specific > configurations. (See /snip) - /doc > Various "documents", also has: -...

    This is how my home folder is organized:

     - /bin
   > Shell scripts and some wrappers to always run some binaries with specific
   > configurations. (See /snip)

 - /doc
   > Various "documents", also has:

   - /dsk
     > "Desktop" folder, unused because tiling WM, but required by xdg-user-dirs

   - /dwn
     > Downloads. Generally pretty chaotic but I think I cleaned it up some time
       ago, because it's near empty

   - /gme
     > Non-Steam games (Currently only "Source Unpack" builds of HL2, Portal)

   - /mus
     > Music. Empty except for a symlink to my NAS's music folder. Here so music
       players see that music as well

   - /pic
     > "Pictures", though only contains screenshots at the moment.

   - /vid
     > "Videos". Empty except some files I still have to move some day.

 - /nfs
   > NFS mount. I'll get back to this later

 - /opt
   > Programs I use that don't have distro packages. Also contains stuff like
     Firefox Nightly where installing it outside the distro allows for stuff like
     quicker updates.

 - /src
   > Source code. Contains both original work and patches for other stuff

 - /tmp
   > Dumping ground for data only needed for a short time

 - /bak
   > Backups I should move somewhere else at some point

 - /blog
   > Git repo of my blog.
   > https://git.ebc.li/admicos/blog

 - /dot
   > All my dotfiles that I care about are symlinked here with some scripts
   > https://git.ebc.li/admicos/dots

 - /infra
   > Server infrastructure as Ansible stuff. Don't really know where to put it,
     so it's here at the moment

 - /snip
   > Various quick snippets of things I still use and occasionally update.
   > Is the source of the majority of things symlinked to /bin
   > https://git.ebc.li/admicos/snippets

 - /vm
   > Virtual machine drives & so on

    And this is my "NAS" (read: old computer with a 1TB drive from another old computer)

     - /code
   > Old code I don't have immediate use for, but archived just in case

 - /game
   > Installers for legit and not legit games

 - /iso
   > ISO images mostly for Linux stuff. I'm pretty sure these will go out of date
     pretty quickly, but it's still nice to have some on hand.

 - /media
   > Things to watch or listen to when my internet is crawling to a halt because
     ISPs being ISPs.
   > Currently an archive of a couple YouTube playlists I like to binge every
     now and then, might get some other stuff later on.

 - /misc
   > Un-categorized mess. Currently contains an old Nvidia driver, along with a
     some PS3 jailbreak stuff, and custom ROMs and stuff for my old ZTE Axon 7

 - /music
   > Obvious by the name. It's also the least "organized" of the bunch because
     it pre-dates the terrible organization and naming scheme I set up for all
     this mess.

    I have a ""proper"" categorization and naming system on my NAS, but I haven't been able to use it enough for it to matter. Apparently I don't have as much data to hoard as I expected.

    2 votes
    1. mxuribe
      Link Parent
      I recently adopted a similar strategy to your /snip idea. i happen to call mine /dev since 99% of the snippets pertain to something that i'm developing...but the idea is exactly the same as yours....

      I recently adopted a similar strategy to your /snip idea. i happen to call mine /dev since 99% of the snippets pertain to something that i'm developing...but the idea is exactly the same as yours. Its funny how i used to keep scraps and snippets of stuff all over the place (besides the usual ~/Downloads areas)...but now using this single arrea for snippets helps me to remind myself to come back to whatever it is that i was thinking about. I won't go so far as to say that it is like a to-do list, but it has helped me. Neat to see that i'm not the only one with a /snip-like area! :-)

      2 votes
  11. vord
    Link
    Laptop: ├── bin │ └─ Misc executables ├── Desktop │ └─ Empty except a link to load IP camera feed ├── Documents │ └─ I try to keep the office-type stuff in here (finances, spreadsheets, pdfs). ├──...

    Laptop:

    ├── bin
│       └─ Misc executables
├── Desktop
│        └─ Empty except a link to load IP camera feed
├── Documents
│        └─ I try to keep the office-type stuff in here (finances, spreadsheets, pdfs).
├── Downloads
│        └─ Where almost everything sits.  Tons of stuff belongs in Documents or bin
├── Games
│       └─ Just deleted it cause nothing stores anything here
├── git
│       └─ Mostly for pulling public projects, but some personal code as well.
├── mnt
│       └─ For temporarily mounting drives
├── Music
│       └─ Empty now that we have smartphones, although may load up if going to be offline awhile
├── Pictures
│       └─ Desktop backgrounds.
├── projects
│       └─ Documentation, code, other planning docs for personal projects (home server, fixing house, etc)
├── Videos
│       └─ Staging area for downloading/transcoding/dvd authoring before sending to server to store/burn

    Server is mildly more interesting. I use /srv as my catch-all directory to build out the server functions

    /srv
  ├── backup
  │       └─ RAID1 drives to consolidate all backups, including files on this computer.  Also gets backed up offsite.
  ├── seeding
  │       └─ Drive for torrenting and other filesystem-thrashing stuff.
  ├── storage
  │       └─ backups
  │       │     └─ misc folder to dump quick tar or .bak files
  │       ├─ docker
  │       │     ├─ docker-compose.yml
  │       │     └─ configs
  │       │        └─ Bit of a mis-named folder which stores all the docker volumes
  │       ├─ media
  │       │     ├─ books
  │       │     ├─ movies
  │       │     ├─ music
  │       │     └─ tv
  │       └─ tank
              └─ Dumping grounds for storing stuff recovered from other places.
    2 votes
  12. crdpa
    (edited )
    Link
    Everything is converted to lowercase with exception to what is in seeding, which has to maintain the same format. /home/crdpa (ssd) ├── bin ├── data (hdd) │ ├── dev │ │ ├── go │ │ ├── python │ │...

    Everything is converted to lowercase with exception to what is in seeding, which has to maintain the same format.

    /home/crdpa (ssd)
├── bin
├── data (hdd)
│   ├── dev
│   │    ├── go
│   │    ├── python
│   │    └── website
│   ├── games
│   ├── guitar
│   ├── music
│   │    ├── amorphis
│   │    │        ├── 2006 - eclipse
│   │    │        └── 2009 - skyforger
│   │    ├── carcass
│   │    └── kid francescoli
│   ├── personal
│   ├── pics
│   │    ├── 2019
│   │    └── 2020
│   ├── seeding
│   ├── smartphone
│   ├── text
│   └── videos
│         ├── movies
│         └── tv
└── inc (downloads)
    ├── slsk (soulseek)
    └── trt (torrent)

    Ocasionally a ~/cell folder pops up if i mount my smartphone and a ~/convert folder when i convert flacs to mp3/opus.

    I have an external 2TB HDD that i run a script to rsync specific folders for backup.

    2 votes
  13. knocklessmonster
    Link
    I'm not creative, and we'll just ignore %USER%\Desktop folder in Windows on my desktop, which is the victim of years of "I'll chuck this here for a minute." I just cleared 113 GB from my Downloads...

    I'm not creative, and we'll just ignore %USER%\Desktop folder in Windows on my desktop, which is the victim of years of "I'll chuck this here for a minute." I just cleared 113 GB from my Downloads folder, even, and had been abusing the hell out the Explorer search feature to find important things I need to re-download.

    I use the default stuff, Pictures, Music, Documents, what have you, but sometimes what looks like one is another, like music samples that go to Documents\Samples\SampleLibraryName, or wallpaper projects in Documents\ProjectName (I dabble in inkscape making flat wallpapers to match whichever distro/desktop theme I'm using). I keep my programming stuff in Documents\Programming\Language, GIT-repo sourced stuff in Documents\git, because it's still just storage, even if it's a repo I'm working in.

    If I have programs that are user-specific with no installers, I'll sort them by program: (Documents\Renoise\rns_<version>.exe, DOSBox\Game(launch_scripts | c_folder | disk_image(s).format), and follow the same convention across operating systems so I know where it is.

    My external drive I put the big stuff on is sort of similar. ROMS, ISOs, Downloads (important torrents/downloads that aren't the previous two), Games (with GOG and other installers I think to nab from my online library), Music (my family's music catalog from over the years), sorted, organized versions of tracks I upload to Soundcloud so I know what's been published, with which art, etc.

    2 votes
  14. DMBuce
    (edited )
    Link
    ~ ├── ... # encrypted stuff ├── etc # important dotfiles get symlinked to stuff in here │ ├── games # self explanatory ├── media │ ├── docs │ ├── music │ ├── pics │ ├── vids │ └── web │ ├── bin #...
    ~
├── ...         # encrypted stuff
├── etc         # important dotfiles get symlinked to stuff in here
│
├── games       # self explanatory
├── media
│   ├── docs
│   ├── music
│   ├── pics
│   ├── vids
│   └── web
│
├── bin         # scripts/executables
├── lib         # application library (programs that are in a self-contained 
│                                      folder and usually symlinked/wrapped
│                                      from ~/bin)
│
├── dev         # development stuff
│   ├── build   #   locally built packages
│   ├── proj    #   code for personal projects
│   └── src     #   code for other peoples' projects
│
├── *.txt       # notes (for ongoing personal projects that don't fit in ~/dev
│                        and haven't been moved to ~/var or deleted yet)
│
├── var         # junk i need to keep around
└── tmp         # throwaway junk

    Using dev, lib, etc. in this way might seem stupid but for whatever reason, I like misappropriating system folder names in $HOME.

    2 votes
  15. herson
    Link
    I try to keep my desktop and downloads folders clean, so this is the sctructure of my $HOME folder: Applications/ : I really don't save apps on my home folder, I'll delete this if I could. bin/:...

    I try to keep my desktop and downloads folders clean, so this is the sctructure of my $HOME folder:

    • Applications/ : I really don't save apps on my home folder, I'll delete this if I could.
    • bin/: on here I add shell scripts which are too specific for my dotfiles, this folder is added to my $PATH
    • Box Sync/: Folder to sync with Box, here I save raw photos from my camera.
    • Desktop/: More of this below.
    • Documents/: I really don't save anything here, just OS stuff like iTunes library and stuff like that.
    • dotfiles/: my dotfiles which I'm proud of. https://github.com/hersonhn/dotfiles
    • Downloads/: I keep this folder clean, the only subfolder that's always there is one to save torrents
    • Dropbox/: on dropbox I save files that I like too keep but are not *that* important, like notes to configure postgres, or videogames assets, the only thing important here is my resume.
    • Games/: just random roms I download to see how the games look, I really don't play games here.
    • Manga/: mangas that I read using YAC.
    • MEGAsync/: this is just for downloads, I don't keep anything here.
    • Movies/: On here I keep movies that I will watch and series I'm currently watching, after I watch them I delete them to keep my computer clean.
    • Music/: Music that is not on spotify.
    • Pictures/: Wallpapers, and photos from my iphones, for the photos I keep them chronologically with the time as a prefix in the filename and just keep important photos (removing duplicates and memes and anything unimportant).
    • Playground/: This is where I cd when I need to do some work on the terminal (to keep my ~ folder free of junk.)
    • Projects/: repos of projects I'm working on, separated in a mine/ and a work/ folders.
    • Public/: idk system stuff.

    On my desktop:

    • screenshots/: where the screenshots get saved to keep the desktop clean.
    • stuff/: just random stuff, files that I don't know if I'll keep or delete.
    2 votes
  16. drannex
    (edited )
    Link
    Most of my files are separated into directories by the month of creation, and then updates and modifications are saved into the appropriate month afterwards. I keep separate directories for...

    Most of my files are separated into directories by the month of creation, and then updates and modifications are saved into the appropriate month afterwards.

    I keep separate directories for focused things such as music, books, and projects (usually quick dev tests). I try to keep a fairly simple structure after trying a thousand convoluted complex systems.

    1 vote
  17. Staross
    Link
    It's a mess mostly (been keeping my files for like 20 years) but I mostly organize things by partitions/disk. I try to keep my system SSD clean, then I have another drive for applications, a...

    It's a mess mostly (been keeping my files for like 20 years) but I mostly organize things by partitions/disk. I try to keep my system SSD clean, then I have another drive for applications, a partition for music and one for photos & videos.

    1 vote
  18. Icarus
    Link
    For the most part, everything is in random folders everywhere. My downloads folder gets cleaned out once a year when I sort oldest to newest. My desktop is the worst. I have years of where I throw...

    For the most part, everything is in random folders everywhere. My downloads folder gets cleaned out once a year when I sort oldest to newest. My desktop is the worst. I have years of where I throw a bunch of stuff on my desktop, it gets cluttered, so I make a folder called "Desktop Old" and throw everything in there.

    Then when I get another messy desktop, everything goes into "Desktop Old v2", and so on. Its like mining decades of my life history when I dive into each folder layer, like layers in the Earth's crust. I am just terrible at keeping stuff organized and following a scheme. Same story in real life too. It's like I have "organized chaos".

    1 vote
  19. MonkeyPants
    Link
    Type of media/ Source of media/ Year or Genre or Random categorization that seemed to make sense at the time

    Type of media/ Source of media/ Year or Genre or Random categorization that seemed to make sense at the time

    1 vote
  20. mxuribe
    (edited )
    Link
    ~/Dropbox/ |--- apps ||||||||||--- websites that i manage, local apps that i build, scripts, etc. |--- drafts (meeting notes and journal/diary notes, before archiving them into a YEAR in ~/ops...

    ~/Dropbox/
    |--- apps
    ||||||||||--- websites that i manage, local apps that i build, scripts, etc.
    |--- drafts (meeting notes and journal/diary notes, before archiving them into a YEAR in ~/ops section below)
    |--- finances (financial-related files)
    |--- hr (my resume, job applications for all jobs that i apply to, work-related healthcare files, 401k, etc.)
    |--- library (reference material)
    ||||||||||--- my own man pages and other knowledge base content (e.g. command line references/how tos)
    ||||||||||--- creative writings (e.g. poems, short stories, etc.)
    |--- logs
    ||||||||||--- misc. reports (in cases where they don't live with a specific project)
    |--- media
    ||||||||||--- img (avatars, logos, photos)
    ||||||||||--- audio-video (collection of music, videos)
    |--- ops (all my projects under relevant YEAR which i refer to as "operations" live under here because sometimes they're product work, or actual projects, or ongoing program work, or sometimes events management...hence my use of the generic term "ops". Also, after the NEW YEAR, i move stuff from the "Drafts" folder to appropriate sub-dir. here.)
    |||||||||||--- 2020
    |||||||||||||||||||||--- project-ABC
    |||||||||||||||||||||--- project-XYZ
    |||||||||||--- 2019
    |||||||||||||||||||||--- project-CDF
    |||||||||||||||||||||--- project-LMNOP

    I've been using Dropbox for the last several years, and it works quite well...But i really would like to eventually use something open source like nextcloud...really my above hierarchy goes with me everywhere because of dropbox. I rarely use the default home directory for my linux personal machines (or work Windows machines)...and just live out of my organized dropbox folder. So as awesome as nextcloud is (and i already do use it for other stuff)...my beloved nextcloud just isn't as reliable as dropbox...at least not yet...but eventually, yes, i'll be able to drop the proprietary dropbox!

    EDITED: for the formating.

    1 vote