A Place for Every File

I am, in general, an obsessively organized person: I try to live by “A place for everything, and everything in its place”.¹ The effort has paid me back in time saved, made me more effective in my career, and otherwise made my life easier. I also feel better when I know things are where they belong.

Over the years, I’ve tried different ways of managing the files I create, collect, and receive in everyday life. I eventually developed a folder structure that fits the way I think and work. The system continues to evolve as I learn and my needs change. If you adopt a system of your own, I’d recommend leaving room for it to change as your needs do.

You don’t need to put your driver’s license in the same folder I do. What matters is giving your files a consistent home that makes sense to you, so you know where to look when you need them.

Most new files start in an inbox before I sort them into their permanent folders. I try to make those decisions consistently, based on where I’ve put similar files before. I keep original photographs and videos separate from finished work, and use an archive to move inactive projects out of my workspace: I don’t have to scroll past my 11th-grade book report to find the working folder for this website.

The Folder Structure #

My file system is, fundamentally, just a set of folders. Those folders are laid out like this:

├── _inbox
├── 10 Records
│   ├── 11 Identity
│   ├── 12 Legal
│   ├── 13 Insurance
│   ├── 14 Medical
│   ├── 15 Education
│   ├── 16 Property
│   ├── 17 Notices
│   ├── 18 Correspondence
│   └── 19 Pets
├── 20 Finance
│   ├── 21 Taxes
│   ├── 22 Banking & Investments
│   └── 23 Bills & Receipts
├── 30 Work
│   ├── 31 Career
│   ├── 32 Current Employment
│   ├── 33 Previous Employment
│   └── 34 Contracts (by Client)
├── 40 Personal Media (Raw)
│   ├── 41 Photos (Raw)
│   ├── 42 Videos (Raw)
│   └── 43 Captures (Raw)
├── 45 Personal Media (Curated)
│   ├── 46 Photos (Curated)
│   └── 47 Videos (Curated)
├── 50 Personal Projects
├── 70 External Media
│   ├── 71 Documents & eBooks
│   ├── 72 Pictures
│   ├── 73 Sounds & Audio
│   ├── 74 Video
│   ├── 75 Music
│   ├── 77 Templates
│   └── 79 Models
├── 80 Systems & Administration
│   ├── 81 Licenses & Keys
│   ├── 82 Devices & Configs
│   ├── 85 Backups
│   ├── 87 Fonts
│   ├── 88 Applications
│   └── 89 Logs & Savestates
├── 90 External Records
└── 99 Archive

That’s it. If you recreate this folder structure, you have made the framework of my system.

With regard to numbering the folders: I’ve spent a considerable amount of time organizing project folder structures for work (mostly to keep myself from going insane), and found a good numbering system useful. The numbers keep the folders in a predictable order, and the gaps leave room for additions. If you like my concept but don’t like the numbers, don’t use them. I’ve only numbered one subfolder deep, and anything goes for deeper levels.

Workflow Examples #

Explaining how this works for me is probably best done through some examples.

An insurance renewal. I receive an auto insurance renewal in the mail. I scan the letter directly into _inbox, then rename it 2026-01-01 Insurance Company - Auto Policy Renewal.pdf, using the date on the document. I move it into 10 Records/13 Insurance, where I’ll look for insurance documents later.

A blog post. I’m writing a blog post like this one for my website. The Markdown file and supporting images are scattered across my desktop. I gather them into a subfolder named for the post within 50 Personal Projects/tsmccallum.com. That keeps the writing and its supporting images together, gives this post its own workspace, and makes it easy to find alongside my other website projects.

Family photographs. After a weekend of camping, I plug my camera into my PC. Lightroom is set to import the originals into 40 Personal Media (Raw)/41 Photos (Raw). I review and edit them, then export the finished images into 45 Personal Media (Curated)/46 Photos (Curated), organized into folders by date and subject. The originals stay in 41 Photos (Raw) so I can revisit them; the 46 Photos (Curated) folder holds the finished photographs I want to use or share.

File Naming #

A major point that I can’t overstate is how important good filenames are. A good folder structure full of poorly-labeled, mismatched junk isn’t really a system.

Unless a file needs a more specific naming convention, I typically start its filename with the ISO date, followed by where it came from and the subject:

2000-12-05 Electric Company - November Statement.pdf
2000-12-31 Amazon - 27-inch Monitor Invoice.pdf

A good description here helps make sure that you can search for it later, so try to describe it as something future-you would use to look for it. Using YYYY-MM-DD puts dated filenames in chronological order when they are sorted by name. This format follows the ISO standard for dates (yes, this is a thing).

A file’s creation date doesn’t always reflect the date of the document itself: for example, I get an important letter on 2020-12-10, it’s dated 2020-12-08, and I don’t scan it until 2020-12-15. The date should be 2020-12-08: the date on the document itself.

For working documents, I keep the base filename stable and append a version. That is easier to follow than “Resume 2026 DRAFT FINAL FINAL FINAL.” I’m becoming partial to a date followed by a two-digit revision counter, so I only need to track the revisions made that day.

Project Summary v2020-12-31.02.docx
Project Summary v2020-12-31.01.docx
Project Summary v2020-12-30.01.docx

When a File Fits in Two Places #

I absolutely have “should this go in 31 Career or 15 Education?” moments. My best solution is to check what I’ve already put in each folder, make a judgment call, and stay consistent with it. I keep course certificates in 15 Education, even when they relate to my career; resumes and work samples go in 31 Career.

The _inbox #

This is where everything goes before I organize it - it’s the dump folder. If I scan something new, download something I want to save, or copy an image, it goes in this folder. I try to sort it daily, and at worst, weekly, to put each item into the right subfolder in the rest of the system, but even if I don’t, it still gets synced and backed up just like the rest of the file system.

If files have piled up on my desktop or in Documents or Downloads, I move them here for sorting.

10 Records #

These folders hold personal and household records that I may need to refer to later.

I keep everything related to identification - scans of licenses, social security cards, birth certificates, passports, professional credentials - in the 11 Identity folder, and I start the filename with the name of the person the document belongs to, followed by the issuer, document type, and expiration date if it has one:

JOHN SMITH - TX Driver's License EXPIRY 2000-12-31

It’s much the same for the rest of the folders:

These folders can contain some of your most sensitive documents. Decide who should have access, where the files should synchronize, and how they will be protected before choosing where to store them.

20 Finance #

There is some overlap between property records and financial records. I keep documents about the asset itself in 16 Property, and loan agreements and statements in 22 Banking & Investments. If it comes from the bank, it goes in banking.

30 Work #

This could also be called “career”, but I call it work.

40, 45 Personal Media #

These folders are for organizing the large amount of personal media that I generate. I have sub-folders for raw photos, videos, and screen captures - anything I produce is dumped in these folders to be organized, edited, or otherwise reviewed later. “Raw” is the starting point for my personally-generated media. Note that I do not exclusively mean camera “RAW” files, just files that are generally unprocessed.

Once I sort through and edit my photos or videos, I export the finished work into the “Curated” folder, organized by date and subject.

This keeps the editing and export work I do separate from the originals, making it easier to preserve and revisit the source material if I decide I want to do something new with it in the future.

50 Personal Projects #

This one is pretty open-ended; it covers any personal project that isn’t simply a collection of recorded media: websites, digitally created graphics, models, schematics of things I build, code, or anything else that needs its own workspace. If I’m using photographs or video in something that involves more than a typical edit, I give it its own project folder.

In October 2023, I photographed a sequence of the solar eclipse over Texas and combined the images in Photoshop. For me, this became a standalone project: it involved more than a typical photo edit, went through several versions, and needed its own working folder.

Things that are one-off I usually date (or at the very least, prefix with the year), and ongoing projects are just named what they are.

Completed, one-off projects are typically moved to 99 Archive when I am done with them so that I don’t have decades-old projects to sort through when working on something recent.

70 External Media #

My external media folder is broken into subfolders by type - docs & eBooks, pictures, sound & audio, etc. - all things that I have that I didn’t create. This is especially useful for things I have bought: presets, templates, sounds, clips, models - it’s very easy to lose access to an email link from a digital purchase. If I keep copies here, I don’t have to worry about downloading them from the source, which may not even exist anymore, when I need them again.

80 Systems & Administration #

For me, this is a large folder that supports many parts of my computer infrastructure; your needs may vary greatly.

90 External Records #

Inevitably, you get asked to help with others’ files - update a resume, create a birthday invite, edit these photos - I keep all those things that I have worked on that are not mine in this folder, so they don’t get absorbed in my work.

Records I’m responsible for keeping for my wife and son go in the relevant identity, finance, or other folders, with their names included where needed.

99 Archive #

Projects, raw files, and other items that I want to keep but no longer need in my active folders go into 99 Archive. I exclude this folder from cloud syncing and back it up to storage, which keeps cloud storage usage down and my working folders less cluttered.

Separately, I sometimes delete items from the primary folder structure, but before removing a working copy, I confirm that my NAS backup completed (more below) and that its retention settings will keep the copy I need. Other than periodic culling, I try to pretend the backup isn’t there and use it just for recovery.

Where I Store My Files #

So where do I keep this set of folders? Where should you?

I keep this folder structure on a secondary drive in my desktop PC. For active work such as photo editing, CAD, and modeling, this works just as well for me as using the Documents folder on my OS drive. If I am taking a screen capture or recording video, that software can write directly to the subject project or 40 Personal Media (Raw) folder on this drive, and it’s already where it belongs in my system. I also scan new documents directly into my _inbox, so they’re in the system even before I sort them.

Keeping my files on a separate drive also means I can access them independently of the OS installation if I need to reinstall it.

Cloud Syncing #

Why is it so important to me that things get into my personal filesystem right away?

I sync most of these folders, in real-time, to my pCloud account using the Drive app on my PC. Once uploading finishes, the synced folders are available in my cloud account and on the other devices I use. I chose pCloud because its Sync feature lets me connect existing local folders to cloud folders without moving my files into a separate sync folder: I told pCloud to sync my folders, the way I want them, and it did.

I exclude some folders from real-time syncing to stay below my cloud storage limit and avoid tying up my bandwidth while large files upload.

One-Way Backups #

Lastly, I use Bvckup 2 to run a nightly, one-way backup from my PC’s storage drive to my network-attached storage (NAS). This gives me a separate copy for recovery if something goes wrong. If you choose a similar approach, which deleted files and earlier versions remain available will depend on the backup solution and its settings. I’d recommend checking those details before relying on it to recover something you’ve changed or deleted.

Making It Your Own #

For now, this system keeps things where I expect to find them and helps me maintain some semblance of order in my digital life.

If this makes sense for you, I’d again stress to start small: choose one home for your system, create an inbox and a few useful folders, name new files consistently, sort them regularly, and build a routine that makes your files easier to manage.

Once your syncing and backups are set up and you’ve checked that you can recover your files, tackle the backlog of 10,000 files in your My Documents folder as you get more comfortable with the system.

What part of your own file collection is hardest to organize, and what rule has helped you keep it manageable? I’d love to hear what works for you.

Unless otherwise noted, photographs are by the author.