How many of you have bought something twice because you didn’t realize you already owned it? Worse yet, how many have purchased something twice on purpose because you can’t find the original? With so many cool supplies out there, it’s important to get organized. There are several ways of doing this, but here are the main three.
* Organize everything into folders. I like to make folders for full kits, and then separate ones for my embellishments and accessories (buttons, wordart, ribbons, frames, templates, etc.). I also have a folder for older stuff that I still like, but don’t plan on using very often. Other people like to organize by designer, or by the month of purchase.
* Use a program like ACDSee or Picassa. Use tags to find what you are looking for more easily. A bit more time consuming than the folder method up-front, but it can also make it easier to find things later.
* Don’t do anything and get frustrated trying to find your favorite ribbon. I think we can agree this doesn’t work.
Once you have decided which organizational method will work best for you, it’s time to sort through your stash. You’ll want to do this initially of course, but then also every couple of months just to keep things from getting out of control. (Warning: I am going to ask you to DELETE some things. Take a deep breath; you can do it! If the thought of this makes you sick, you can always burn stuff to a CD, just in case.)
1. Start by deleting anything you know you will never use again. That freebie kit you got back in 2005? Trust me, you won’t miss it. It will not hurt the designer’s feelings if you get rid of it. In fact, they would probably be relieved if they knew.
2. Delete things that are very similar. Pick the one you like the best and get rid of the others.
3. Delete things you think are ugly, don’t fit your style, or have themes you will never use again.
4. Now go through the kits and accessories you have left and pick out your favorite pieces. Maybe you don’t want that entire zoo kit, but you love the little doodled zebra. Make a folder for cute doodled stuff and stick him in there. Delete the rest of the kit.
5. If you are worried about losing track of designers and their TOU, make a folder just for TOU. Most designers name their TOU with the same system that they use for the rest of their files. If not, then you can easily rename it.
I also like to keep a folder on my desktop for products I’ve downloaded in the past two weeks or so. It makes it easier for me to see at a glance what I have that I’d like to work with on my next layouts. Once I think I’m done using the product for the time being, it gets moved into my folder system.
And because I like simplifying and organizing so much, you get a cool freebie to inspire you! Don’t forget to put it in it’s proper place after you’ve downloaded.
Download here.
Now it’s your turn! What are your favorite organizational tips? What method do you like to use? And what we all want to know–do you ever delete?
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Great philosophy! Thanks for the wordart.
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Thanks for the WA! How true on the file naming! Mine evolved as I started getting more and more. Just last week I had a double EHD failure (DOA) and now that I am starting over, more or less, I am using my evolved naming system. As you said, it takes much longer in the beginning, but saves enormous amounts of time later on.
I have not gotten into the tags style, though, primarily because I don’t understand it. I do not like Picassa – -it makes me dizzy scrolling up and down like that. PSP has a nice browser, and I rename my directories (and files if I need to) to add some words that help me.
I was in a chat once with a lady who had two TB drives, and she was telling us her directory names: She had ELEMENTS (as most of us do), then it was subdivided into 20 more subdirectories: Ribbons, Bows, Doodles, Floral, and the list went on! My jaw dropped open at the time, but now I wish I had kept her list!
Sorry, I didn’t mean to yammer on, it’s just that I am in the midst of redoing from scratch, so the topic is fresh.
Suzy
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I am the organizational nut case! I cannot function without pretty out of control organizing.
I have each kit on my drive twice. Once, all together, in a “full kits” folder. And then each piece is again listed in a folder that it belongs in. I have one folder entitled “previews” where I copy the preview images from each kit. That way, if I’m starting off with NO ideas at all…I can get some color scheme and style ideas, quickly.
I have individual folders for ribbons, brads, flowers, etc. I also have some of those folders broken down into additional categories so that if I am picturing a “grungy brad” I can go directly to a place where I can see what my options are. I also have my papers organized into color family folders. So when I have a color scheme in mind I can go and see all my pink papers together etc.
Now, I’ll openly admit that this kind of out of control organizing is NOT for everyone. And getting to this point was no small task. It was hours of putting things into folders. But if you ask me to find a plastic tag hanger….I can find you one in .05 seconds! That’s a big deal to me. And it makes me happy. Almost as happy as a finished scrapbook page. Almost.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
WOW !!! I’m impressed by your organizational skills girls !!! I have a folder for each designers and inside them different folders : kits, elements, templates, … I don’t separate things by fear of not being able to give proper credits !!!
I have to admit that i don’t delete things, and maybe i should !!! LOL I have a few (hum!!) things on my EHD i used once back in 2006 but have never opened since then !!! LOL
Thanks for all the tips Aja.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Great tips, Aja! I always go through my stash and delete some stuff after burning to CD.
Thank you for the freebie, it’s awesome! And yes, life is much easier when you simplify it
May 23rd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
ACDSee is the answer. There is no need to have everything TWICE on your hard drive. ACDSee is just a database and file management software to tag your stuff. It doesn’t store everything twice, thus saving hard drive space.
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Ohhhh thanks for the tips. Is organizing with Picassa similar to organizing with ACDSee? I have NO tips, I’m the WORST at organizing LOL. Thanks for the yummy word art : )
May 24th, 2009 at 6:07 am
Wow! This was just great! I´ve been really thinking on how to organize my stuff and you had so many great suggestions. One of the most valuable tip in my humble opinion was the one about daring to actually DELETE stuff you don´t use!
I´ve actually started to be more picky about what freebies I download – do I really wanna use this?
Thanks for a great post – and the wonderful word art!
May 24th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Great tips- I am in the middle of organizing mine right now, too. I completely agree with the deleting tip-it’s so much easier to manage. What a relief not having all those unwanted files! Thanks for the tips and the cute wordart!
May 24th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Thanks Aja!
May 24th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Just as a caution for those of you that burn to CD: IT professionals aka computer guys say that CDs break down over time too, so don’t rely wholly on them for back up purposes, okay?
May 24th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Thanks for the great wordart, Aja. It’s nice to know we’re all in the same boat when it comes to organizing and finding our supplies. That gives me some comfort, at least!
May 24th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Thanks for the freebie!
I sort by designer. I generally know what kind of ’style’ I want once I get started on a layout so I know which designers generally fit that style. I do need to sort through and start purging the kits and things I haven’t used in a while. Thanks for the reminder!
May 24th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I didn’t like Picassa at first till I realized you can leave items in their original folders, put them in albums corresponding to what type of element they are and then tag them with topic or theme type words. For example, the kit I bought the other day came in 6 zip files that I nested in one folder on my hard dive. Then in Picassa I put the papers in the paper album, threlements in the elements album and the journalling items in another album. A couple elements are in two albums since they qualify for both. Then I can tag the flowers as flowers, the papers can be tagged with color names and other descriptive terms.
Then if I’m looking for a paper, I can browse those and once I find one, I can easily identify the kit it came from since it’s still in it’s folder, but I didn’t have to open lots of folders to find it.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
May 26th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Great post Aja! I have fear of deleting…..even after I burn to disk and back up on my external hard drive. I think it is my type A personality!!
June 30th, 2009 at 7:22 am
I am a Mac user and use iphoto to organize my stash. I believe it is similar to ACDSee. My scrapbooking kits are separate from my photos and I also use tags to find things. It works great!
November 7th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
thanks for these tips….I am wondering if any of you know where I can find some tutorials/articles on Planning Digital Albums. I am looking fo a tutorial/article that includes how to decide what Kits/QP’s to use and where/how to record the album lists/layouts/pages. I hope I am making myself clear.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Thank you for this post. It will help lots of frustrated digi folks.
Beginners, listen up! Organization is the only way to go. I only wish someone had shared this with me at the beginning. Now I have my products organized very well, but it took some time to sift through my entire stash. May I add two additional tips which help me save time and keep everything organized. In addition to an external hard drive back up I use an online system. It took a while to upload my collection but I love knowing that my goodies are safe and sound. The second organization tip is a desktop file labeled “goodies.” In this I have organized files with my Shapes, Actions, Fonts, and all that stuff. I also place basic “use a lot” items in this easy to use file. My shapes, actions, brushes etc. are broken down into preview picture only and a second file with preview and the preset. This is soooooooooo much easier than trying to slug through whole folders and I save lots of time every time I scrap.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:57 am
There are some great ideas here. I really need to clear out old freebies especially. I organise things into digi-shops. I paste the preview pics of all (well almost all) kits into Word documents, and have them saved according to the shop, and perhaps their category eg. Christmas, alphas, etc. Then i can just scout through the Word documents to look at the previews. Not all kits include a preview jpg so I copy and paste from the webpage while I am downloading.
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