Being a Type A personality, I’ve probably thought more about this than many. I have a certain organizational style and formatting schema that I consistently think about.
Folder layouts
I keep all my home directories about the same as everyone:
# cd ~; ls -1p Audio/ Desktop/ Development/ Documents/ Downloads/ Pictures/ Public/ Videos/
One exception to the above is the “Audio” directory which I use for multiple audio types:
# tree -L 1 -d Audio/ Audio/ ├── Audiobooks ├── Music ├── Other └── Podcasts
The other exceptions is I also hide the Templates directory (.Templates) as I don’t use it often.
Desktop
Even though I use GNOME I’ve enabled the Desktop—this is my workspace. If I can see them, I can remember them.
# ls -1 Desktop/ | head -n 3 arch-install.md arch-linux-wiki-css-box_00.svg command-line-dictionary.md ...
Development
I’ve come to be a big fan of VCSs. If I build something that others can use on their computer, I’ll create a VCS for it. I’ve put all of these VCS directories in their own directory:
# tree -L 1 -F -i --dirsfirst Development/ _vault/ archpkgs/ armrr/ arpa/ ar-utils/ daeme/ dotfiles/ general-scripts/ rback/ wordnet-dict/ xuserrun/
Documents
I put all the Documents in one directory whether I wrote them or obtained them:
# ls -1p Documents/ Blog/ Guides/ Receipts/ _vault/ car-maintenance-schedule.ods recipes.md wish-list.md work-schedule-weekly-two-person.xls
Pictures
I do the same with Pictures as I do my Documents; whether I designed, photographed, or obtained them, I put them here:
# ls -1p Pictures/ | head -n 7 Camera/ Designs/ Nostalgia/ _vault/ aqua pr09studios.png arch-pseudo3d_PJ.svg architectural-intent.svg
Naming conventions
For the major folders, I use single words with the first letter uppercase. For files and other folders, I try to keep to the somewhat-traditional Linux method of naming my files as lowercase. For spaces in files, I generally use a hyphen (-) which I see used a lot these days though I think an underscore was originally used. Underscores I will use if there is a category I would like separated in the name (portrait-of-bach_etching.svg).
Audio files
Read this post to learn how I organize my audio files.
Vaults
When I come across a file that I won’t use anymore, is outdated, a misdirection, I create a folder called _vault and I place them in it. I then always have them around as I find that sometimes I like to.
