- How are your files/folders structured?
- Are files and folders names easily readable?
- How does it feel?
- Are you proud of how your files/folders are structured?
- Can your closest friend/colleague navigate it without context?
For me, the definition of any well-organized folders structure is this:
“A well-organized folders structure is a structure that any person with no context can intuitively navigate and have basic understanding of.”
First, I think that a lot of people blindly use default file manager to browse files:
- File Explorer (Windows)
- Finder (Mac)
- Nautilus (Ubuntu)
- etc
Yes, these default file managers might work for some people, but exploring other options could be very beneficial. Specifically, I mean any dual-pane file manager. Below is an example of what I mean.
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Screenshot of Double commander: example of a dual-pane file manager
| File manager | Platforms | Price | Open source? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double Commander | Windows, Linux, macOS | Free | Yes |
| muCommander | Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix-like | Free | Yes |
| Midnight Commander | Linux, Unix-like, Windows | Free | Yes |
| Krusader | Linux, Unix-like | Free | Yes |
| Total Commander | Windows | Paid (€38) | No |
| FreeCommander | Windows | Free (XE version paid) | No |
| Far Manager | Windows | Free | Yes |
| Commander One | macOS | Free (Pro version $29.99) | No |
| ForkLift | macOS | Free to try, starting from $19.95/year | No |
| Path Finder | macOS | Paid ($36) | No |
| Nimble Commander | macOS | Free to try, $24.99 | No |
| Marta | macOS | Free | Yes |
Feel free to install any dual-pane file manager and come back to this post.
Before we dive deep into creating folders structure - let’s talk about cloud vs local storage. If you are an average laptop user - your SSD drive is probably from 128GB to 512GB.
If you use it properly - that is enough for storing your data.
But imagine that your hard drive is no longer available/stopped working. It might happen as a result of:
- losing your device
- accidental drops
- liquid spills
- other forms of physical damage
- hard drive malfunction
- many other
Now, all of your data is lost and might never be restored. That’s why I like have my peace of mind by using cloud storage, like:
- Google Cloud
- ICloud
- OneDrive
- pCloud
- DropBox
- Nextcloud
- other
Personally, I use this setup:
- 512 GB SSD Drive for local storage
- Google Cloud for cloud storage
- Raidrive CLI for my Linux Mint laptop to mount any cloud storage as a drive
It’s very easy to setup and free to use.
For my secondary Windows laptop I use Google Cloud desktop app because it integrates into my file manager seamlessly. After it’s installed and configured - my cloud storage is just 1 click away, which is a game changer for productivity and overall comfort of use.
Now that we decided to use local storage together with cloud storage - let’s talk about organizing files in both.
After all - YOU will be the one using them, so you might think about them as “second brain”.
Here are some tools that might help you integrate local + cloud storage:
Now, let’s start building new folders structure for our local and cloud drives!
We will do that in 6 steps.
Fill in the blanks:
| Aspect | My setup | Your setup |
|---|---|---|
| File manager | Double Commander (free) | ✍️ |
| Local storage | 512 GB SSD | ✍️ |
| Cloud storage | Google Drive 100 GB ($2/month) | ✍️ |
| Tool to integrate local & cloud storage | Raidrive CLI (free) | ✍️ |
This example is actually the exact setup that I use every day.
There are some recommendations when choosing name for your folders and files.
- Don’t use any special characters, only use:
- lower case letters
- numbers
- hyphens (for separating cases)
- underscores (for word breaks)
- Use dates in folder names when it makes sens. For example:
- 2024-12-spain-valencia (year + month + country + city)
- 2024-12-31 (full date)
- Use double-digit indexes for granular sorting control. For example:
- 01-archive
- 02-projects
- 03-documents
When using dates in folder names, make sure to use YYYY-MM-DD format, since it enables sorting from oldest to latest with 1 click.
Up until now you have been already managing your files somehow. It means that you already have some preferences on how to store your files.
My goal is to make this guide work for YOU. That’s why you don’t have to start from scratch. Feel free to use your current structure as a starting point.
Go through this checklist to better prepare yourself for building new folder structure.
This checklist includes tips that can be revealed by clicking on the tip.
At this step, our goal is to prepare a list of 10 root folders and their children (max 2-3 levels deep).
Here’s the example of such structure:
| Root folder purpose | Folder name | Child folders |
|---|---|---|
| For saving downloaded files per application type. | downloads | browser |
| messengers | ||
| recordings | ||
| other | ||
| Scanned copies of important personal documents. | documents | passport |
| taxes | ||
| housing | ||
| health | ||
| Client-specific files (ex. if you are a freelancer) | projects | project_name |
| project_name | ||
| Travel-related documents and photos. | travel | 2024-02-spain-valencia |
| 2024-05-canada-montreal | ||
| 2024-07-italy-rome | ||
| For long-term storage of old or rarely accessed files. Ideal for cloud storage to save local space. | archive | sentimental |
| config_exports | ||
| just_old | ||
| Miscellaneous files that don't fit elsewhere to avoid having orphaned files in root. | other | - |
tree command in the terminal to quickly visualize your folder tree. How to use tree commandNow that you have your basic folders structure, it’s time to:
- give them indexes based on their importance/usage frequency
- assign their place: local storage or cloud storage
For example:
- downloads
- index: 00, since it’s the most used root folder
- where: local, for quick access and frequent changes.
- projects
- index: 01, second most-used root folder
- where: cloud, to ensure safety of storing scanned documents
- documents
- index: 02, third most-used root folder
- where: cloud, to ensure safety of storing scanned documents
- archive
- index: 99, least-used root folder
- where: cloud, to ensure safety of archived files
After completing all the steps - you can finally write down your own folders structure.
Here’s my actual folders structure that I use every day.
| Cloud / Local | Folder name | Child folders |
|---|---|---|
| Local | 00-downloads | 01-browser |
| 02-messengers | ||
| 03-recordings | ||
| Cloud | 01-projects | 01-project_name |
| 02-project_name | ||
| Cloud | 02-documents | 01-passports |
| 02-job_contracts | ||
| 03-taxes | ||
| 04-housing | ||
| 05-certificates | ||
| 06-health | ||
| Cloud | 03-people | 01-surname_name |
| 02-surname_name | ||
| Cloud | 04-travel | 2024-12-spain-valencia |
| 2023-09-canada-montreal | ||
| Cloud | 05-files | 01-docs |
| 02-sheets | ||
| 03-templates | ||
| Local | 06-temp | 01-project_name |
| 02-project_name | ||
| Cloud | 99-archive | 01-sentimental |
| 02-configs_exports | ||
| 03-just_old |
- 01-browser: Chrome, Firefox
- 02-messengers: Whatsapp, Slack, Telegram
- 03-recordings: OBS
/public and /private folders.This way, you can
- potentially share the entire
/publicfolder (for example with your collegues) and not bother giving access to each individual project - at the same time keep contents of
/privatefolder secured and without public access
Hopefully that was useful and helped you better organize your folders & files structure.