If your documents folder and desktop look like Tip Diva’s once did, they’re cluttered with random files and have no rhyme or reason to their organization. Well, it’s time to clean them up, and here’s how:

• Determine Your Dominant File Types - For Tip Diva, these include Microsoft Word documents, photos, MP3 files, PDFs and video files. Make folders for each of your dominant file types, and title them to your preference, like “PDFs,” “My PDFs,” or “Mike’s PDFs.”
• Rename Your Files - If you want to find files easily, Tip Diva suggests renaming your files with a system you can easily understand and stick to this system. She prefers renaming her files subject_date_description_number.extension. For instance, photos she took at her aunt’s 50th birthday party would be named aunts50thbirthday_050508_blowingoutcandles_1.jpg, aunts50thbirthday_050508_blowingoutcandles_2.jpg, aunts50thbirthday_050508_surprise.jpg and so on. Do this before you have to move your files. To make renaming your files easier, you may want to consider a batch file renaming tool such as Bulk Rename Utility.
• Drag And Drop Your Files Into The Appropriate Folder - Take all of your PDFs and drop them into the newly created PDF folder. Do the same for your photos, documents, videos and other files. If you have files that don’t fit into any of these main folders, make an “Others” folder or leave them in the main folder.
• Consider Subfolders - Go into each of your newly created folders and check out what documents are in there. You may want to further organize them with subfolders. For instance, Tip Diva’s documents folder includes college essays, articles, creative writing, business letters and resume files. Make a subfolders for each of these types of documents, and drag and drop the documents into the appropriate subfolders.
• Consider Sub-Subfolders - You may even want to create sub-subfolders in these subfolders! Tip Diva’s “Articles” subfolder has sub-subfolders for her magazine articles, local newspaper articles and college newspaper columns. She ends her subfolder craziness there, but if you want to do five or six levels of subfolders, go for it.
• Delete Duplicates - Delete duplicate files, which clutter up your folders, subfolders and sub-subfolders. You may want to even employ software like Duplicate File. Just be careful about deleting things, because once you empty that Recycle Bin or Trash, the files may be gone for good. For more on deleting files, check out Tip Dude’s Top Ten Tips - Deleting Things From Your Life.
• Delete Junk Files - Do you really need those downloaded e-mail forwards, prank videos and other files you never look at? Delete them as well.
• Set Your Software To Save Files In Correct Location - After you have created your folders and subfolders, go into your software settings to have the programs automatically save files to the correct new folders. For instance, you can set Microsoft Word to automatically save documents to your “My Documents” folder and your browser to automatically save downloads to your “My Downloads” folder.
• Back Up Your Computer - After you organize all your folders, make sure to do a backup of your Documents or My Documents folder. Not only will this save your files, but will preserve your new structure incase your computer crashes. For more on backing up your computer, check out Tip Dude’s Top Ten Tips - Backing Up Your Computer.
• Keep On Top Of Your File Organization - After all of this work, you don’t want to let your files pile up again. Stay on top of your files and make they go in the correct folders or subfolders. You may want to do this daily, weekly, bi-monthly or even monthly.

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