I've been sorting out my Downloads folder for two years now, but now I'm at a point where I think it's just about finished. 18.1GB, 14,218 files. I use letters of the alphabet to sort it so Bodyshop content is first, then neighbourhood deco, then objects, build mode and hacks. My bodyshop content is merged - one file for accessories, one for their meshes, one for makeup. Hair recolours are each merged into one file with their mesh and the BINX numbers have been edited so they show up together (this took the most time and I almost quit but it was soooo worth it). Clothes are sorted by gender, then whether they're full body, top or bottom, then merged, 200 files at a time. Would be more, but SimPE refused (and in a couple of cases, I still had to do fewer). Objects are merged with their recolours, so the only actual recolour files I have are for game objects. And walls and floors are also bundled. No special characters in file names, everything compressed. I haven't actually got rid of much, but my game has gone from taking at least an hour to load, to just under five minutes.

ETA: Forgot to add that when dealing with the objects, in addition to merging them with their recolours, I also sorted them into slightly more descriptive folders. So instead of an O-Decorations folder containing more than 3000 files, I have stuff like ArtsAndCrafts, Books, Gnomes, Magic, ScienceAndMedical, that sort of thing. Makes it much easier to weed out a broken file when I know it happened when I opened the BagsAndBoxes collection!

8.19GB

site > artist > mod name > files.

Meanwhile, I have yet to break 500 MB/2,000 files over here (including disabled items, incidentally). Just how much of that 4+GB of mods and CC do y'all use on a regular basis? :p

Anyway, I do use subfolders to organize my packages and help manage load order:

• Bug Fixes
• Sanity Enhancers, like BoilingOil's Less Toddler Annoyance
• Genetics (Eyes, Hair, etc.), with defaults loading first
• Clothes, starting with defaults and recategorizers, then arranged by age & gender
• Makeup, with the same basic arrangement as clothes
• Terrain Replacements
• Objects, starting with debuggers (Batbox, etc.) and overrides
• Build Mode Items
• Random miscellany I don't want loading dead last
• Tweaks and other things that should load late in the mod order

Also, within certain subfolders (like Clothes & Objects), I generally have single files (or deeper subfolders for related items) named something like "<CreatorName>-<ItemName>".

a total mess

My download folder (which is 6.62 GB with 26,030 files) is just a bit more messy now. I had organized it with lots of subfolders a couple of years ago. Then I heard lots of subfolders slow things down. So I just finished another reorganization with fewer subfolders. I feel it's messy, but I'm back to my less than 5 minutes from clicking the icon to open the game, to actually playing a family. I think that more than makes up for a feeling of messy when I think about it.

If it was wires rather than files it would look way worse that the cords/usb cables behind my computer, and THAT looks like R2D2 threw up.

When I look at properties on my Downloads it only says a bit more than 4KB which I thought was huge...but others have 8GB!!!??? I thought looked like my closet; some things sorted neatly into boxes, but then I just start stuffing and throwing things around

I've been into subfoldering by creator after years of trying different set-ups that really didn't help. I have main folders numbered 1-14 or something like that, and then inside those are creator folders. It's most helpful in clothes, hair, and buy/build mode, and it keeps those folders - which tend to be MASSIVE - under some kind of control. Plus, I know where I got my cc from, making it easier to go back and redownload it when I inevitably feel like everything's a mess and delete my folders.

Lately, I've been editing clothes in body shop to bin them correctly and set the appropriate age and gender flags, and BSOK as well where needed - and then I zip the completed folder and back it up so that I don't have to do it all again the next time I blow up my game. Ugh.

I love the idea of merging all my hair and bodyshop files, and I need to get on that. It's going to take forever though, and it's something I want to do on my home computer, not my laptop, so I'll have to wait until I'm back home in the new year to get started. I also love putting things into more specific folders (like Books or wall -deco) but I tend to go on download binges, and then I get impatient with sorting all the stuff into the right places. With creator folders I can just dump the lot in there and see what happens when I load the game up. ((Clearly I like living dangerously, and that's why I keep blowing up my game and having to 50/50 to hell. It's actually more like 50/20 - delete the remaining 30, give up, delete all neighbourhoods, 0/0, start again... but whatever)

My downloads folder is 26 MB. I try to keep it as small as possible. I have mainly quality of life improvements like Elders Sleep Through the Night, Pet Away (anti-stray sign), unofficial bug fixes, No Belching Or Farting, Higher Bills (750%), and of course the Bouncinator.

I brought my downloads folder down to 6GB and 16,264 files.It was time - I realised that - being a bit addicted to pretty floors and walls - it is a bit useless to have all these walls and then never use them in any case

I have to admit that I kept the unlucky walls and floors in a back-up folder - because one day I may need to use one of them

Just under 5GB (15,224 files) here, some well-organised, the rest still in a mess. However, there are quite a number of clothing items that I need to ditch, either because for one reason or another they don't work (probably because I've lost the mesh, but something else could've had an effect) or because I no longer like them.

As for the objects section - that really needs a full overhaul. The default items in the catalogue have been beautifully organised how I want them (thanks to Phae who helped me build my own catalog edit mods based off of hers), it's just the custom stuff that needs going through. Some of the stuff I might make collection-only, some just need re-categorizing, some need to go completely!

...Yeah, I can't do that. The size of my OMSP folder alone is half that! Even my essential, Defaults + Fixes folder is 138 MB. That just sounds like you need more stuff to me. You want a list? I could make you a list...

Anyway, my folder was about 19-20 GB, but my game was starting to glitch so I had to kick some stuff out to test later and see if I really want it. Now it's down to 15.5 GB. I have to go through my objects and recolors and think about what I use, what category I want it to be in, and if I want it to be catalog only. It's getting to the point where I spend oodles of time searching through my catalog looking for small pieces of deco I want to use but can't find, and coming across lots of stuff that I either don't want to use or only want in specific situations. So yeah, that's a project. And I'm still cleaning up my hairs. I had to take a break from that cuz it was exhausting, but it's almost there, like 60% done, 80% for female hairs. I renamed all my female hairs and put all the meshes and recolors together, and got rid of some duplicates (you wouldn't believe how many duplicates I had because things weren't named the same way!). Now it's just about seeing what still works when loaded with the rest of my downloads, and what hairs give problems or look funny for toddlers and kids so I can delete those ages. Then once that's done, I can bundle and compress them. It's slow going, but I think my folder is looking better and better.

Collections! Put them in collections and hide them from the catalogue! It's so much easier to find the perfect piece of kitchen deco in a collection specifically for kitchen deco than from a Deco/Misc catalogue that includes 3000 pieces of CC.

I did that with my catalog edits - moved all the Holiday stuff (Christmas trees and the like) that I hardly ever use and find just cluttering up the deco section to collection-only, and created my own collection file icon to tie in with it. I can still access them if I really want to, but the rest of the time I don't have to look at them! There are also a number of weird masks and suchlike in the pictures category that I hate - they got the same treatment!
OMSPs are a good thing to have as a collection - it means you find the one you want so much faster than sifting through.

9.51 GB - 3,124 folders - 38,997 files...

I did Jessa's organisation in terms of folders...but I think I may need to relook some things...