Habits

Keeping a computer organised over years, not weeks

Any system works for a month. The question is which one still works after four years and two thousand more files.

Published 3 August 2026 · Updated 10 September 2026

Why systems fail

Elaborate structures fail because filing becomes a decision. If it is not obvious where something goes, it stays on the desktop.

The other failure is starting again. Every few years someone reorganises everything, and the new system lasts until the first busy week.

What survives is a small structure that requires no thought and is maintained in short sessions rather than long ones.

A structure that lasts

Inside Documents, five or six folders named after parts of life rather than projects: House, Health, Money, Family, Work, Travel.

Areas of life do not change. Projects end, and folders named after them become archaeology within two years.

One level of subfolders inside each is usually enough. Anything requiring three levels is a sign that a top-level folder is missing.

Naming files

Beginning a name with the date written backwards — year, then month, then day — makes files sort themselves into chronological order automatically.

After the date, two or three words about what it is. “2026-05-12-boiler-service-invoice” tells you everything in two years; “scan001” tells you nothing.

Avoid names that only make sense today. “New”, “final”, “latest” and “v2” are all guaranteed to be confusing later.

The monthly quarter of an hour

Once a month: empty Downloads, clear the desktop into proper folders, empty the recycle bin.

That is the entire maintenance routine for most people, and it prevents the accumulation that makes a computer feel unmanageable.

Doing it on the same date each month — the first Sunday, the first of the month — removes the decision about when.

What is safe to delete

Anything in Downloads that you have already opened and dealt with. Installers for programs already installed. Duplicate copies of photographs.

Temporary files, which the system's own disk cleanup tool identifies and removes safely.

What is not safe to delete: anything in the Windows folder or Program Files, and anything you did not put there and do not recognise.

Duplicates

Duplicate files accumulate from copying, downloading twice and importing the same photographs repeatedly.

The safest way to find them is to sort a folder by size; identical files have identical sizes and appear next to each other.

Automatic duplicate-finding programs exist and require care, because a file being in two places is sometimes deliberate.

Backing up

Organisation and backup are different problems. A beautifully organised computer that fails takes everything with it.

An external drive, copied to every few months, is the simplest reliable arrangement. Copy rather than move; the point is a second copy.

The documents worth backing up are almost always small: photographs, scans, letters. Programs can be reinstalled and are not worth including.

Handing it on

A computer used for twenty years accumulates things nobody else can find. A single text file listing where the important things are, kept in Documents, solves this.

Passwords are the other half. Written down at home in one place is more useful than perfectly memorised and lost.

This matters more than it sounds. Family members frequently cannot recover photographs from a computer they inherit.

What this guide does not cover

Backup software and services.

Encryption and secure deletion.

Business or shared file systems.

General information only. Menu names differ between systems and versions; look for the equivalent rather than the exact wording.