Organizing computer files

I have used computers for probably about 20 years now and up until a few months ago, I have finally learned to keep files organized. I think the change happened when I got my first MacBook Air M1. In the mac, the window and file managing are to me as life long Windows user very slow and kind of “strict” if you will. For example, you cannot cut, drag & drop files from one place to another so easily like in Windows and I think that change put my mind into a perspective – not to rush around so much on a computer and think your actions more thoroughly.

Before all those years I mostly had 3-4 folders on my desktop, dividing files into categories (like misc, images, other docs, programs and so on) and I well knew that there was “Pictures”, “Documents” folder already existing while start menu and taskbar for programs. Eventually, when there gathered too many files on my desktop and I did not feel like cleaning it I just made 1 folder named “stuff” and dragged everything into it and the problem grew and grew.

Like I tried for years with every new PC or formatting to keep things clean but after a few months it always ends up like a huge mess. I think the problem began at the same time I bought myself my very first 3TB HDD to store stuff. Because I still have that HDD working on one of my PCs and it’s a disaster there. I even cannot find sometimes some old stuff that I want to find there. But in a standard MacBook Air M1, there is only a very limited amount of space (256GB if not mistaken) and I realized that I should not keep every random image or meme from the internet forever. So I finally rewired my brain to delete the stuff I need not to “maybe I need it in the future”… nah, just delete it and keeping things clean gets better results to solving future problems.

Now writing this I think that I now know what my parent’s generation is feeling about physical things when they horde every single X item just because “maybe I’m going to need it” because in their younger lives the resources were scarce. Yeah like after 20 years when you might need it the item has already suffered under moisture, sunlight, time itself and everything else. The item after that time does not look any good and can only satisfy a “possible workable” level of condition for a short period making future problems more probably to rise even sooner.