Rob Brennan

Blaazzzhhhuuuuuu!  OK, ok...that was my poor attempt at blowing a virtual horn to ring in the new year - but you get the idea. This is the perfect opportunity to start anew. 

If you are like me, chances are you have a lot of files stored on your computer. Why not kick off the new year by starting with a clean slate and organizing this mess? I would suggest creating a folder labeled "_Archive" in your Documents area. You can use this folder to store all of the files/folders you created.

Simply drag and drop all of the files you've saved/created under your Documents area into this folder. Once you have moved all of your creations to this folder, you can then weed through your files and see what you really need to work with. Move the files/folders that you use the most back under your Documents area; and leave the rest in the archive. Eventually, you will go through your personal archive and see what files you need quick access to, what files you want to keep, and what files you no longer need.

Example of a finished reorganizationIn my example, you can see there are lots of folders and files located under my "_Archive" folder.  Anything that I am currently using or working on was moved back under the original Documents folder. 

After an hour's work, I managed to reclaim approximately twenty-plus gigabytes (20+ GB) of storage space, identify files I truly wanted/needed to retain, and found a bunch of files that I would never use from today forward. 

For extra credit, how about uninstalling/removing those applications you no longer use? I found a number of applications that I had no intention of using again - so why clutter the hard drive?

Did you find this tip useful? Please leave your feedback (or contact me) if you'd like to see more tips like these - or if you have a question of your own.