Organizing stash - category ideas needed

I am simple.. I am orgnaized by Shop>Designer... those that are not TLP I have a misc folder and then sorted by designer. I do not sort further as I keep all kits/designer intact. I use search in windows by my category to find something. Example if I am looking for a pelican, I search in my TLP folder for Pelican. If there is one it will pop up. If I need it for more than TLP then I search the entire EHD where I keep my supplies. This works for me.

I also do what Karen does and if I am having a hard time looking for something will search the store here and then look to see if I have that kit in my stash. If not and I "need" that item, I will buy it.

 

Me too!!!

 

I thought that if you use ACDSee, you lose tags if you move things around? Is that correct?

 

I feel like I read something recently about how you can force your tags into the metadata of your files now... I don't use ACDSee though so I'm not sure. I know in the early days that was a common complaint though. People would spend eons tagging their goodies and then when they'd get a new computer their hard work was all lost. That would kill me dead.

 

Yeah, it's the main reason why I didn't start using it. I love having my tags in the metadata: they've carried across computers and EHDs. But that's just me.

 

When I first looked at it, it would always have to rebuild the catalog of an EHD every time it was connected to a different computer (if I remember right... been a LONG time) And, since at that time, I went to a lot of retreats, I kept stuff on an EHD and would just switch it between desktop and laptop when needed. The rebuild every time I switched was unacceptable to me. Then I found Picasa which did what I wanted and didn't need to rebuild the index every time. I don't use tags so that isn't an issue.

 

As

As long as you set your program to embed metadata when you close ACDsee, you shouldn't lose tags. You are supposed to move things within ACDSee too.

 

I'm simple, too. I sort by shop (i.e. TLP) then alphabetically by designer. I like to keep my kits in their folders. All of my templates are TLP_Template_designer. If I'm looking for a specific thing, I do a general search and see what comes up and then go from there.

 

@Tree City I'd love to have a copy of your Excel file!

 

I'll get it to you tomorrow! (Somehow I missed this in my alerts, sorry!) You can of course change it to suit what you need, but it'll give yoy a jumping-off point as you play around with what works for you.

And if I can just say as an aside, the hardest part of organizing your stash is simply starting it/commiting to a process. Once you find what works for you, then you're golden.

 

on the topic of organizing, I'm slowly going through a lot of my old old old stuff. I typically would do a store folder and then designers within but I have random folders that I never sorted. So I came across this and was hoping someone could help me. I believe Pamela sold at The Digichick and Little Dreamer Designs but this has The Lilypad logo on it. Was this possibly when she was guest designer? I'm not sure which store folder to put it in!

 

I only have current designers in each store folder. I wouldn't like to scrap a page with a designer's kit that I can't post in the gallery.

 

Ha! No kidding! I've basically combed through the forum and taken notes on all the ideas that speak to me and am in the process of implementing. Which means un-doing what I did on my last organizational approach and adding a few extra layers!! LOL I am confident cautiously optimistic that I'm building a system that should last me for a long while.

 

Ah! Thank you so much!! I was wondering the time frame of this kit and where she would have been! But I'm guessing LDD is no longer a thing so I wonder if I should even keep an LDD folder? What do you all do for those products and/or designers that are no longer around? Do you guys keep all their stuff organized differently and scrap with them just for yourself since they can't be posted anywhere?

 

What I have done for designers that I have lots of kits for and they are no longer designing, is put them in their own folder which is under a folder called "Other Digi Scrap Kits" that hangs out on a EHD. Old stores that are no longer in existence that I have stuff for is also in that folder. And, stuff that is really old but I just don't want to get rid of especially if I purchased it. I cleaned out the freebies I got when I first started a few years ago. That folder pretty much has stuff that I purchased.

And, yeah, once in awhile I will dig into it and use something. Just a couple weeks ago I was doing a layout that I wanted to match to one I had done years ago. Thanks to my tracking spreadsheet I could figure out the items used and found them in this folder. I also don't scrap to post layouts anymore, I scrap with me so it doesn't matter if the kit/designer is retired or even 10 years old. If it fits what I want to scrap, I use it.

 

I am using Lightroom because I have it, but I've adopted a much simpler approach to tagging. I do keep kits together and then under a designer folder (once I've appropriately incorporated them into my stash). But for tagging, I only tag previews and templates. I have kit preview, paper preview, brush preview, alpha preview, element preview, wordart/title preview, and journal card preview. I need to separate out paint preview from brush preview, but for now often paint get tagged with brush preview. I also tag my templates by 1, 2, 3 or 4+ photos. I can use lightroom to search by filename for flower, staple, stitch etc. I mostly only have stuff from TLP, so I don't worry about separating out by store.

Using the previews, I can see all of them for my entire stash, or I can choose a designer's folder and see all previews for that designer.