NOOB RESOURCES: Inventory Management & Organization

I've been in SL for over 16 years and never really had very good control over my inventory. The above image is probably an understatement.

So some advice:

NOOBS: Organize your inventory NOW; do it from the very beginning. Set up folders, create a system that works for you. As you unpack things, delete LMs, unpacker scripts, notecards, and anything else you don't need from the packaging, and delete the box after you've unpacked it. 

RETURNING RESIDENTS: If you've been gone a while, take all your old stuff and put it into a new folder called SORT, then create a new folder with a date range (see below) and start organizing now. Follow the same tips above for NOOBS. 

Here's how I do it:

I have a folder named ! 1 Skaty 2020-2024 (I update the year every January). Inside that, I have subfolders (1. Avi Stuff, 2. Clothing, etc.) and inside those, I have subfolders. 

Here's how my file system works:

Exclamation point (!) keeps things at the top of your folders. Numbered folders will show up below ! folders. I use a combination of ! and numbers (see the Head folder for an example). 

I use subfolders for categories, and if a category starts to get too unmanageable, I reassess and either give something its own category or add more subfolders. A good example is tattoos, which I break down into separate folders for Appliers and for BOM. When those folders started to get too big, I created subfolders in each and moved tattoos into categories like Back, Chest, Face, Multi (all over), Separate, etc.

If I have a LOT of items from one creator, I will often move them into their own folder.

Inside subfolders, I have a folder called ! Faves (name it whatever you have to so it stays at the top of that folder) where I put things I use all the time.

With hairs, I try to rename them to add a description of the style. I'll do the same with clothing too ("favorite sweater" or "best leggings" etc).

When sorting new items, I put them into a SORT folder, which I name ! 0 SORT NOW at the top of my inventory. I open two Inventory windows and drag things from the SORT NOW folder to where they belong, or I drop them into a main category and sort them when I have free time. If I get a bunch of stuff from one event, I'll create a separate folder within my SORT NOW folder with the name and date of the event.

Here's what my first few folders look like:

1. Avi Stuff

    ! 0 IMPORTANT - 

I keep a notecard with my shape numbers in here, along with troubleshooting notes, etc.

    ! 1 HUDs

       ! Head & Body HUDs

       ! AOs and Dance HUDs

       ! Admin HUDs

       ! Love HUDs

       ! Magic/Combat HUDs

       ! Everything Else

    ! 2 Head

       ! current

I move my current Head(s) to this folder, rather than keeping it in its creator folder below; if I switch to another head and no longer use what's in here, I move the old one back to its creator folder

       ! LAQ

       ! LeLUTKA

       1 Add-Ons/Deformers

       Other Heads

       y Facelights

       z Neck Faders

    ! 3 Ears

       ! Ears

       1 Ear Accessories

       2 Ear Tattoos 

    ! 4 Body

       ! current

       1 Bodies

       2 Add-Ons/Physics/Deformers

       3 Dev Kits

       4 Shaders, Shine, etc.

       5 Tools

       z old stuff

    ! 5 Avatars (full)

       This is for all those extra avi's (Dinkies, Tinies, etc.)

    ! a Makeup

       ! Blush

       ! Contour

       ! Eyebrows

       ! Eyeliners/Eyeshadows

         this has subfolders for liners only, shadows only, both

       ! Freckles/Beauty Marks

       ! Lashes

       ! Lips

       ! Misc (scars, face paint, blood, etc)

       ! Multi

       ! z Body Makeup

       LAQ

       Rubedo

       zz LeLutka Only

       zz Other Heads

       zz System Makeup (2012)

    ! b Manicures/Pedicures

2. Clothing

Clothing I break down by type (tops, bottoms, dresses, formalwear & gowns, outfits/sets, etc., and then I break those down further (like tops - faves, blouses, bodysuits,bra tops, bustiers/camis/tube tops/halters, hoodies/sweatshirts, sweaters, tanks, tees, etc.)

I still will create "by store names" folders for stores that I have a lot of stuff from inside the subfolders.

I interchangeably use two bodies (Maitreya Lara 5.3 and Lara X), so I actually went through my clothing folders and separated them out into folders for those two bodies within all those subfolders. Pain in the ass, but it was worth it in the end!

Anyway, you get the idea, so I'm not going to post all my folders. 

I did this last year, and it was a pain in the ass and took a lot of time, but once I got it done, my inventory became much more manageable, and I went from  198,000+ down to about 174,000.

I started with the folder tree and sorting things into folders. 

The next thing I did was filter my inventory to show only Landmarks and deleted most of those (I use teleport history or search for LMs), keeping only the ones I wanted to keep. 

Next I filtered to show only scripts and deleted all those stupid unpacker scripts. 

Next I did the same for notecards. 

Lastly, I deleted clothes/shoes for bodies I don't use. If I decide to use one of those bodies later, I can always get a redelivery.

Basically, strip your inventory of anything you don't NEED. Then, as you open new items, immediately delete the LMs, packaging scripts, and notecards you don't need (keep instructional ones if you need them).

If you have things you're holding onto strictly for sentimental reasons, create a box and dump them all into it. (I have a box full of Linden bears). If you can't part with all those clothes for bodies you don't use, dump them all into a box with that body's name.

If they are copy items, make sure you then delete them from your inventory after you put them in the box. I usually put everything I'm going to dump into a box into a separate folder, so I can just delete everything in the folder after I drop it all into the box.

One box = one inventory element; 200 items in a box will reduce your inventory count by 199 elements.

I wouldn't recommend you put more than 200-250 items in a box. You want to be able to peek at the contents, and if you have too many items in a box, it will be laggy while the contents load.

Finally...always have a folder somewhere in your inventory called "Weird-Ass Shit"...and keep the weird-ass shit! It's what makes SL what it is.