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Please share tips on how you organize your inventory


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8 minutes ago, Ariel Vuissent said:

Seriously, I have great intentions and horrible followthrough.

^^ This is me.  I have a wonderfully organized section for everything, unfortunately my "to be sorted" folder is way too large and usually grows rather than shrinks.  That folder itself was getting so out of hand way back whenever that I actually created a few sub-folders in it (clothing, furniture, poses, hair, etc...).  Every now and then, I'll make myself do some serious inventory work and then the 'to be sorted' folder will shrink.  However, I'll soon find myself doing too much shopping and/or hunts and the next thing I know, that darn folder is growing again.   I probably wear as many items or more from that set of folders as I do from the truly organized set.

*sigh*

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4 hours ago, Rhonda Huntress said:

The fastest way to organize an unruly inventory is to delete it all and buy new stuff

No really. It worked wonders for me .. starting over with a clean inventory, not burdened by hundreds of pairs of shoes that aren't worth the time it would take to rez them.

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i'm thinking Skell and i might be related : ) i have "folders" and "subfolders" for everything including NCs.....the most important thing i would suggest is when you decide to work on your inventory....put on some music that you really like and devote blocks of time to work on it....its a ongoing process and you will find what works best for you.

 

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On 4/20/2018 at 6:36 PM, Nimue Galatea said:

Can't find any good guides or YouTube videos on this, so am going ahead and asking the SL community directly. Inventory mayhem!

Ever since I lost 15,000 items from inventory due to the "overflowing trash bug" (yes, it was a bug, and the Lindens have put in failsafes against this without capturing the bug), I have made sure not to make a zillion folders hang off one non-system folder as I used to. I think that could be a problem because obviously that entire folder can end up in trash. Obviously I didn't deliberately pull a folder with a hundred sub-folders into trash, but there it is, it happened.

So now I put those sub-folders off "object" which is a system folder you cannot put in trash. And I hope that's "better" but I don't know.

Like this:

Objects

     Art & Sculpture

    Bars

    Chairs

    Desk & Tables

If I'm in a hurry, I put objects in "Notecard" where they will stick out and force me to move them.

I try to unpack each purchase or gift immediately and put it in its folders. My inventory is pushing 100,000, so I keep trying to eliminate things. An obvious thing is all those duplicates of calling cards, also a bug, but landmarks and random commercial notecards are also items.

Opening up two copies of the inventory menu is the most helpful as you can drag all the unsorted things into folders.

MARKETPLACE is the most important sorting folder! There you can SELL the transferable items. Even after I have run out of duplicate gachas, if something is selling, I sell even my own last copy, since obviously it's more important to somebody else willing to pay for it than to me, where it has sat in inventory for a year.

Whenever there is some event round with freebies, I give them a hard look and delete them if I really don't think I like them or will use them.

When I catch items, especially freebies and cheapies, that I haven't even looked at in a year, I delete them. 

There isn't a way to manage inventory in SL because they haven't created one. Things like Catnip are good but that's a third-party viewer and I won't use those.

There are only a few methods to minimize the chaos.

I keep doing searches on things like "chairs" or on creator names and then sorting the unsorted, and deleting the ugly.

I also make sure "lost and found" is always empty. Trash, too. Yes, if you see "500 items" it's worth cursing through to see if it's a bug again. But by emptying it regularly you can stay on top of it.

I also have put some holiday or little-used "legacy" items in file boxes that you can buy, they're just prims with textures you can label, I don't think that inventory management devices in SL are anything more than that. I stash them around in my inworld offices or hangouts. Of course that runs the risk those items could be lost, too. But I've had more cases of inventory lost from inside my inventory than inworld so I will take my chances.

Edited by Prokofy Neva
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20 hours ago, Lewis Luminos said:

I do pretty much the same as the rest of you with folders and subfolders.

One thing I have changed recently, is moving everything our of the Objects folder and put it in a new top-level folder called My Objects. Now the original Objects folder is effectively an "Unsorted stuff" folder.

When I buy something I delete all the landmarks, bag-holding scripts etc and most of the notecards (unless there are detailed instructions I might need in the future). If there's an ad picture, I keep that; it's useful for seeing what clothing looks like without taking it out and wearing it. I don't delete unused sizes of mesh clothes though; because who knows what mesh body I may get in the future. I've even found a use for the Niramyth Aesthetic ones; some of them fit my Jomo wolf avatar.

There is one area of my inventory that is still in dire need of better organisation though, and that's my textures and snapshots. There are a lot of uploaded and shared snapshots in my textures folder; I keep moving them but I swear they breed! 

I used to do that, but the risk there is that your entire "My Objects" folder can be accidentally put in trash. So while it is more clicks, it's worth putting that folder under the system folder Objects.

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Greetings all!

Thank you SO much to the community members for posting their Inventory Organization suggestions.  

I for one have an issue with unruly inventory as well.  It is VERY easy to get overwhelmed with inventory and it is great to see the suggestions from everyone.

As was said, start slow and do not try to do it all at once.  

Personally, I would pick the easiest/smallest group first so that it is something that can be finished relatively quickly without feeling like you are swamped with the task.  

It is vitally important to keep both the Objects Folder and the Received Items area cleared.  

If there are too many items in your Objects folder, it can cause lag when loading your inventory and it may not show all of the items.

The Received Items section is separate from your main SL inventory.  This means that the Search function does not work for items still in the Received Items area.  If you have items in the Received Items section, those items should be the top priority for moving/sorting into your main inventory.

We receive a lot of requests for help from users reporting issues with not being able to find things in their inventory, and the items end up being in the Received Items section, so search never shows those products. 

Cheers All~

 

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I spent an entire week or so making subfolders to presort things into, then another opening vendors boxes, deciding what to keep, what to pack up and what to just trash, filling those presort folders as I went.  Now I work on uploading the items into my Wardrobe.  The stuff I can wear gets special treatment.  That being said, you do have to develop a method to control the madness.  You might just need to get as far as my presorting, you might need to get further.  But take it in chunks, the most overwhelming thing you can do is look at it as all one gigantic mass.

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I do have to agree with Prok about trying to keep your own handmade folders to a minimum.  I had some and they were all pretty, with folders made with special characters for dividing categories, and lost no copy items twice.  Near as I can guess, it may have had something to do with the way I made my dividing folders, but anything that was in further folders under them that was no copy, disappeared.  After the second time, I took them out of those areas, moved them up to my Objects folder till they are further sorted, and nothing has disappeared in that fashion since.

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40 minutes ago, Dakota Linden said:

Greetings all!

Thank you SO much to the community members for posting their Inventory Organization suggestions.  

I for one have an issue with unruly inventory as well.  It is VERY easy to get overwhelmed with inventory and it is great to see the suggestions from everyone.

As was said, start slow and do not try to do it all at once.  

Personally, I would pick the easiest/smallest group first so that it is something that can be finished relatively quickly without feeling like you are swamped with the task.  

It is vitally important to keep both the Objects Folder and the Received Items area cleared.  

If there are too many items in your Objects folder, it can cause lag when loading your inventory and it may not show all of the items.

The Received Items section is separate from your main SL inventory.  This means that the Search function does not work for items still in the Received Items area.  If you have items in the Received Items section, those items should be the top priority for moving/sorting into your main inventory.

We receive a lot of requests for help from users reporting issues with not being able to find things in their inventory, and the items end up being in the Received Items section, so search never shows those products. 

Cheers All~

 

Hey Dakota, I don't mean to pounce on you but someone was a bit perplexed by your post and asked me to have a look as a TPV dev.

Most TPVs let you search in the Received Items folder for a while now, but even the official viewer will let you search it as well (it just won't include the folder with the others like TPVs do, but you can search and it will filter the Received Items panel).

I'll have to admit that I also don't understand why (from the viewer's point of view) having many items in any given folder would cause "lag"; all inventory is a lookup table the difference is traversing a list of 5,000 vs a list of 150,000 total. There's some back end issues from having too many folders (which can - and did in the past - cause some problems logging in) and there was the issue that huge folders (most notably the trash) cause back end issues too but that's hardly what anyone would describe as "lag".

Again, sorry for seemingly pouncing, but there's already a myriad of myths on inventory management that users end up with.

---

<on-topic>

Sort sentimental things vs non-sentimental things; if it's older then a couple of years, toss it, especially if you didn't ever even bother to unpack it. Yes, you paid money for it, and it might feel bad, but chances are that you'll never ever use it simply because it's no longer relevant (system clothing layers) or looks bad/dated (prim-based furniture).

Also, even if they can pry your insert-your-favourite-viewer-here from your cold dead hands, some of them are aimed at letting your search your inventory better, or to keep it organized better so you can use those to your advantage to get the sorting out of the way and then just relog back as you were.

Example: I used to keep a shopping bag folder around but then my root folder would fill up with 500 million demo folders (that I would never end up cleaning up). I'm also mildly OCD about hopping to each and every event I can which means stuff piles in at 10 times the rate that I could ever hope to sort it in (yes, shopping addict, *hangs head*).

Which gave way to this:

image.png.883bf12372536202ef62e43817f36632.png

As soon I buy/receive/anything something there's a drop-down to let/force me to at least semi-sort it on the spot (and as you can tell, I can make any old folder look/feel like a system folder.

The next step was to unpack things into the folder the prim is in rather than somewhere at the root:

image.png.389d6fe0eeafbf03ec4411694df57301.png

Both those features were made with the intent that in spite of the best intentions, most people won't organize their inventory (or keep it organized), but these two working together let you unclutter it without spending any time on it and while it might be a bit of a bump, I've received nothing but very positive feedback.

Then finally, searching for inventory was improved, because just organized or not, you'd rather just type something in quickly if you know what you want than having to hunt for it, so there's a new inventory finder:

image.png.45636a869f04ce924ff04261e6f9894b.png

The big difference being that you can search for an exact (which is how we were all searching), but additionally "contains ALL of these wprds" or "contains ANY of these words" which is really powerful since most of the time you'll vaguely remember something "it was a companion, ... or an animal, ..., or a plushy.

(For the crazy people you can use regular expressions as well but there's no UI for that)

Finally, an old-time feature, but something people sorting their inventory love (adding inventory tabs at will):

image.png.4c3222261b84d43eb0dea61b6ee8b4fd.png

TLDR - There's a lot the viewer can do for you too, if your inventory ended up disorganized then chances are it will always be to some extent or another so the viewer should be helping you organize it at least a little, and allowing you to find things easier and it's something that's been getting little to no attention (so feel free to nag to have it - or things like it - included because the response I got was that it was too complicated for the official viewer).

</on-topic>

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1 hour ago, Dakota Linden said:

As was said, start slow and do not try to do it all at once.  

Personally, I would pick the easiest/smallest group first so that it is something that can be finished relatively quickly without feeling like you are swamped with the task.  

It is vitally important to keep both the Objects Folder and the Received Items area cleared. 

 

^THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!^

You CANNOT do it all at once .

Mine will probably take me the rest of this year with currently 63k items in it.

TAKE YOUR TIME! Remember to eat and drink (!!!) enough (water) as this is actually mental work. You have to stay focussed and you lose track of time way too easily.  Remember to take breaks to relax and do something fun (e.g. shopping :P - it does your head in to have more to sort though^^) and don´t neglect this... "Real Life" stuff^^ I know the story is meh at times but hey... the graphics are ACE!

(I´m actually damn serious here... if you´re dedicated to actually do it ...you´re up for quite the task)

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21 hours ago, gabriialle said:

Same as i do my bedroom, shove it all in the closet real tight,  then put the chair against it, so it doesn't pop back open when me mum comes to check it!  Tadaa!!  Puts hand in air for fiving... 

High fives you back! My RL best friend and SL sister and I have called that method the " stuff and shove" since about 4th grade, lmao!

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20 hours ago, Kitty Barnett said:

Hey Dakota, I don't mean to pounce on you but someone was a bit perplexed by your post and asked me to have a look as a TPV dev.

Most TPVs let you search in the Received Items folder for a while now, but even the official viewer will let you search it as well (it just won't include the folder with the others like TPVs do, but you can search and it will filter the Received Items panel).

I'll have to admit that I also don't understand why (from the viewer's point of view) having many items in any given folder would cause "lag"; all inventory is a lookup table the difference is traversing a list of 5,000 vs a list of 150,000 total. There's some back end issues from having too many folders (which can - and did in the past - cause some problems logging in) and there was the issue that huge folders (most notably the trash) cause back end issues too but that's hardly what anyone would describe as "lag".

Again, sorry for seemingly pouncing, but there's already a myriad of myths on inventory management that users end up with.

<snip>

Hi Kitty!

Thank you for your comments and for allowing me to clarify my comments.  I should know better than to post on a Monday with no coffee :)

1. Searching inventory & the Received Items section.

The Received Items section is closed by default on the LL viewer. If it is not opened when the search is done, the user will not see any results for that area.  It is very easy to miss any search results that hit items in that section.  A lot of users who report not being able to find purchased items in their inventory do have the items, but the items are still in the Received Items section and the user is not seeing it when browsing, or searching for items. 

Personally, we still recommend that users keep that section of their inventory clear as it is very easy to forget that the items are in that section and that it is closed by default and wont show any search results while closed. 

2. Inventory Lag.  

If a user has a LOT of items in their inventory, when they log in and open their inventory for the first time,  it can take a long time to load all of the items.  My use of "lag" in this instance was in reference to the time it takes to load a users inventory completely when it is opened.  Not that inventory causes lag in Second Life itself, like when 10's of thousands of scripts are running on a region or parcel. 

One issues that was noted, and Bug Reported, was if a user opened their Marketplace Listings folder before their inventory fully loaded, it could result in their Marketplace Item Listings being affected, and unlisted. 

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-100560

Personally, I still recommend keeping the Objects folder and Received Items section cleared as best as possible and items from those folders should be sorted into other folders in the users inventory. 

I hope this clarifies what my original post stated. :D

 

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1 hour ago, Dakota Linden said:

Personally, I still recommend keeping the Objects folder and Received Items section cleared as best as possible and items from those folders should be sorted into other folders in the users inventory. 

I haven't been following this thread but I saw Dakota had replied so I looked to see.

This was also mentioned for Firestorm (I think by Whirly) as a possible help for disappearing inventory since there have been more issues in the past in the main default folders than in handmade folders. So many months ago I made myself a  "MY OBJECTS FOLDER" and a "MY CLOTHING FOLDER" and moved things from the default folder into those. I still have things in the objects folder of course as items come in there and when I upload any mesh it appear there. But it is SMALLER now and easier to sort into other personal folders. 

 

So something to think about.  I still lose inventory but maybe not AS MUCH? I can't really compare obviously but it doesn't take long to do this.

 

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On 4/23/2018 at 11:16 PM, Aislin Ceawlin said:

High fives you back! My RL best friend and SL sister and I have called that method the " stuff and shove" since about 4th grade, lmao!

looooool punches fist in air! (..that im not all alone in my lil` untidy world..) besides, going in there is just like going shopping again! only for free! (..all the goodies ya forgot ya bought.. ) i get at least one treat every day...kneeslides =) 

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YAY!  Inventory!    Okay ... Um...  Ya'll get to see some of how I am...  Um....  maybe... A Little OCD.   

On 4/24/2018 at 10:53 AM, Dakota Linden said:

 ...  recommend keeping the Objects folder and Received Items section cleared as best as possible and items from those folders should be sorted into other folders in the users inventory... 

When I have trapped a new user and started their denoobyfication, part of how I phrase it is this.    

System folders are Inboxes for the types of assets in SL.     I also explain that some are other special folders: Current Outfit, Outfits, etc.    The why I define the inbox ones as inboxes, I can follow up with ...  Clean your inboxes! Sort the stuff!   If the inbox gets too full, it can explode!

Some of my OCD inventory sorting stuff

I do use the system folders for some of the more frequently used things.  examples: some dances I can play anywhere in Animations, hairbases in a folder in Body Parts  (Still might need to swap a hairbase to force a rebake, even if there are other things to click now), but I keep them lightly populated, a few hundred things, mostly.

Except for Clothes....   in Clothes  (since no one much hands out loose system layer clothes anymore) .. all the things in a set of folders that roughly correspond to the a combination of the Asset types & Functional groupings.  With relevant folders subdivided between things safe for General Rated land and Adult land.  This seems to help jar my memory when searching and I cant remember the exact name of a thing.  and really!   it only sounds complicated.

These Meta-Group Folders that are prefaced with a double number system   AA.BB.   This allows for using AA like a category or sub-category, and BB for a number in the category or sub-category.   Can skip numbers just like typing line numbers in an old basic program.  So can avoid renumbering the whole mess.   Example being  10.02, 10.05, 20.00, 21.10, 30.01, 40.00, etc

Because...    Depending on your most common use case.  Using Numbers to Order the folders can massage the inventory search.  Things that are more common for you to use are at the very top, or the very bottom.  Since can just use the scroll bar to slam to the bottom of the list.

Example of this is things like hand held accessories that are not saved to an outfit are in 20's  so it is near the top.   Clothes and mesh bodies and system bodies and complete avatars (like the cool giant spider) are in the 40's and 50's, the middle, since you can save the outfit and access it via the appearance window.  Then all the Building supplies and stuff are in a higher number, so can jump to the bottom.   Also DEMOS and Boxes to sort, subdivided by event or flexible time periods based on the volume of stuff is at the bottom too.

So maybe that made sense.    But it is having a big set of existing folders to start sorting things into.  then as you go along, refine and expand the subfolders.

Also I number saved outfits like that too  -- It works like the Category number would be a folder for Types of Outfits.  Examples being 50.01 beachwear something,  52.01 cocktail dress something.   You dont have to resave the saved outfits to do this renaming.   You can open the Outfits/My Outfits folder and just prefix the entries there with numbers.   Might have to relog a few times to kick the appearance window named outfits to catch up.  But works.    However I do keep the Category Numbers AA = 10 to 19 clear, because I have another trick...   Making Fast Access Groupings

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Has this happened?     You Open the Inventory and teh Lag or even worse  accidentally dragging a folder into the wrong place

So Try .....Making Fast Access Grouping in the Appearance Window 

Consider this.   You have a collection of items that work together for multiple outfits, and in the inventory the items are spread across several folders.   Most likely the folders are used to assign a name to a no mod item, so you know that it is the one that is Red, or has been sized to fit a specific shape, etc.   

Try this....

1)  wear just the core body, system shape, skin, eyes, hairbase

2) wear the assorted items.   Like 38 different hairs, or HUD, combat meter, and all the guns.

3) save the outfit -- using numbers 10.00 - 19.00 to float this to the top of appearance window.   Like 11.04 Hair Curly Red,  13.00 Combat System

  --- Until you get used to this you might wanna include <add> in the name of the outfit.  Like 11.02 <add> Hair Short Blond,  so you don't go and try to wear the whole outfit

4) open inventory and go to the appropriate subfolder in the outfits / my outfits folder

5) delete the links to the core body parts

6) open appearance window and change into a 'Real Outfit'.  One containing the core body parts

7) Expand the entry in the appearance window to the 'Fake Outfit'

8) Add the items individually via right click

Now you have a tab in the appearance window that allows faster access / no opening the whole inventory / no accidentally dragging a folder into the wrong place -- for a set of items. Is very useful if it is a thingie that gets updated and normally would have to save to a lotta outfits.

So especially for you Guys out there ...   No need for having to save .. that special avatar accessory...  to all the outfits.     18.00 <add>  Aeros  

 

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I find sorting my inventory to be one of my favourite hobbies in SL. Yes, I am serious. It is relaxing to my mind when I'm piled up with stress or want to go into hermit mode. As long as my sorting system makes sense to me, then I'm totally cool with that. 

In the system Clothing Folder, I have sub-folders of my fav clothing stores. And sub-folders of themed RP or non-everyday outfits.
In the system Lost and Found Folder, I have sub-folders labled: Maybe to Throw Away and What the He**  is This?
In the system Objects Folder, I have sub-folders Landscaping, with a nested folders First Gen, Second Gen, Third Gen. I have the same set up for Houses. 
Also in the Objects Folder, there are other sub-folders of my own creations, though they are labeled:  'Crap I Made Years Ago. and 'Crap I made recently' and 'Unpacked Hunts'
Also in the Objects Folder, there are sub-folders with: 'Crap to Sort Out 2014.' Crap to Sort Out 2015,' etc up until this year. 

Then in the Main Inventory, I have two folders: Ready to be Inventoried: Clothes and Ready to be Inventoried: Non Clothes from there all the hairs go into the hair folder to the appropriate sub-folders. Same with clothing, shoes, furniture, wearables, accessories.
Things from the Ready to be Inventoried folders are put into their appropriate sub-folder in the main folder: Newly Inventoried: Hunts/Freebies/Gifts/ Keep!

My shoes are foldered by type of shoe like Long Boots, Short Boots, Heels and Pumps, Sneakers and Sandals

When I am doing an active hunt, I'll name a folder with the name of the hunt, then create two sub folders with: Ready to be Inventoried and Trash it - then just move the contents of the sub-folders to where they need to go. 

My bondage gear and BDSM attire goes into it's own folder. 
For my mesh body stuff, I have a folder with Mesh Body Related with sub folders for mesh eyes:->Fantasy,Human,Goth, Omega Makeup:->Eyeshadow,Lipstick,FullFace, Omega Tattoos, Mesh Head folder, where stash my Matreiya body parts and different shapes, Omega/Matreyia Mesh Clothes:-> Tops,Underwear/Swimwear,dresses/gowns/skirts/jeans/shorts 

Now, my building supplies and textures, meshes, old sculpty maps.... 

Sculpty maps are boxed up according to year purchased.
FP Mesh are foldered according to content creator - each having their own folder. 
Textures are foldered into ones bought and catagoried as to what type of texture it is, along with AO map.
Textures I Gimped or AO'ed in it's own special folder. 

Things I list on the MP, has it's own folder of copied from marketplace listings feature. 
I have a old storage box system that has it's own folder named: Boxed Storage with sub folders of what and from which years

My old system clothes, that I just can't bear to delete because they still hold memories for me, are sub foldered in system Body Parts folder, along with my Furry and Non Human avatars.

My inventory count is 137,652. I empty my trash often. After I have gained more things into my inventory, then I will go through and trash things, that way I don't feel bad about getting new stuff, because it's a reward to myself for trashing some old stuff or stuff I don't use anymore or would never use again. 

I learned after all these years that one's inventory is simply a way of virtual life.  One can not 'win' it. One an not 'fight it'. One can only -just- accept it for what it is. I use the search inventory bar a lot, use it like I do Google:) 

 

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