Inventory clothing/outift strategies - how do YOU do it?

[Space Zehetbauer]

I have never settled on a simple and effective way to organise my clothes and outfits in my inventory and thought I would reach out and see what methods others use.

Do you organise by outift? or by character? or my clothing items?

And where in your inventory do you do this, given some of the pre made folders have limitations, ie you cant create subfolders.

I read a post by someone who created subfolders in their Objects folder for their outfits and tried that idea yesterday. It has possibilities as I can build on that.

So really just hit me with it lol

[Stephanie Misfit]

I just use the Outfits folder, and name the outfits carefully including head and body name, and take a picture.

[James Starling]

My inventory is organised with folders for where the items go, e.g:

• Headwear
• Neck
• Torso 
• Legs
• Footwear
• Full outfits
• Hands 
• Glasses 

Then I use CTS wardrobe to either put clothes on or take them off. 

[Ceka Cianci]

I make outfit folders for my outfits.

Then I also give each of my mesh bodies items, their own directories under the clothing directory..

Each body gets their own  full outfits folder, for full outfits I buy, then a Tops folder and a bottoms folder, Swimwear folder, lingeriefolder and Shoes&boots,Sneakers&Sandles folder.. pretty much everything that they will wear..

I'll also, once I get enough outfit folders made, will make a sub-directory under that mesh body named for example, Lara X outfit folders, or Lara X petite outfit folders.. then move my outfit folders to that folder..

I use the main default directories for pretty much what they are labeled.. My mesh heads and bodies and skins and things like that , will go in the body parts directory.

I try to keep everything in it's own directory, under the default directories..

Mesh bodies go in a main mesh bodies folder, then each gets their own directory for their addons. The same for mesh heads get their folder and each their own directory under that folder, skins get their folder , shapes and so on..

I try to keep things where I can get to them fast..

I'd just post a picture of it, if I wasn't going to bed soon, but can tomorrow ..

I'm probably making it sound worse than it is really.. It's a pretty quick system really.. It just takes a lot to put it into words.. especially when I'm so ready to get to sleep.. hehehe

 

Edited November 23 by Ceka Cianci

[Chery Amore]

I use the system folders but mostly Clothing and Body Parts are what I need to keep organized. My Objects folder is very cluttered but I create folders for Buildings, Furniture/Decor, Landscaping and Vehicles in those, with subfolders. If I'm lazy or behind I just dump everything into the broader category and deal with it later. Sometimes I make a folder called "dumped (with the year)".
Back to the Clothing folder... so in that main folder I make other folders.. Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, Accessories, Costumes .. most of them are divided by store since I tend to have a lot from certain stores. If I only have an item or two I might drop it in a Various Stores folder. I have the same sort of system for the Body Parts main folder only for that I'll have Heads/Bodies, Hair, Makeup, and Skins folders.

My bf has scripted me a RLV device also, it is pretty complicated, but its how I make my outfits and how I can change quickly. It consists of a reset folder that has everything I always wear when nude but without hair or jewelry, the reset folder is locked on.. I can unlock it but it's helpful because my ao, deformer or whatever wont just decide to pop off,  it's somehow scripted to force reset things on that have popped off. 
The fun part of it is I set up different hairstyles and outfits by category in it... and it has a touch/menu system so I can decide what to wear without going into my inventory. I like being able to switch quickly but still know I'm going to be the basic "me".  It's a little difficult to keep up with but really nice for changing outfits very quickly. If I get tired of an outfit I just delete the folder knowing I have everything safe in the default folders I described in the first paragraph.

 

[Alazarin Mondrian]

I have a very simple Inventory and outfit organisation method.

[Arwyn Quandry]

I mostly use the CTS Wardrobe, as I prefer the visual interface, but within my inventory itself, I have it sorted into broad categories - hair, pants, shirts - and some smaller categories - long hair, short hair, hats, etc. I started doing this very early so I'm reasonably organized. 

[Orwar]

   Cracks knuckles. Okay, here we go ..

   Inventory:

   For 'stuff', I primarily use 3 of the system folders; body parts, clothing, and objects. 

• The clothing folder is subdivided into categories for tops, bottoms, footwear, accessories, dresses & suits, underwear & beachwear, and costumes & outfits. Each one is then further divided, such as tops sprawling into shirts, tees, vests, jackets & coats, etc. 
• Each item is then placed into the correct (or 'closest') category, with a strict formula of folder naming going <Store Name> - <Product Name> - <Colour/FP>
• The accessories folder contains just about anything that isn't 'clothes' but that you wear, except for HUD games and their stuff. Holdables includes both static photo props, weapons, food & drink, etc, all subdivided as needed (I don't have a 'ton' of weapons, but if I did I might further divide things into melee weapons and firearms or such, and if I had a ton of fire arms I might further divide things into rifles, assault rifles, SMGs, pistols, etc - and this applies to all categories, so if any given folder gets too big I might divide it up in whatever way I feel makes sense to me).

 

• Body parts follows a similar structure. Head & Body, Skins & BoM Mods, Hair & Beard, Wings & Horns, and Shapes & Deformers - since I haven't got a ton of stuff to put in there it doesn't take a whole lot more subdivision, Head & Body just has my body, my head, my eyes, and my 'extra'. Hairs are sorted by store.

 

• Objects is a bit different, since that's a broader category.
• It has my Backups folder, in which boxes are just stored under the store name, which have been split into subfolders alphabetically. 
• Vehicles & Animals (again, I don't have so many that I feel either needs a separate category), vehicles are then split into land, air, and sea, then follows the usual <Store Name> - <Product Name> formula.
• Then there's furniture & decor, which I've divided by rooms (living room, bedroom, kitchen & dining room, bathroom & laundry, office & study), followed by more 'general' stuff like lighting (wall/floor/ceiling/table top), decor (divided as lighting + 'seasonal'), and finally I have one for 'utilities' (teleporters, orbs, other 'functional' stuffs). 
• Building & Landscaping, follows a similar structure with buildings & structures, weather & ambiance (sound emitters, snow / rain), exterior furniture & features (cemetery decor, street lights, garden furniture and appliances), and nature (trees, foliage, rocks, paths & roads, etc). Since I don't do a whole lot of it, there isn't a whole lot in there. 
• 'Schtuffs', this is where I put HUD games, photo gadget HUDs/posers, random projects I'm working on (meshes and prim builds), memories (those objects that remind you of what was happening when you got it or stuff from someone who's no longer around, and all those Christmas cards and wedding invitations and stuff - I have a similar folder in my notecards directory, as some send notecards rather than HUD cards - I may merge them at some point!).

 

   Outfits:

   Outfits can very quickly create a whole lot of inventory bloating. Not that I know if it's necessarily a bad thing (but my goal is to stray not too far from 10,000 elements - I'm currently at around 10,200 on Orwar!). So I have one base outfit, contains my avatar with all the body parts and layers and everything. And then I make outfits that only contain the clothes/accessories I want to add to my avi (or remove, if I want to swap outfit or get nekkid). 

• To make such an outfit you can simply add the things to your avi, and create a temporary folder.
• Go to your current outfit and select all of the things (I can usually use shift to select them as I sort by most recent and everything ends up on the top, but you can also use control clicking to select them if not). Right-click & hit 'copy'.
• Go to your temporary outfits folder and right-click on it and click 'paste' (since you're copying links, they'll be links).
• Now go to your Outfits folder, right-click and select 'new outfit', this creates an empty outfit folder. Give it a name!
• You may now notice you can't 'paste' into the new outfit folder, that's because you can only do one link at a time when using 'paste as link', and outfit folders can only contain links.
• So, simply drag-and-drop all the contents of your temporary outfit folder into it. 
  

   Now, just like that, you have an outfit with only 4 elements in it, rather than 32 in my case as my 'base' outfit contains 28.

   And, getting dressed / undressed is as simple as this:

   It's almost like turning your wardrobe into that sort of tear-off stripper clothing .. And yes, this is a process I've done a lot more of on Neph, getting Orwar dressed is usually not a very long process - not as many options to go with, just 'which top, which bottoms, which shoes, and do I want any accessories today?'.

   You can also add folder images to both your outfit gallery and to your inventory for easier browsing, I've started doing it for Neph's hairs/outfits and new purchases that get sorted into the clothing folders, but I have some work to do yet.

[gwynchisholm]

I have folders for clothing, accessories, and misc avatar items.

And then I only keep what I’m usually wearing in those folders, as I stop wearing other items often or switch up avatars, I archive the items I’m not using.

So if I want to go back to them I can, it’s just a little reorganization. But otherwise it keeps inventory clutter to a minimum.

[Rowan Amore]

Sorry, the only outfit I have is a basic one.  I don't think I've ever worn the same outfit, which includes hair, accessories, shoes, etc., twice.  I love mixing and matching.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

"Strategies"????? 🙁

[Love Zhaoying]

19 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

"Strategies"????? 🙁

'Cause it's a game!

[discussionbot]

How do you guys have so much time. 

I unpack everything in the main inventory since search operators are really useful and fish out the thing you want in seconds. I just add keywords to main folders if it has a weird non-descriptive name, and usually use brand names to find things. It works better than it sounds most of the time. 

[Space Zehetbauer]

38 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

"Strategies"????? 🙁

So you don’t wake up and reach for your "SL To Do List" and consider
1. Assess Inventory Strategies

?? Interesting.  🙂

 

[Space Zehetbauer]

Thanks for the great responses so far, love it!

And a few of you have written epic responses, photos and all. Thanks for taking the time to do that, I really appreciate it.

Orwar, you need to find a publisher for your epic, I see Best Seller written all over that 🙂

Reading the responses did alert me to a few things that I was TOTALLY unaware of, even though I have lived in SL for over 150,000 years!

Seriously, who would have known you could add an image to a folder or sub folder? Do you realise how much easier my SL will become after today with just that single, simple piece of information?

I am a visual person, so my inventory drives me nuts.

Being able to hover and see an image of the outfit, or hair etc is going to make my SL so much easier I will have time to do other things now.

No wonder so many of you actually get out and about and explore places. Your inventory practices buys you time 🙂

Thanks, and it is very interesting seeing how you all do things differently. Some great ideas. Don't stop. More!

 

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, Space Zehetbauer said:

49 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

"Strategies"????? 🙁

So you don’t wake up and reach for your "SL To Do List" and consider
1. Assess Inventory Strategies

?? Interesting.  🙂

I bet an AI would understand!

[Love Zhaoying]

My strategy is:

- Old stuff is "wherever". Sorted by favorites, outfits, clothing type..

- New stuff is sometimes in "New [xxx]".

- Stuff is also sorted by "Mesh" and "Non-Mesh"

- There are also folders for "Favorite [xxx]"

- And, subfolders.

[Space Zehetbauer]

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Old stuff is "wherever". Sorted by favorites, outfits, clothing type..

Yes, that seems to be the method I employ as well. 🙂

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

New stuff is sometimes in "New [xxx]".

And I seem to have a lot of old folders named "New This" and "New That" etc. lol

 

[Pixie Kobichenko]

I make/update a base naked outfit as I change bodies, heads, skins, deformers, eyes or teeth, nails, jewelry etc (which is rare, every two or three years) & just change clothes as I buy them.  I forget about old purchases & never wear them again except for a few things, like I will rewear most of my RIOT clothing & a couple of crop tops that fit reborn juicy & some leg warmers & a pair of boots I love.  I strip down to the most recent base outfit & get dressed from there after I buy a new piece of clothing.  

[Chery Amore]

For me it's also important to rename a product folder after I open it.  So if open boots called "Melissa".. yeah I'm never, ever searching for Melissa.  So I leave the store name, usually leave the Melissa... Add FP to it if its a fatpack or the basic color then give it the name it looks like.  Like Fur Platform Boots.  Then later when making outfits I might look up Fur..  it just helps to make outfits for me later.  So it might be  !Beststore! ~ Melissa FP - Fur Platform Boots. It also helps me remember items in general... "Oh yah, I forgot I had that Disco Halter Top!"

I've been trying very hard also to make a new standardized (for me) attachment point for mesh items when I open them. It's just to avoid trouble later. So my skirts (left hip), basic tops (left pec)... ect.  That new glitch that pops off some items on teleport hasn't gotten the best of me in awhile!

 

 

[Dorientje Woller]

Not, just a pile. Easier to clean up too, lite a match to it

[Nalates Urriah]

Often people argue about whether or not SL is a game. Technically it isn't. It is a platform with games within, much like Steam. But for practical purposes and conversation we call SL a game.

If it is a game then it most likely is an Inventory Management Game. Content creators endeavor to make new categories of things to complicate organizing inventory and users create innovative ways to organize inventory. IMO the users are losing. 🤭

I try to let the viewer and system do as much of the work as possible, which isn't much. But I avoid fighting it. Incoming things land in Objects, Received Items, and the main Inventory folder.... mostly. To avoid losing the new stuff in the mix of previous new stuff I try to keep those folders emptied of new items.

In the Objects folder I save boxes... the box things come in. I now save those by year purchased. So I have folders named 2023 and 2024. I search for item name when I need a box. I unpack the box, which usually creates a folder in the the Inventory (root) folder. Then move the 'box' into an Object's year folder. I decide if there is anything else I need to keep from the delivery package/box and if so move it to the folder things unpacked to. Often just a picture of the item... which for some reason is often NOT included in the unpacked goodies. 😡 I now have a a new folder in root/top level folder containing my new purchase. Which will get filed...

I use the System Folders as a starting place. Clothes has a load of stuff. As does Animations, Clothing, and Objects which are my main folders. Clothes has 61 folders. I categorize by type of clothes; Asian, Classic (old), Formal, dresses; long, medium, sexy, short, etc. That got too complicated. 16 years in SL and it was a problem. I needed to clean out old stuff I would never wear again. Now I just file by year acquired and try to have a picture in each folder of what the thing is.

There is no single way that works for everyone. If you stay with SL for years as many of us have your inventory filing will evolve.

I encourage you to do something with everything that comes into inventory as soon as it comes in. If you wait, things pile up. Then inventory clean up is a major job... work. This is supposed to be fun.

[Arielle Popstar]

4 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

"Strategies"????? 🙁

Well sure, there is the Recent Outfits under the Recent tab and the all the rest under Inventory. I only ever look under Recent because my eyes glaze over when I look at all of them under Inventory.

[MissSweetViolet]

I have a folder tier system with about 20 ish base folders, then sub folders, and sub sub folders, etc as needed. So for example; Female>1: tops>long sleeve. 

For decor/furniture it's stuff like; Homewear; 2: Holiday/Seasonal>Christmas>Decor>Floor>Signs.

Systems like that, I do folders for every type of item I have more then half a dozen of.

Edited November 26 by MissSweetViolet
Spelling corrections.

[BillFletcher]

Organizing is one of the RL obligations I come to SL to escape.