text: Are you asking about the mechanics, or about the organization?  \n\nA lot of programs (e.g., Office) encourage you to put eveything in the same place, although you can set a different default directory for each program if you want (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.)\n\nI think it makes much more sense to organize your files into directories (and sub-directories) that make sense to YOU.  So, perhaps PERSONAL and WORK at the top, or FINANCE, KIDS, HOUSEHOLD, POLITICS, or whatever makes sense.   The sub-directories within each major category, again, based on what makes sense.  If you find that your needs change, or your first guess was wrong, you can change it easily enough.\n\nOne suggestion I would make, especially for things you create (like documents, letters, presentations), is to KEEP EVERYTHING and give it as descriptive a title as possible.  You'll never know when you can come back in 2 years or 10 years and re-use it (even as a starting point for something new), or get value from being able to search for it, and having everything on your machine.   Disk space is too cheap to justify throwing things away.   I have files going back more than 20 years, and find it very valuable.