How to Organize Your Desktop and Why You Should: A Helpful Guide

Do you have important documents and files scattered around all over the place on your computer’s desktop? If so, it’s probably just about impossible to find the documents and files that you need when you need them most.

Generally speaking, clutter is something that plagues many Americans each and every day. More than 50% of people say that the clutter in their homes is overwhelming.

And many of these people are forced to deal with this same problem when it comes to their computers. They don’t know how to keep their desktops tidy.

Organize Your Desktop Following the Best Ways

How to Organize Your Desktop

Learning how to organize your desktop is a great way to put this problem in the rear-view mirror. By figuring out the best way to organize computer files, you can prevent clutter from building up on your computer.

Check out how to organize documents and files on your desktop below and then find out why it’s so important for people to do it.

Change the Background on Your Desktop to Make It Simple to Spot Documents and Files

Does the background that’s on your desktop right now make it almost impossible to see most of the documents and files that you have saved on it? That’s going to have to change if you want to figure out how to organize your desktop.

You might love the photo of you and your family that you have set as the background on your desktop right now. But it’s not going to be doing you any favors if you can’t do any computer filing because of it.

Change your background to a nice, neutral color or a simple photo that makes it simple to see the documents and files on your desktop. This will give you a headstart as far as learning how to organize a desktop is concerned.

Label Every Document and File on Your Desktop Properly

Do you have any kind of system in place when it comes to labeling your documents and files? If you’re relying on your computer to label them for you, you’re not going to remember which documents and files are which when you’re looking for one.

Come up with an easy file naming system for your various documents and files. The names that you attach to these documents and files should make it clear what’s inside of them.

Create Folders on Your Desktop for Documents and Files to Go

Once you’ve gone through the process of properly labeling your documents and files, it’ll be time to actually organize them. Documents and files that have similar themes or that go together all belong in one folder.

Create a bunch of folders on your desktop and come up with categories for each one. Then, go through the process of moving the documents and files that are on your desktop into these folders.

If this is the only thing you do when organizing your desktop, it’ll go a long way towards cleaning your desktop up and making it easier to find documents and files.

Stick Documents and Files Into the Right Folders

Depending on how many documents and files you have on your desktop, it might be all too easy to start putting them into the wrong folders that you’ve created. You should be extra careful about making sure your documents and files end up in the right folders.

If you accidentally place a document or file into the wrong folder, you might not ever see it again. Take your time when you’re sticking documents and files into folders and place the right ones into the right folders.

Remove Folders You Don’t Use Very Often From Your Desktop

After you’ve found a folder for each and every document and file on your desktop, decide which folders you use all the time and which can be put away into storage.

The folders that get used all the time can be kept right on your desktop. It’ll ensure they’re not very far away when you need to open them up.

The folders that don’t get used much at all can be relocated to another area on your computer. Look for a place that will keep them out of your way on a day to day basis while also making them easily accessible when you need them.

Make It Easy to Find Folders Elsewhere on Your Computer

Just because you’re removing a folder filled with documents or files from your desktop doesn’t mean it should disappear forever. You should have shortcuts set up so that you’re able to locate folders that you have stored on another part of your computer.

Bartender is an app that you can use to organize things that you have on your computer desktop. You can put them right at your fingertips without having them front and center on your desktop.

Get Into the Habit of Cleaning Out Folders From Time to Time

It doesn’t matter how large of a hard drive you have inside your computer. At some point, it’s going to start to fill up if you don’t make it a point to remove old documents and files.

Every now and then, go through your computer and do a little bit of “spring cleaning.” Delete any documents and files that you no longer need and clean up some of the folders that you’ve created while you’re at it.

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Why You Should Learn How to Organize Your Desktop

You don’t have to learn how to organize your desktop if you don’t want to do it. Some people are able to get away with working on a messy desktop!

But you should know that you’ll be missing out on a wide range of benefits if you don’t figure out how to organize files. By making your desktop more organized, you can turn yourself into a more productive person, improve the speed of your computer, and, maybe most importantly, bring your stress levels way down.

For all these reasons, you should set out to organize your computer today. Read the articles on our blog for more helpful tips on staying organized.