Hi, Heather! Funny you should mention organizing your digi-stash ... I'm in the midst of organizing my new kits and templates right now.
My organization scheme has evolved over the years. I started off trying to keyword each and every item, and quickly got overwhelmed. What I've been doing the last five or so years is a good balance between time invested and usability.
I rely on metadata keywords. I import my new supplies into Lightroom (because I like its interface to keywording the best and it allows a hierarchical keyword structure). I add these keywords to every file in the kit: (and for an example, I'll show you what I've done with KCB's new release, "Enjoy Today")
- designer's name (Kristin Cronin-Barrow)
- product code (kcroninbarrow-enjoytoday)
- kit name (kit - Enjoy Today)
- store (SSD)
Then I take the product preview image(s) and add a keyword for "Preview" and
add detailed keywords on only that one image. They include:
- Colors (white, cream, light blue, medium blue, coral, light pink, gold)
- Theme (beauty, everyday, joy, affirmations)
- Textures (wood, velvet)
- Unique items (rainbow, florals, butterfly, dragonfly, embroidery hoop)
And that's it. I have Lightroom set to save the metadata to the files, and once that's processed, I remove everything except the preview image from Lightroom. I keep all the elements for all the kits in one designer folder - so I have a folder /Sweet Shoppe/Kristin Cronin-Barrow that currently contains 55,492 items.
When I want to search for a kit, I use Windows Explorer and search for keywords - like "preview everyday coral" - and it pulls up just the preview images for every kit I own that I've tagged as "everyday" and that has the color coral in it. Once I choose which kit I want to work with, it's as easy as grabbing its product code and searching kcroninbarrow-enjoytoday and it pulls up every file in the kit.
I like having all my digi-supplies in a single designer folder because it makes it quick for me to find supplies in the same style if I need something that isn't in the kit I'm working with. For instance, say I'm creating a page using "Enjoy Today" but I want to include more flowers in my element clusters. I just go into my Kristin Cronin-Barrow folder and search "preview coral" and it gives me 28 preview images. Then I can grab "Choose Kindness" and I've got more supplies in the same design style.
(Did that make any sense?)
As for finding individual products, I have found the designers do a pretty good job of identifying what each item is in its file name. So if I want a ribbon, I can go into KCB's folder on my drive and search "ribbon" - and I've got 1,000 to choose from. Sometimes I have to search a couple times - like foliage, branch, and leaf are used interchangeably, as are flower, blossom, and bloom - but the time I save not trying to keyword each and every item is magnitudes greater than the time it takes to search two or three times.
So, that's my organization strategy! I'm happy to share my list of keywords if you're interested - just let me know.