Organizing?

[ChristineF]

I have quite a collection of kits now and am tired of scrolling through all the kits every time I'm looking for something. I want to group them together in categories, but I'm unsure what categories I should use.

Please share your great organizing tip and help me make a system that works.

[sastampink]

Im currently doing by theme/season and I am planning to go back and just tag all my SSD stuff to make that easier to find.

I also separate my tools from my collections and tag those into categories

My Collection kit files:
Spring
Summer
Fall
Christmas/Winter
Patriotic
Halloween
Everyday
Kids
Baby
Birthday
Family/Home
Food / Cooking/ Sweets
Outdoors/Travel
Safari / Zoo / Dinosaur
Artistic
Shabby/Vintage
Water (beach, pool, nautical)

My Tool files:
Page Templates
Overlays and Clipping masks
Accessories
Cards and Dates templates

[NeverendingJen]

I don't do categories, I just tend to use the search feature in windows to find things.

[Traci Reed]

https://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/t...o-little-time/

[MamaBee]

I also organize like Traci does... and I also have a Toolbox folder that have brushes, papers, fastners, etc... sometimes I don't keep the whole kit, I just pull out the buttons, flowers, etc that I like and put them into these folders.

[bcgal00]

I search in bridge which usually brings up a good selection but if I buy a kit that has elements not labelled that I know I'll use a lot, I'll tag it. I have a basics folder that has a small selection of often used product like staples, washi, ribbon, string, labels, frames, etc.

[adrianka]

I use ACDSee to tag kit previews by colour and theme... I don't tag elements because the database would be too huge and the search function in ACDSee can do the job if I look for "ribbon", "button", etc. I do tag alphas and interesting-for-me papers, because the search function will never find a newsprint paper or a denim alpha, right?

Folders would never work for me, because colour scheme and kit theme are equally important to me. It all depends on what is important to YOU, and it's really different for everybody.

Adobe Bridge has a basic tagging feature as well as far as I know.

[SeattleSheri]

I'm no help. I'm a kit scrapper and very rarely re-use items. If I do need to find something, I just do a search, since the designers are good at naming elements to match their descriptions. My kits are all organized by month purchased (since I archive everything on a monthly basis). For non kit items, I do save them separately by category (stitches, alphas, templates, masks, etc). I have previews for everything, so I can do a quick visual inspection for what I'm looking for.

[nesser1981]

I organize all my stuff in ACDsee.

First I have my designers listed, then I tag each kit that belongs to them.

I have Theme Kits, Food, Camping, Water, Carnival, etc (you get the idea)

Holidays

seasons

And then I do templates broken into the number of photos they hold.

I've been doing it like that for years and I love it.

And I also keep a not used category for the new kits I purchase so I don't forget about them.

[Deannaj]

I'm a total kit scrapper. When I first started digi I used to break everything out of kits and organize flowers, and ribbons and papers by stripes, or color--then I realized that was counter-productive for me because a kit comes with stuff that all goes together! So I organize by Designer>kit, and if I"m on a store CT, then it goes Store>Designer>kit

[adi&co.]

Originally Posted by MamaBee

and I also have a Toolbox folder that have brushes, papers, fastners, etc... sometimes I don't keep the whole kit, I just pull out the buttons, flowers, etc that I like and put them into these folders.

i do this. I also have tempaltes broken down by the number of pictures. I have folders holding kits broken down by theme as well, but I also have a folder with kits called "Unused" so I always go through that folder when looking for a kit first. then i have a folder called holidays that's broken down inside that album into subalbums for each holiday or season. then i have folders titled boy kits and girl kits which are self explanatory, then "themed kits" with that kit being broken down into subalbums kid themes (broken down further for zoos, animals, art/reading and random), every day kits, outdoors kits and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.

It works for me.

[YepBrook]

I have a digital scrapbooking folder that is separated by store, then by designer. I tried separating by theme and it just got too complicated. I can usually remember which themed kits I've bought from each designer and find them easily within their folder.

[GraceLee]

I use Lightroom, and tag the previews of the kits according to store, colors, themes, etc. I tag templates with the number of photos they have. And I tag my design stuff (CU) separately. This way I can find what I need quickly, especially for challenges.