1---
  2title: Tidy up your PC!
  3author: chris 
  4date: 2026-02-01
  5---
  6
  7As in, move your files to the most appropriate location, so that you can find
  8them after a long time. Put it there, where you will look first, if you need
  9access to it.
 10
 11I get it, it’s really hard to tidy up an over-year-old mess, I am not
 12just talking about digital data here. And because there are probably more
 13important things in your life that take up time, you can just skip this
 14tedious task and use your PC like you used to. Once in a while, you will be
 15overwhelmed by the sheer mess you created, but fortunately, there are ways to
 16mitigate the problem, like file searchers. And that is fine. As for many
 17things, do as you want.
 18
 19For me, keeping my PC clean was always an important topic. Here you can see my
 20*home* directory:
 21
 22```bash
 23[chris@deskpin:~]$ ls ~
 24downloads  projects  uni
 25```
 26
 27It consists of only three directories, and believe me, the subdirectories are
 28also very clean! But what do I get from it? First and foremost, I have a good
 29overview of stuff that is on my PC and especially where it is. Also, I just
 30have a good feeling when using my PC, because I feel like I understand my
 31machine.
 32
 33From my personal experience, this is very rare. Most people I know undervalue
 34the tidiness of their data on their PCs. One reason I suspect is the
 35implication of using the Desktop directory on systems that have it.
 36
 37# Desktop directory
 38
 39‘In the digital age, the Desktop serves as a central hub for quick access to
 40files, folders, and shortcuts, making it one of the most frequently used
 41locations on any computer.’
 42([computerknown](https://computerknown.com/where-is-desktop-folder-in-windows-11/))
 43I think this is a good description of what most people would (implicitly)
 44describe the Desktop as. The real-life analogy works well: You throw things at
 45the top of the desk, so you can access it quickly again. But people tend to
 46overmess their desks: After some time, so many things are gathered on the
 47desk that the amount of time and energy it would take to clean it up is just
 48not manageable anymore.
 49
 50And the same goes for the Desktop directory: Temporary text files, downloaded
 51zip archives and their respective unzipped directories, your photo albums from
 52the last four trips you went on, all that stuff is lingering around on your
 53Desktop, and now, you obviously don’t know what to do. Additionally, you don’t
 54even get the outside pressure to tidy this mess up: While you will be judged
 55over your mess at home, no one is interested in the (missing) structure of your
 56files on your PC.
 57
 58What I describe here is the scenario I was facing, and I think I’m not alone.
 59But don’t get me wrong, theoretically you **can** have a tidy Desktop. I just
 60never met a person who has.
 61
 62# Tidying up all the files
 63
 64I’ve been using tiling window managers for years now. Starting with i3, I switched to
 65sway for Wayland, and now I’m trying out niri. And the very first thing I noticed
 66when messing with i3 was that you cannot create directories on your Desktop.
 67That got me thinking: All the time after using the Desktop extensively, what
 68now? And I started to categorise my data and to create a hierarchical structure
 69for my files.
 70
 71:::note
 72I think this is not the natural implication of not having a Desktop. I have
 73seen plenty of people who use their *home* directory the exact same way I
 74described before in terminal heavy systems like tiling window managers.
 75:::
 76
 77This process can get tedious because every time you have a new file, you have
 78to actively decide on a place for it. I often found myself stacking up a mess
 79in my *downloads* or my *home* directory. But before it got too bad, I was
 80able to tidy up that mess again.
 81
 82While this sounds hard, I think this process is super rewarding, at least for
 83me. Especially if you are using your PC daily and have important and personal
 84data.
 85
 86**Doesn’t it take an eternity to access a specific file, which may be in an
 87appropriate, but not quickly accessible, directory?** That’s a valid concern,
 88which I also had in the beginning. Over time, I tried out various tools for
 89that purpose, here are my most used ones:
 90
 91- I use the cd alternative [zoxide](https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide),
 92  which allows me to change to any directory on my system in bash, based on a
 93  ranking system that remembers used directories. This can single-handedly
 94  solve this problem in the scope of the terminal.
 95- Additionally, I use a simple
 96  [script](https://git.krinitsin.com/dotfiles.git/blob/main/bin/zathura-fzf)
 97  that lets me fuzzyfind all my PDFs on my PC and opens the selected one in my
 98  PDF-viewer. That sets the following mental model in my head: I store the PDFs
 99  in the thematically best location (for instance
100  ~/university/course/week/task/task1.pdf) and only have to know some of the
101  context. It doesn’t matter anymore where the file exists.
102
103**Look, you only have three directories in your *home*, so you don’t even have
104any data to create a mess with! What’s with photos, job applications, or my
105~~il~~legally downloaded video games?** Stuff that doesn’t need to be on my PC
106gets moved onto my archive SSD, which is structured the same way. If you don’t
107have one, then those directories should also be in your *home*.
108
109**What should I do if I don’t work with the terminal primarily, or don’t use
110Linux at all?** Well, the main reason I love Linux so much is its flexibility,
111so I don’t have a concrete answer for that. But if I had to use a Windows
112system again, I would strictly prohibit myself from putting any data on the
113Desktop. Instead, I would structure my files the same way I do now and put
114shortcuts for important directories on my Desktop. This reflects the way I use
115my PC right now.
116
117A disclaimer in the end: I don’t know why, but the whole process around it is
118fun for me. That’s why I’m fine with spending time on this. I know that there
119are people who don’t have the time or motivation to do this - or simply don’t
120think my reasons are valid for them - and that is obviously fine.
121
122So - Tidy up your PC! But only if you feel the need to.
123
124:::note
125*AI-Note: Grammarly was used to fix grammar mistakes.*
126:::