I recently received an email asking for tips on organising the Clothing folder in Second Life’s inventory. I’ve thus far refrained from writing a hints and tips kind of post about this folder, because it’s pretty much the biggest, most disorganised folder most of us have (and I include myself in that!) and… well, it’s rather daunting, to say the least. However, having read the email I decided I’d start to tackle that post this weekend.

You might think that your Clothing folder is such a mess that there’s no hope for it. Mine’s kind of like that, too (believe it, people!) because – while I try to be organised and, in the main I manage it – I have piles of stuff that is sitting in folders that, to be quite honest, could be better-organised than they already are.

In short, don’t worry if you think your Clothing folder is un-salvageable. It’s not. We’re going to work through it together, with me giving you some organisational hints and tips (plus one big tip to stop it all from looking so overwhelming) and – if you stick with it – you should have a much more manageable Clothing folder by the end of the weekend.

By the very nature of that folder, this will need to be a multiple-post series. This is just part 1, wherein we’ll begin setting up folders and moving the easy stuff around.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

Hop behind the cut :)

Before we begin: please note that I’m using the latest iteration of the Firestorm viewer, but with the old Viewer 1-style skin. Your viewer may not look like this.

Also please note: organising your inventory in any way may break the links in some of your created outfits in the My Outfits folder. You may have to re-create those outfits and re-save them again when you’ve finished organising.

OK, the very first thing we’re going to do is… empty that folder.

Yep, we’re going to pull everything out of it. What I want you to do is open up a new inventory window (on Viewer 2 and 3-type viewers, click the little gear icon at the bottom of the window, and on Viewer 1 [and v1-skinned] viewers, click Inventory > New Window [or similar, depending on your viewer], in the inventory’s header menu bar).

Drag the two menus so they’re side-by-side, and resize them if you want, so they’re nice and tall and you have a good view.

Now, create a new parent folder in your inventory. Begin the name with an exclamation point, then add several spaces (enough that it will appear above every other folder sitting below your main inventory windows), and then the name, which should be: CLOTHING – SORTING FOLDER. The folder should look like this:

Ready? OK, start dragging all of the folders in your old Clothing folder across into your new Clothing – Sorting folder. Take your time, and don’t try to select everything at once!

You’ve probably got some un-filed general clothing layer items at the bottom of the folder, so just create a new Misc Clothing Layer Items folder in your new sorting folder and drag those across into there, like this:

And hey presto! I know it’s only an illusion (all that stuff’s still there in its disorganised folders; it’s just hiding away elsewhere) but we now have a pristine, empty Clothing folder to begin work on:

Before I go any further, I want to say this: Please keep up with this! Don’t assume that, since you can’t see the chaos, you don’t need to worry about it anymore! This is your chance to get organised, so pick a time when you can dedicate a couple of hours to sorting, put some great music on, and get stuck in. You’ll be amazed at how much you get done, and if you keep at it, you’ll be better organised in no time.

We’re going to start by creating some simple sub-folders in the now-empty Clothing folder. These are what I call ‘no quibble’ folders. They’re basic catch-all parent folders, and there’s no way you could say something like, “But I prefer to arrange this by store/colour/etc!”

These are your folders: Accessories, Beachwear, Footwear, and Seasonal.

You’re going to sub-divide these into the various folders you might need, and the first one is the biggie: Accessories. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

(Hands and feet are for prim/mesh hands and feet, obviously!)

Gentlemen may like to add things such as ties here.  Anything that you would wear to accessorise an outfit or look belongs in here. This is just a quick list I came up with. No doubt you’ll have more items that belong in new folders, and I’ll probably find some like that, too!

A note on weapons:
Depending on how often you wear (or use) them, weapons could go into the Accessories folder, or the Objects folder. If you wear them primarily to complement an outfit (for example: a gunslinger’s belt in a western roleplay sim, or a cutlass or blackpowder pistol for a pirate-themed party) then file them as accessories. If, however, you actively fight with them/fire them/etc, then perhaps they would be better filed in your Objects folder.

A note on specialist items for specific types of avatar:
Obviously, we don’t have to be human in Second Life! Furries and tinies, vampires and petites (and others!) will all have items that are specific to their avatar type. When deciding where to file these items, it’s a good idea to consider how frequently you are that kind of avatar (the same way you consider how you wear/use weapons). If you are that avatar all the time, then avatar-specific things such as accessories especially made for tinies and petites will simply go into the normal belts/hats/jewellery/etc folders. If you are that avatar only some of the time, then consider having specialist sub-folders for that avatar type (for example, as well as having the Accessories folder, create another for Accessories > Tiny, or Accessories > Petite, etc.

Staying in Accessories, we’re going to look at the Jewellery folder. Again, create sub-folders as you need them. I have a Sets sub-folder to hold multiple-item matching sets of jewellery:

For those that wear them, nails need their own sub-folder in Accessories. I divide mine into glove-layer nails (manicure and pedicure) and prim nails:

Wearables is what I call anything I might wear to use something else. For example: a book to wear while lazing on a couch, or a laptop to wear while typing. Wearable food and drink goes in here, and you might also want musical items such as iPods and instruments in here, too:

Sort your Eyewear according to type. Here are some basic ideas. After this you might want to sort by style, or by store:

Moving on from Accessories, next up is Beachwear. Sub-divide this as you need. Obviously I’ve gone for mainly female items here. Gents, you’ll probably want swimming trunks instead of bikinis and swimsuits!

Note: I file flipflops under Beachwear rather than general Footwear, purely because that’s what comes to mind when I think about flipflops. You may wish to put them into a sub-folder in the Footwear folder instead.

Footwear is going to be a huge folder, at least for the ladies! Begin by sub-dividing into basic categories. Later on you can sub-divide again by store or style or colour. The way to decide which way you want to sort is to consider how you think of an item of footwear. If you’re putting together an outfit and you think, “Hey, I need tan-coloured boots for this,” then file by colour. If, though, you think, “Oh, those brown boots by Fab Feet Store would look great with this!” then file by store.

Lastly, Seasonal is where you file all the stuff that’s only worn at specific times of the year. If you have clothing items for holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, July 4th, etc, then create sub-folders for those occasions. I’d file occasion-specific accessories (such as wearable glowing Rudolf noses or Jack-o-Lantern earrings) and hair (eg: an up-do with holly sprigs in it) in here, too, rather than in your Accessories or Hair folders.

Those are the ‘no quibble’ basics. Your task this weekend, and in the days to come, is to set aside some quality time in-world and start pulling stuff from your Clothing – Sorting folder into the new sub-folders in your main Clothing folder. The more time you can spend doing this, the faster the work will go. Stalking lucky boards or a Riotvend? Do some sorting!

I’ll continue this series in a few days :)