Have a Second Life inventory that overfloweth? Does it take you forever to find the object you're looking for? Take a few moments to read through Izzy's EZ Inventory Guide and get your inventory orderly and organized - once and for all!

Getting Started

Just looking at your unorganized inventory can be daunting. I gave up on trying to sort through everything many times because the task just seemed too great.

However, I urge you to take a few moments (in some cases - mine included - a few hours) and get your inventory in order now. Once it's done you will be so glad you did, and keeping it in order afterwards will be a cinch.

Clean Up Time!

First, go through your inventory and get rid of the things you don't want or never use. Seriously - have you ever even touched that freebie chartreuse pair of heels with green flames? Probably not - throw them out. I cleaned up over 300 items just dumping freebies I'd grabbed on and around Newbie Island; most I had never even opened. If you don't use it, and likely never will, toss it.

Also, don't be afraid to get rid of things you've outgrown or that just no longer represent you and your avie in SL. Sure, you might, at the time, have slapped down a few hundred Linden dollars for that snazzy pineapple hat, but if you're gotten more serious and sophisticated with your look and will never wear it again - what's the point of keeping it other than to take up room?

Let's Get Organized

After committing to the task at hand and cleaning up unwanted and unused items, it's time to start organizing. Don't be upset if you couldn't force yourself to get rid of too much. Once everything is organized, it'll be a snap to find what you want - even if you're inventory has over 5,000 items in it (mine does!).

You, of course, can change this up however you like to fit your needs and preferences - but this is how my inventory is organized, just to give you a start or for those that just want something concrete to follow.

I start with my core folders. These are the main folders that a whole lot of subfolders, and subfolders of subfolders, are going to go into. SL already has a few, what I call, core folders set up for you: Animations, Body Parts, Clothing, and Objects. These cannot be deleted; there are others but these are the main ones for now. I have also added a core folder for Hair (because I have so much and change it more than anything, I created a new core folder for it rather than add it to the Body Parts folder).

So, ignoring the others for now, let's look at our main core folders (the ones you'll be accessing the most):

• Animations
• Body Parts
• Clothing
• Hair
• Objects

This is where we'll start from. I know, it still seems daunting, but as we go along your inventory list is going to get shorter and soon you'll be so excited with your brand new, clean, organized inventory.

Starting with Body Parts, go in and create subfolders for all the body parts (excluding hair) that your avie wears. To give you a start, or if you just want to follow my lead, this is mine:

• BODY PARTS
  • Ears
  • Eyes
  • Feet
  • Fingernails
  • Horns
  • Naughty Bits
  • Skins
  • Shapes
  • Tails
  • Wings

You may have some or none of these, or maybe even different ones - set it up with whatever works for your inventory items. Now, take all of those body parts, objects, prims, etc and dump them into the correct folders. Don't worry about organizing these folders yet - that's next.

Now that's done, we're going to go into each folder and clean-up some more. For example, let's take the Fingernails folder. In it, let's say I have a few color nail shades from TackyNails and a color or two from another place called Nail Pretties For You (I just made those up). I also have one weird, blue shade from a place called Tahiti Sun. We are going to create subfolders - and how you do it is up to you. Since I get all of my colors from a few places, my subfolders are by store name, but if you wanted you could also organize this folder by color. The result would be:

• BY STORE NAME
  • TackyNails
  • Nail Pretties For You
  • Tahiti Sun

 

• BY COLOR
  • Black
  • Blue
  • Orange
  • Pink
  • Red

Again, do whatever works for you. Take your objects and drop them into the appropriate folders.

Now, you are going to do this for everything in your Body Parts folder. I do all of my subfolders by store name because, if I like a store or an object, I'm usually going to buy a lot at that location and a few colors of the same object. Sometimes, if I only have one of an object or one piece from a certain store and the subfolder isn't full-up, I just leave that one in the original subfolder instead of making a new folder for it. Example:

• BODY PARTS
  • Fingernails
    • TackyNails (store name, folder)
      • Flaming Red
      • French Manicure
      • Orange Speedo
      • Pink Pearl
    • Nail Pretties For You (store name, folder)
      • Alarming Yellow
      • Fire Engine Red
    • Blue Raspberry Shade Fingernail Polish (object, no folder)

Body Parts is simple compared to the Clothing folder. This one's a doozy. As I've gone along, I've found a need to add new folders to my Inventory, especially my Clothing folder. If it helps things to stay organized, don't worry about creating new subfolders - just remember to keep it simple and easy to find; make sure it's what you would look in for that type of item.

Rather than go into a lengthy discussion on this folder, this is how mine is set up (note, though not shown, each final subfolder listed contains subfolders of each store name, with the corresponding items/objects inside).

• CLOTHING
  • Boas
  • Bottoms
    • Jeans
    • Pants
    • Shorts
    • Skirts
  • Dresses
  • Gloves
  • Hats
  • Lingerie
  • Outfits
  • Shoes
    • Boots
      • Sexy Boots
      • Tough Grrl Boots
    • Heels
    • Sneaks
  • Socks
  • Stockings
  • Stripper (I keep all of my dancing outfits here, separated by subfolders)
  • Ties
  • Tops
    • Blouses
    • Jackets
    • Shirts
    • T-Shirts
  • Underwear
    • Bras
    • Panties
    • Sets

You can folder-subfolder any way you like, but setting up a system similar to this will make your inventory SO much more organized and easier to rifle through; I guarantee.

For my Hair folder, since all of my hair prims come from GuRLyWood, I list Hair subfolders by the hair name, and put any color sets (usually folders themselves) into the hair name. Example:

• HAIR
  • Aika
    • Dark Set
    • Seduction Set
  • Collette
    • Berries Set
    • Seduction Set
  • Icey
    • Dark Set
  • Liv
    • Candy Set
    • Dark Set
    • Seduction Set

Objects is a different bird altogether. Depending on how you live your Second Life, and what kind of objects you own, this folder can be divvied up so many ways. I currently have folders for Furniture (with subfolders inside such as Couches & Chairs, Lighting, Tables, Wall Hangings, etc.), Vehicles (with subfolders for Cars, Go-Karts, Motorcycles, etc.), and Food & Drink (with subfolders for, interestingly enough, Food and Drink) - just to name a few. Obviously, an Objects folder's contents is going to be as unique as the SLer in question. Use your best judgment on this one and organize, using folders and subfolders, with the same ideas we used above.

No, I haven't forgotten about Animations. It was actually the last folder I worked on so it's the last one to be covered. To give you an idea, this is how my Animations folder is set up for my inventory:

• ANIMATIONS
  • Dances
  • Day-to-Day
  • Poses
  • Xcite

All of my wild and crazy dances (I have many), end up in the Dances folder, obviously. My dances aren't subfoldered, but you can do this if you wish.

My Day-to-Day subfolder holds the animations that I always wear; regardless of what else may be on me. This includes my Walk/Stand AO, my Smile AO, and my Facial Expressions AO.

For the Poses folder, rather than use subfolders, I try to rename the pose itself to reflect what it does. Very useful for quick point and click useability.

The Xcite subfolder holds all of my Xcite items; I chose to create this here rather than in the Body Parts/Naughty Bits folder which holds actual naughty bits that just look nice but don't do anything.

Conclusion

You should now have a nifty, well-maintained, and orderly inventory to browse through with ease and grab things from on the fly. It takes some time to set up, but I can promise the benefits far outweigh the initial aggravation and time you'll put into it.

The most important thing, after setting up your cleaned-up inventory, is to not let it get out of hand again! Don't fall back into old habit of not keeping things organized.

As soon as I buy something, unbox it, and try it on - into the proper inventory folder/subfolder it goes. If it needs a new folder, I create one and drop it in. Don't wait and don't put it off; doing so is an easy habit to fall back into and before you know it, you have an unruly inventory all over again.

I hope this little guide helps some of the inventorily-challenged SLers out there! Look for more simple, helpful guides from Izzy in the future - I wish you all happy, fun times in the grid.

If you would like to see exactly what my Inventory looks like, including all folders & subfolders, you can view it here.