Oh Where oh Where Have my Digital Files Gone?

Jill over at Geniaus blog, recently wrote a post called Fling it in the folder - my digital filing system  
I read her ideas with great interest.

I've never been very good at taking care of paper. My filing cabinets get reorganized and filing folders renamed, every couple of years. Much of my paperwork is in piles or tubs on my desk or the floor. I've started getting a handle on that mess but my digital filing sucks.

I can never decide where to put digital items (photos, emails, documents etc). I also tend to forget where I put stuff the last time. So I end up with duplicate folders - perhaps I'll call one PEER and toss all my digital copies on the PEER family in it. That's on C-Drive. Then one day I forget I have that on C-Drive and I create another folder (also called PEER) inside my Documents folder!

Often I create folders that are on the same topic but I give them different names. For example I have a folder called LOST FACES where I was putting all the scans from my Lost Faces photo albums. Inside Lost Faces directory were subdirectories neatly and consistently labelled Album 01, Album 02 and so on. But then for some now unknown reason I created a folder called PHOTO ALBUMS and inside that I created subdirectories called 01 (surname), 02 (surname) Sheesh! Now I have some scans in one set of folders and some scans in another.

Inside my MY PICTURES subdirectory  I have folders called "FARM", "FUN ON THE FARM" and "HOUSE" all of which contain various pictures taken at our home over the past 15 years. Sigh. Do you see how hard it is for me to make an organized plan and stick to it??

I like Jill's simple approach. Most of her folders appear to be on the top level which I find appealing. I think half the reason I forget what my system is, is that I have sub-folders inside sub-folders! Right now I'm kind of excited and thinking that I should come up with a plan on paper. I'm leaning towards Jill's method of an overall topic name followed by a sub-name, as the main folders.

So I could have FARM-Machinery and FARM-Animals and FARM-grandkids or whatever sub designation I need to be organized. Using this method would mean all my FARM documents and photos would be much more easily found and new material filed.

What are your digital filing methods? I like Jill's methods but am open to other ideas!