What Laundry Taught me about Video Storage

I share a house with three other roommates, which saves me some money but when it comes to storage space, there isn't much to go around. Over the past few months I've noticed that the drawer I store all my t-shirts in has gotten more difficult to open and close. That's because I have bought a few new shirts over the past several months but haven't done anything about the clothes I already had in there. It all boils down to I had a storage problem! I was trying to cram more stuff into a space that was already full without removing stuff to clear up space. The consequence was having to wrestle with a drawer just to get a new t-shirt.

Finally after getting tired of it I pulled out all of my t-shirts and went through them. After digging through all of the shirts I came out with three groups:

1. The shirts I wear on a fairly regular basis
2. Clothes that didn't fit, I never wear or that mom and dad thought I'd wear
3. A few shirts I could keep for yard work or getting dirty

So what does any of this have to do with shared storage?

Imagine my house is your office and my roommates are your video team. Each person has their own files that they are working on and all need somewhere to store them. Once you start to run out of storage space you have two options:

1. Get more storage
2. Clear out and organize the files on your storage system

Remember how I broke my clothes into different categories? Do the same thing with your video files! Separate your files into three separate categories:

1. Files you are currently working on and need regularly
2. Projects and files you no longer need
3. Completed files that you hold onto just in case

So what do you do once you have everything separated?

For the stuff you are confident you'll never use again, delete it! It is just sitting there taking up unnecessary space in your storage system that could be better used for new projects you are working on. In the case of my clothes I bagged them up and tossed em.

The files you need to hold on to for a bit? Archive them, that way you can still retrieve and access them when the time comes but doesn't eat up storage you could be using for other projects you are currently working on. For the shirts I held onto just in case, I put them at the bottom of the drawer that way I could get them if I need them but they aren't in the way of the shirts I wear regularly.

For the files you are using on a daily basis, organize them in a logical way! In the case of my shirts I separated them into categories based on what I wear them for. Shirts for the gym in one section, work shirts in a different section and tank tops in another. Now when I reach into the drawer I know exactly where to find what I want to put on. For media you can do the same thing by organizing your files in folders that make sense! You can also apply metadata which will help you quickly search and access your files when you need them.

Sometimes all it takes to get your media under control is to take a good look at what you have and clear out what you don't need and reorganize what you plan to hold onto.