My homedir is an infernal hellhole of junk accumulated over the past 15 years and I wouldn't have it any other way

Multiple people in this topic say they organise in directories for different programming languages, something I have never considered and I find it to be an odd way of organising for some reason I can't explain.

Where do you put a project with a Javascript frontend and a Python backend?

My home folders on any OS have a Development folder (which conveniently sits right next to Documents and Downloads) and in that folder, I’ve also got subfolders per programming language that have the respective projects in them.

The other folder I usually have is SyncThing with whatever synced folders are relevant for that machine.

~/3D Objects

~/Homework (porn)

~/aaaaaaa (porn)

~/Stuff (memes, with a porn subfolder)

~/misc (work docs, study docs, forms, some porn)

At least two of these:
~/Stuff
~/Stuffs
~/Stuffz
~/Shits

I have /home/username/username/ and I sym link important dirs (like Downloads) to my new home. I strongly dislike all the dot files and dirs cluttering up my home dir.

• /ram - tmpfs filesystem
• ~/.local/bin - added to my path
• ~/.local/software - any user-local program more complicated than a binary gets a directory here. Generally a binary would be symlinked to ~/.local/bin
• ~/.local/venv - shared python venv to use for one liners and small scripts
• ~/repo - local filesystem backed package repository for which the host system is configured to install from
• ~/.local/repo - local filesystem backed package repository for which the host system is not configured to install from (used for mock, VMs, and external systems).
• /overflow - Used to point to a large secondary hard drive (back when having a small ssd was the economical thing to do. Nowadays, it is just where my large directories go cause I can't be bothered to get used to a more sane setup

Hardware folder (synced via sync thing). All hardware PDFs, notes images etc get subfolders by manufacturer. It is helpful for keeping track of use manuals, firmware or config settings for each piece of hardware.

~/proj
~/note
~/sync
~/docs (/book etc)
~/imgs ~/util ~/test ~/temp

Archive

Archive archive

Archive_11_2025

I am not good at organizing

I just live out of my downloads folder until its time to back up the important stuff to the server and reinstall/ distrohop.

~/ linux iso's

~/dev for code
~/work for things I don't want to do, like taxes

I usually create ~/git/{github,gitlab,codeberg,AUR,etc} where I clone the git stuff I need.

The rest is usually handled by my nextcloud that creates the ~/Nextcloud folder.

Your organization will vary with your usage. If you're looking for something suitable for work, I would highly recommend the PARA approach. https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/

I've tweaked it to my needs. Combined with fzf, it makes my workflow so smooth and efficient. https://www-gem.codeberg.page/sys_stay_organized/

~/Projects

I always make a ~/.local/{bin,opt,share} if the distro lacks it. and a ~/bot that I use for my development stuff

I rsync my home folder across installs. These are my standard extra folders.

~/Books, with subfolders by topic.

~/Comics, with subfolders by publisher, then by title, possibly with an intermediate folder for author or franchise.

~/Programming, with subfolders by language, then project.

~/autoclean and a cron job to delete everything older than 7+ days from there. I can just download whatever, throw it in a special folder and it's gone after few days. Keeps my ~/Downloads a bit more clean, easy to store temp txt files to keep track of what I currently have on hand and so on.

I always make a bin folder in my home for putting my custom scripts and downloaded binaries. At least on fedora, ~/bin is already in the path, so I don't have to make any additional configuration to make stuff in there become commands for my cli

~/.drafts, in which my text editor taskbar shortcut script creates files YYMMDD_text_N. I passionately believe in eliminating the chore of manually naming my spur-of-the-moment notes and text files.

~/progs or ~/bin where loose programs not provided by my package manager reside.

If there's a secondary drive, /media/disk1 as the mount point in fstab.

~/tmp

~/temp

~/temper

~/tempest

~/misc

/mnt/other (symlinked)

~/diy for my collection of knitting, crochet and sewing patterns and other assorted diy stuff

~/work duh.

~/tools for my collection of more or less useful small scripts

~/sync for my syncthing folders

~/data symlink to my data partition (most of the others are also symlinks to their location on data)

I don't really have a convention for programming projects yet. They used to land inside of ~/diy or in ~/tools or just random folders on data. I've got a ~/code folder now, but its contents are a mess.

~/Projects - for my coding projects

~/Qt - which holds the Qt framework

~/Torrents - For torrents that I share

~/Homework

I usually make src, junk, and applications for appimages and unpackaged binaries

I just at ~/projects it contains a boat load of stuff including my Neovim and bash stuff.

Guys, use GNU Stow + git for your configs shit's good.

~/Brojetos (anything relating to making stuff, writing, drawing, video creation, programming, etc., professional or personal)

~/temp (a non-hidden temp folder with a script that wipes it when the PC shuts down or reboots, used for downloads and such to prevent the "downloads folder is an abomination" problem that plagues any computer after a while of usage)

~/AppsGames (appimages, applications compiled from source and not installed to system, personal use scripts, wineprefixes, non-steam games)

aaaand ~/OtherAminals (for stuff I want to keep but have no idea where else to place)

~/bin/ which I add to my $PATH

Projects for all kinds of projects

aur_builds for the package I use from the AUR. No hand holding here, I build and install my AUR packages artisanally.

Under ~ I usually make ~/Application for flatpaks/appimages etc, ~/Script for any kind of script I write in bash, python, or whatever else, ~/Audio for audio/music production stuff, and ~/Games for emulators and such. ~/Documents is reserved for actual documents containing text data usually.

~/dev

~/dev/oss

~/dev/work

~/dev/personal

• ~/Documents/incubator for my personal projects.
• ~/Documents/<Git forge>/<user/org>/<repo> for contributing/working on my saved projects
• ~/Documents/schule for school

I do a similar thing for code stuffs, generally always make a ~/Git and ~/Godot so I always have a spot for things.

I also delete most of the auto-created ones if I'm using a DE that does that, because I have my own organization going on with various external/network drives. Only one I have always kept is ~/Downloads.

I have ~/work/code/project-name-1, ~/work/code/project-name-2 or ~/priv/code/project-name-3, but not by language... I only separate work and private repositories.

• ~/Prototypes for ... my prototypes, typically either starting from an empty directory or cloning a repository and adapting it for my needs. I have this directory on nearly all my devices, desktop of course but also NAS, server, phone, standalone XR headset, etc.
• ~/Apps in addition to ~/bin, typically binaries but all AppImages

$HOME/temp, $HOME/git, ln -s $HOME/git/scripts $HOME/scripts

~/{nextcloud,git,pictures/screenshots,music,docs,videos}

In terms of what I manually create. Dot directories normally get automatically created but I guess I'd create a ~/.config if it didn't get created.

For source code or any project - a folder Projects (on my personal setups) or Documents/Projects/PersonalRepo (more customer specific folders under the Projects sub-folder)

• Anything under ~/Projects that isn’t just a throwaway will be a git repo.
• Anything under ~/Documents/Project/*Repo will be a git repo.

i have a 'src' directory. tho my home directory is extremely messy, ls | wc -l gives me 170 now..

Uh-oh... I'm going to answer this. n_n

99% just dirs in ~/. ( Does making new dirs in /bedrock/strata count when manually adding strata? That'll be about all there is in the other 1%. )

• ~/bin
• ~/gittings
• ~/gittings/Digit (where I keep my local copies of my own git repos)
• ~/images
• ~/images/scrots
• ~/images/ all the different things like dsktpbckgrnds, charts, memes, photos, gifs, etc & EDITS where I save most GIMP file artwork
• ~/sounds
• ~/.fonts (if the system does not create this already... so I can put my big tiny font collection "dbtfc" of otb and ttf fonts I made, in there, and have them "just work").

Oh, and this one's a little fun:

• ~/testdir in which i make a dir, a file, a media file, an executable, a fifo, a symlink, and a broken symlink, so I can ls that dir to see how everything looks in new themes.

And locations for my sshfs mounts and external drives (faster to type than putting them each in ~/mount or ~/media or ~/mnt).

• ~/bb
• ~/o
• ~/m or ~/t as symlinks to ~/mozart and ~/tyson depending on if on tyson or mozart. (I name my thinkpads after famous people born on the same day it arrives in the post).

And then on bb external hd, loads of dirs, some notable ones

• ./bkps
• ./software
• ./software/distros (where I store ISOs and system tarballs)
• ./software/configs/ ; crypto/ ; doc/ ; games/ ; langs/ ; other/ ; virtuals/
• ./cinema/
• ./cinema/library (hiding the library in cinema, so I see it more often ;D)
• ./cinema/_docu (for documentaries, lectures, interviews, etc)

And on the webserver

• ~/web
• ~/web/stuff
• ~/stuff (symlink to ^, that I use like my own personal pastebin) (... ~/o/stuff, from local machine).

~/Transfer

for SyncThing

From back when I used to freelance as a photo and video editor. ~/Media which was a mount point for my second hard drive with all the personal and paid customer's I was working on, it was a mix of Music, Photos and Videos that I was creating, but not consuming if that makes sense.

Just a remnant from back when I had a small SSD with my OS and a second larger mechanical drive for everything else

~/Repos (For all the github and other code repositories I work in)

~/Scripts (All my random Bash scripts, sometimes for testing out stuff)

~/Junk (Mostly used for testing programs or small project components that aren't mature enough to have their own repo)

Separate folders in the download one. One for each app. And a separate /home/sync folder with the same app separation folders to safekeep the backups of android apps and DCIM folder.

~/code for code

~/dots for git-backed nix configs

~/.rt for projects compiled locally ("runtime")

~/Screencast for recordings of my screen

I also create a ~/.shrc.bash symlink that points to ~/dots/bash/bashrc that reats ~/dots/bash/*.bash and sources the files

~/.shenv.bash where I keep environment (computer) specific settings

~/git

Everything else is managed by Ansible or synced via Synthing (except ~/Downloads).

I make an ~/all/ directory as a catchall for things that don't fit elsewhere, since ~ is used by so many automatic softwares and config files, I like having a place that only I'll write to.

I also make ~/bin for general use and ~/all/GitHub/ for software I install from GitHub.

I have internal RAID1s that store at least two directories apart from any OS or home dev.

../repos ../misc

Misc contain timestamp fstabs, mdadm.conf, rust/python/apt user-inatalled package names, among other notes and small files.

I also sync my master org directory between my documents snapshots and the repos dir

Outside of some folders I made specifically because an app required it, I have a "games" folder for most of my games and a ".lutriswine" folder to have Lutris use a different directory from Wine.

~/Scripts for any bash or python scripts
~/Gits for any repos I clone
~/Projects for any projects im working on (not organized by programming language, but I do have some dirs called zig, go, etc., for when im learning a new language and want to make some projects for learning purposes)

Most other files go into ~/Documents if they don’t have a home already, or don’t fit into the above directories

Public - for everything im seeding and sharing

Apps - for all app images

Games - for all lutris spam and random failed attempts at installing mods.

I have repos for things I’ve cloned from codeberg or other repositories.

There’s also Nextcloud for files I’ve synced from there.

I have a test folder where I clone various git repisitories, compile programs from source or test some small scripts.

I have one for my git repos that I clone and keep building from source. One for various projects. One for scripts…. And so on

A gits dir and a dir called "wd". Short for working dir.

Its a dumpfest of scripts, tomls, yamls, directories galore. The gits dir is where I keep my cmdb, that one is organized. wd is like a playground where I allow myself not to give a shit

Defaults are good for me but I like mounting my secondary drive to ~/Storage with subfolders media, projects, games

~/Projects which has everything I ever cloned or started. yes, it's getting kind of painful to backup :D

~/repos

Usually git or development.

/datapool or whatever the array is called for zfs pools, I often do /mail on mail servers, and /www on web servers. Not sure why but it makes it super obvious what's going on when you login remotely

Code goes in the Developer folder

(I got used to that name on macOS, where it is the "canonical" name for it, because it automatically gets a special icon)

I usually make ~/Packages for various binary packages that I can't add as repos for whatever reason. And ~/Packages/src for stuff I compile myself.

And ~/Games for games.

Apps (local executables, appimages, etc.), Projects (Work, hobbies), Sync (things I need everywhere), tmp (files I will probably delete sooner than later), and Data. Also Vaults and Boxes, only if I need them.

projects, games, and programs are the non default folders in mine

~/repos

I don't, on most machines, which are servers of some sort. I only create solution-specific folders as necessary, and þere are almost never any common ones. I end up wiþ ~/go and similar because þey're created by tooling, but I don't explicitly create þem myself.

For my PCs, I've been carrying forward my ${HOME} for over a decade. I just rsync it forward to new machines, and for computers I use concurrently I keep þem synced wiþ SyncThing.