Confession, it is rumored, is good for the soul.  All right, then. I confess:
I am a packrat. (I hate that term, but I’ve never come across a better one.)  I’m not pathological about it, because I don’t have vast collections of old newspapers, magazines and other junk-type clutter. My husband, bless his heart, took steps early in our relationship to deter me from such a path and rescued me from this fate when he decided to go through my closets, with my input and assistance, and clear out anything that hadn’t been used in two years. Since then, my distaste for general clutter has taken firm root in my mind.  I don’t even like to have more than a few icons on my desktop at any given time; those that are there are used constantly.  Everything else is filed logically away. Thank goodness for My Documents and it’s sub-sub-sub (you get the idea!) folders.  I use My Documents as a central filing system, which makes more sense to me than using it to store text files only.

However, I am reluctant to discard anything that looks as though it might be potentially useful someday, and that includes my collection of bookmarks, which seems to expand by geometric progression.  If I come across a tutorial of interest that I want to follow, a recipe collection, anything to do with web design or any number of other topics that I don’t have time at that particular moment to fully explore…bookmark it. That is the purpose of bookmarks, after all.  I even store my bookmarks online, for extra insurance against data loss. I wish I had a nickel for every post I’ve seen in the Firefox Support Forums lamenting the “loss” of bookmarks…but I digress.

The problem with having so many bookmarks is: how does one find anything in a vast sea of hyperlinks?  So, there has to be some method of organizing, preferably one that costs zero dollars. (I don’t really mind the investment of time, because in theory once I have my bookmarks management system set up, maintenance won’t be difficult. I hope.)  I even have a semi-permanent item in my To-Do List: “organize bookmarks more.”  I suspect this item will never be removed; it is an ongoing battle to be waged with diligence, but never decisively won since I have no plans to stop surfing the internet.

I use essentially the same method to organize my bookmarks as I use for the files on my hard drive: folders and sub-folders.  I like having bookmarks on my bookmarks toolbar for easy access, but the space on the toolbar is limited. Enter the sub-folders within broader categories.  Then, there is the matter of duplication. Firefox does have an extension to detect duplicate bookmarks <I>at the time they are saved or added</I>. That is some help, but I have scores that migrated from IE, that were collected before I ever knew of Firefox. Thus arises the need to search for and manually delete duplicate bookmarks, and even duplicate folders of bookmarks. See? Another indication of the tendency to packrat-ism.   My approach therefore is to work on a single folder at a time, if necessary, to make sure my bookmarks are clean, well ordered and quick to access.  If I have to think of having to do all of them at once, the result would be sensory overload and complete cessation of effort. I have a vivid mental image of David going after Goliath with a BB in his sling.   (Ever see a teenager react when she is told to clean her room when it would take a wrecking crew with a bulldozer to even get through the door?  She’s more likely to close the door in your face than to pick up a broom.)  I once spent an entire morning organizing My Documents folder, one file and folder at a time – but I’ve had to do that only once, because I am careful to maintain it so that it doesn’t get out of hand again.  My mother used to constantly tell me, “it’s easier to put something away properly the first time than to keep moving it because it’s in the way or risk misplacing it completely.” Or words to that effect; the point is, she was right.

The thing I’ve noticed about bookmarks is this: Let’s say, you begin with a new folder to hold links for a particular topic of interest. Simple enough. You add your bookmarks; pretty soon you’ve got many more than you counted on, and it begins to feel like you’re losing control of the roller coaster…the brakes are squealing just a bit.  But, you keep finding the neatest sites on the internet; you’re in a huge hurry most of the time,  and you don’t take the time, after a while to make subfolders…or if you make them, you don’t keep them organized.  The roller coaster begins to throw off sparks on its track.  If you still don’t gain control, pretty soon you’re on a downhill fall at full-tilt speed. Yikes!  To try to control some of the fallout, I’ve even created a folder called “as I browse.” Like the others, it too only had a few links in it…but it’s been a while, and it’s beginning to get crowded too. *Sigh*.  Yet another folder to organize.  So, my solution is to spend whatever time it takes (when time permits) to clear out the clutter, back everything up to my online storage site . . .and I may even get the courage to delete the old ones and begin fresh online . . . then spend a few minutes daily to ensure things stay neat and orderly. Then, I can also do periodic fresh uploads online for safekeeping. Wish me luck.