One of my favourite dip-in books is Douglas Adams’ and John Lloyd’s ‘The Meaning of Liff’. This wonderful little book puts UK place names to work describing things which currently have no word for them in the English language. Examples of this include ‘Ible,’ defined as ‘clever but lazy’ and ‘Scramoge,’ defined as ‘to cut oneself whilst licking envelopes’.
It occurs to me that, as virtual world living appears set to become a more mainstream phenomena, it’s perhaps time we started defining some of the more familiar metaverse experiences so that future generations can benefit from an established lexicon when struggling to come to terms with life in prims and pixels. After all, what point is there in being a pioneer if you don’t pass forward all this learning in some way? It’s a process I in fact already started several years ago when – as no doubt you are…
After 3 months of trying things on, sorting, boxing, and deleting, I’m finally done with my inventory cleaning project!
It’s amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in 6 years. 😛
When I first started, I was hoping to delete/box enough stuff to get my inventory count under 30K.
While I wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, my inventory count is currently sitting at 31,066.
Partially because I’m a shopaholic, so I’ve continued to accumulate things as I was getting rid of them!
I’m pretty happy with my clothing and costume folders now.
I’ve sorted things into folders that make sense (to me) so I can find things, and I’ve gotten rid of a bunch of items that have never seen the light of day.
Clothes I never wore, furniture I’ve never used, shoes with invisiprims – all gone.
I’m even considering (gasp!) getting rid of some of my old N-Core shoes – the ones with the mesh feet built-in.
I love N-Core, but once I tried the Slink feet and then got my Maitreya body – well, I only buy shoes for the Maitreya feet anymore.
However, N-Core has started making shoes for the Maitreya feet, so I rejoined the group since I now have 60 group slots. 😀
If I do get rid of my old N-Core shoes, that might get me under the 30K goal.
I also got rid of a ton of skins I’d picked up from here, there, and everywhere that I never wore (I think somewhere around 100+ skins?).
It did get tedious towards the end, trying on everything and making decisions.
I found myself sometimes just looking at the ‘acquired’ date and making decisions based on that.
I figured if I got in 2010, have never worn it, and/or have no idea what it is/does/looks like, I probably didn’t need to hang on to it. 😛
I even considered doing some wholesale folder deletions, as my friend Nai recommended, but I just couldn’t do it.
Maybe someday, when/if mesh rezzing isn’t such an issue for some, I will make some room by deleting system clothing or non-mesh items.
For now, I’m hanging on to them.
I’ll have to figure out some other way to get down to 30K.
My week has been kind of crazy in RL, and it’s got me all discombobulated.
I keep thinking that today is Saturday.
My kids are out of school for Spring Break, so next week promises to be crazy as well, with everyone home and in my hair all week.
I spent most of my time in SL yesterday sorting through inventory.
I finally decided to tackle my folder of shoes. 😛
I deleted several pairs, boxed up a ton, took pics of the ones I kept, and organized them in my ‘wardrobe’ system so I can search for them when I might need them for a routine.
Yay!
I started to work on my ‘costume’ folder, but after about 30 minutes, it was clear that a sort of those will require at least several days of work. 😦
I did also have a chance to try out some outfits with my mesh body and figure out the appliers.
I understand how the appliers work, but once you ‘apply’ parts of an outfit, they remain until you apply something else.
You can turn them ‘off’ with the HUD, but they are still there.
Surely there should be a way to ‘clear’ the appliers?
Yes, there is!
There is (yet another) applier you can get for free that will ‘clean’ whatever you have previously applied to the mesh body.
That should make my life easier when I start trying out my rather large lingerie/burlesque outfit collection. 😀
Now, what would be REALLY AMAZING would be if someone would make an Omega applier that could clean/apply via a chat command.
Why?
Because then you could use your dance HUD to ‘chat’ a command to apply/remove appliers during a routine.
Now, THAT would be cool. 🙂
Friday starts the weekend of dance shows, so check the blog calendar and check out something new.
Mine isn’t this pink, but you get the idea. 🙂 Image Source: weheartit.com
I am engaged in a constant war with my inventory.
I try to keep it as low as I can, and although I’ve won several battles, I’m still losing the war. 😦
I recently did a big purge and I lowered my count by almost 2,000 items.
I still can’t bring myself to just delete items without even looking at them.
For instance, I know that deleting my ‘costume shoes’ folder would probably free up about 1K in inventory, but I just can’t do it.
My mind is always filled with ‘what if’s.’
What if I accidentally throw away an awesome pair?
What if I throw away a pair that would have worked perfectly for the routine I’m working on?
For the last few weeks, I’ve been slowly going through my clothing folders.
I deleted a lot of old system clothes I never really wear anymore, and I boxed up quite a few that I just can’t bear to part with, but don’t need to sit in my inventory.
In the process, I discovered that I wear way more mesh than I realized.
Really the only items that I kept that are system clothing are lingerie sets.
A burlesque dancer ALWAYS needs lingerie!
Some of the items I deleted were, quite frankly, hideous, and I have no idea why I kept them in the first place.
I took pictures of certain outfits that I liked.
I have one of those ‘wardrobe’ things that lets you take a pic of item and puts in a database so you can search through them.
After working through my system clothing, I started on mesh.
I was hoping to put together quite a few outfits with my new mesh body, but I’m finding that most (95%) of the mesh I already own doesn’t work well with the mesh body.
Although the alpha cuts are generous, they just don’t work well with low-cut, asymmetric, or strapless clothing.
I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more fitmesh clothing and clothing made specifically for the Maitreya body.
Once I’m done with mesh, I’ll start on my ‘costume’ folder.
In the meantime, I will keep pushing my rock up the hill, despite every indication that my inventory count will continue to rise.
It seems like every time I turn around, there’s a new event, a cute this-or-that I have to have, or an item I think will be a perfect prop in a routine.
I like to think of myself as a very organized person.
I make lists, I keep a calendar of activities, and I plan ahead.
Because I like things to be organized, I keep my inventory organized.
My husband is just the opposite.
His inventory drives me batty and I’ve been known to log in and secretly organize his inventory while he is elsewhere. 🙂
Of course, then he complains he can’t find anything, because why would you look for pants in the folder labeled ‘pants’?
After coming across yet another post about organizing inventory, I started to wonder how other people organize their inventories.
Or if they even bother.
There is no universal ‘best way’ to organize, and some of the advice I’ve read on the subject seems backwards to me.
I have no idea how people with large inventories don’t go crazy – mine is sitting at around 36K at the moment, and that seems hugely wasteful to me.
Especially as I know that fully half of it is stuff that I a) probably will never use, b) stuff I haven’t used since I got it, and/or c) stuff I should just toss.
Yet as ruthless a declutterer as I can be in RL, I’m a closet hoarder in SL.
I can’t bear to just throw things away.
I have no idea why.
One of my goals this year was to go through my wardrobe and pare it down.
It’s a project that I’ve been working on slowly.
Nai’s 365 challenges have given me an excuse to gallivant all over SL in various outfits, taking pictures.
For whatever reason, after I have taken a picture of the outfit, I have no problem at all tossing it in the delete pile.
I guess I need some sort of memento of it before I can get rid of it.
Which is okay – I’ve been taking more pictures, exploring SL more, and working on my photography skills all at the same time!
I’m slowly working my inventory number down (except for all the darn sales that seem to be going on!) and I thought I’d share a few organization tips.
Take them or leave them – as I said, there’s no ‘universal’ advice for organization, just pick what works for you. 😛
One of the first things you need to know to organize your inventory is the hierarchy of folders (which you can change).
Image Source: wiki.secondlife.com
There are two main folders in your inventory – one labeled My Inventory and one labeled Library.
The library folder is full of basic, generic items that are provided to every avatar in SL.
For the most part, I think pretty much everyone ignores this folder.
Most of what’s in it is old, clunky, ugly, and not really useful.
Everything else you buy or collect goes in the My Inventory folder.
You can choose how folders are displayed – under the little gear button at the bottom left of the inventory window.
The options are ‘sort by name,’ ‘sort by most recent,’ ‘sort folders always by name,’ and ‘sort system folders to top.’
System folders are the folders that have a little icon on the folder – things like gestures, favorites, scripts, etc.
You cannot delete system folders.
Since I have other folders I have created I want displayed first, I do not sort system folder to the top.
I use ‘sort by name.’
A trick for naming folders so that they appear in the order you want is to include other characters.
For example, I want my blog folder (which contains items related to my blog) to always appear at the top.
But ‘blog’ starts with a B.
Any folder named with an A will sort and appear above it.
So I add other characters.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, odd characters sort differently (characters like *, {, #, ~).
How do you know which characters will sort where?
There’s an ASCII character hierarchy – see here if you’re interested.
The top three ASCII characters are !, “, and #.
I label my blog folder ‘!Blog Stuff’ and it will go to the top of the sort.
Also, the number of characters makes a difference.
So a folder named ‘!!!Misc’ will sort higher than a folder named ‘!Dances.’
The next big step in organizing your inventory is to make folders for various like items.
I have folders with labels like blog stuff, house stuff, stuff for building, etc.
You can make sub-folders as well.
In my ‘clothing’ folder, I have sub-folders with labels such as ‘pants,’ ‘shirts,’ ‘shoes,’ and ‘dresses.’
Under dresses, I might have sub-folders labeled ‘cocktail,’ ‘ballroom gowns,’ and ‘vintage.’
The ballroom gown folder might have sub-folders of colors – blue, red, green, etc.
Of course, you may have a completely different system that works really well for you.
If you do – please share!
I’d love to know how others keep their inventories organized. 😀
Maybe I should ask whether you organize your inventory. 😀
My inventory isn’t huge (only 35K), but it is certainly large enough for things to get lost.
One of my pie-in-the-sky wishes has always been a way to search your inventory by creation and/or acquisition dates.
If I could sort by age, it would be so much easier to decide whether or not to chuck something, based on how long it’s been gathering dust in my inventory.
I love to shop.
And with the number of free/inexpensive items available in SL, I am constantly picking things up that I think I can/will use in a dance routine.
Someday.
So I pick it up, put it in my inventory, and then promptly forget all about it.
I do keep my inventory organized.
I have clothing in one folder, with subfolders like shoes, sweaters, dresses, etc.
So I would find my Maitreya shoes in the clothing>shoes>high heels>Maitreya folder.
I have a separate folder for routines. That folder has subfolders for costumes and accessories.
But again, stuff gets lost.
And these days, it’s rare to get an outfit that actually contains a picture of the item.
Consequently, I have no idea what the ‘Celtic Crimson’ coat looks like without trying it on. (The coat is actually grey, FYI.)
Many times, when trying to decide what folder to put an item in, I’m in a quandry.
It’s green, but it’s also a dress, but it’s latex, it could be futuristic, but could also be . . . etc etc.
I’ve purchased several items over the years to help, including a fancy wardrobe organizer.
But frankly, it would take me a year to go through my entire wardrobe to label everything.
And that’s just clothing!
So how do you organize your inventory?
How do you know where to find things when you are building a set?
As the new year approaches, I am looking ahead and settings goals for 2015.
I have several opportunities that have come my way and I hope to take advantage of all them.
One of the things I’ve decided to do is start a Look Of The Day post. Just a quick shot of me wearing an outfit I put together (this is mainly to give me a reason to sort through my inventory). I will title them all LOTD, so if you’re not interested in them, feel free to skip right over those posts.
If you like it, great, if you don’t (or I don’t) then I can toss the items and voilá – less inventory!
I picked up a LOT of stuff over the advent season, so I need to go through and see what I actually have.
And Devy sent me a link to a new shoe store, so now I need more room for shoes!
What new things are you hoping to accomplish in 2015?
A Kat and A Mouse 