Bob - Good Grief is right. But it's probably not as bad as it sounds. One of the problems is that before I found this forum a year ago (and had some sense of saving files to the appropriate place), not only did my husband and I just save files (with no regard to where they were being placed) - we also had 2 different computer guys help at various times - and I've discovered that one of them took it upon himself to set up some folders and put items there (he set up a Lynn's documents) when he transferred data from one computer to another. Now I can see why he set up my own folder (since my husband and I shared a computer in those days) - but he never told me he was doing that- so lo and behold - I have an entire Lynn's documents folder that I never use but contains some of my older files. yeah - I guess it's a lot to sort. Personally, your method makes sense to me - just set up folders in the C drive for the categories I'm interested in. I'm now the only one on my computer - so I don't think I need a "my documents" folder (and certainly not a separate "Lynn's documents" folder). I am so glad to have found this forum and decided to get mastery and comprehension of my computer. Having professionals set things up - but not bother telling you what and why they did things - just complicates everything. And the pictures are also a mess bc. this helpful computer guy put picasa on my pc - which grabbed every picture - so that many pictures appear in picasa and elsewhere. It's the picture finding and organizing that seems the most daunting. Videos and music I've done myself in the past year - no one else has touched it but me. Word files are manageable too. BP - my question about the Tivo files is that I want to sit in my living room, have Tivo search my computer to see what's on it. That's what I'm thinking has to be in the Tivo desktop program. When I'm at my computer, I think I can find the videos anywhere - I'm just thinking that no matter where they came from (Tivo desktop, hulu, my camcorder, edited in Videoredo), that I might somehow have to move them all to My Tivo Recordings folder in order to access it using the Tivo and watching tv. Do I have that right? Jemdandy - that's one interesting way to approach the 2 drives - one for programs and one for data files. But then I'd be backing up data files to yet another place. I have a 500GB hard drive and am thinking of adding a second 1TB hard drive. So both drives have lots of room. Except for video files, I would think my c drive could easily handle my programs and data files (music, documents and pictures) - and the software and those files could be on the c drive and backed up to the second internal drive. Is there a reason - in terms of improved performance, etc - to use the c drive only for software? Does that add an extra step if I want to use one of my software programs (say photo editing) and have to go to the other drive to get the actual photos to work on? Or is it just as quick to run a program on one drive and get the data from the other? [Okay - good grief, it is]. Thanks everyone. Lynn.

Probably the most "User Friendly" Player, software, is Music Jukebox put out by J Rivers. Probably had it for over 10 years now. It plays CD's, Mp3's Wma's, even videos (Mpeg, AVI etc). It's Library function is really nice and since I have a "Huge Collection" it makes it very easy to go to any song or artist or even type of music I want. The esiest way to have the music available to other cmptrs is to use the Memory "Flash cards" well actually more like a "Memory Thumb" probably much like an Ipod, but since I not a "Mac Head" I can't tell ya for sure. You just plug it into your USB port on your cmptr. the cmptr sees it as a drive, drag the songs, videos etc etc to it, then plug it in any other cmptr to play it. Good Luck! Gary

I have a pretty small house overall myself. And being built in 1931 back when people seemed to own one change of clothes and one coat, there are no closets and what few closets I do have, are tiny!! I have to keep my clothes in another room because my master bedroom closet is tinier than tiny! Keep the ideas coming! There's no worries about anyone "stealing" my thread! Storage ideas for one person can be adapted by everyone, so all discussions are welcome! I'm getting some great ideas I never would have thought of. I think I'm going to use the back of the kitchen door leading to the basement for storage as well. And I have to organize that "landing". I have a big box of cat food and litter, all the paper bags for recycling and plastic grocery bags as well, all the mops and coats ontop of the rest of the mess. You can barely get by to get up and down the stairs. I wish I had a place to keep my recycling bin in the kitchen. We have it out on our 3-season porch right off the kitchen so it's not bad, but I'd rather keep the porch less cluttered and not have to go out there when it's freezing winter to toss things. Recycling tends to collect on the one tiny piece of counter I have next to my stove as it's closest to the back door until it's falling all over the place before anyone will walk the 4 feet to the door to put it in the bin!! I did take some time this weekend to pull some things out of the backs of the cabinets and rearrange now that I freed up all the space by hanging all the pots and pans and lids. I now have easy access to all my French White casserole dishes in one place, on one shelf. Then I have all my 13 x 9 pans and cake/tart pans together. Right next to the stove I put all my old casserole dishes - the pyrex & Fire King stuff. That freed up space to have all my small serving dishes and trays/platters on another shelf, then I have all the bowls I use for dips and things when I have company and the bowls for the popcorn on another. I will still have to crawl in back of the cabinets for a few things, but those are things I only use a few times per year like my crockpot or the hand crank pasta machine. I do need to figure out what to do with my "machinery". The KA mixer, blender, espresso machine, pasta maker, etc. I just spent a small fortune because I'm cleaning and painting my son's room and I had to get him new furniture and a computer desk and I'm about to start a bathroom remodel as well, but I really could use a new cabinet for under the window in the kitchen that overlooks the back porch. I have one of those build it yourself partical board bookcases there now, but something nicer and with doors so the mess isn't open to the public would be better. I need to take some pictures and load them up so I can post them as well. I'm very visual - I learn by seeing way better than reading descriptions, so pics are great! Lisa

Cathy, I got your email but was unable to reply to it, and so I sent you an email from here so that you can reply to that with an attachment. Thanks! Dcarch, I have been collecting thermal bags for some time now, and so I have quite a collection already. I saved all the ones that Kevin brought back from Seattle when he bought the salmon, lobster, and crab. I also have gel packs that are supposed to substitute for ice packs after oral surgery, and I keep those in the freezer as well. I am planning on storing stuff in the new freezer that I will not need in case of power outage, so that I will not have to open the freezer door. Although I am storing water in there, I would remove that only as a last resort, and it's always better to have more water than necessary. We have a storage container that holds several gallons of drinking water, which is way more than we will need, and we have the hot tub, which has water that can be used for cleaning, if necessary. Oh, and I will also be storing my ice cream innards, which should also help retain cold in case of power outage. I'm going to have to sort through what I already have in the two freezer compartments that I already had. I am going to be very happy to have open space in the freezer in the kitchen again - it filled up very fast, and I need the open space for chilling things from time to time, such as chocolate molds, bowls & beaters for whipped cream, butter for pie crusts, etc. I probably will buy extra butter just to store in the freezer now. I'm going to keep flours in the kitchen freezer, and I will probably put them in plastic mayo jars. I guess they would be okay in glass containers, however. One of my main plans for the freezer was to store more vegetables so that I can eat more of those, as part of a diet plan. I also will store more fruit and eat more of that. I forgot to mention earlier (in my very long post) that Kevin and I had planned to go to the Lebanese market on Venice Blvd just down the street from Best Buy after appliance shopping, but since we had the freezer on the truck, we decided to go straight home. We managed to get the freezer unloaded and installed in the garage much more quickly than I expected and had time to go back to the Lebanese market, which has very cheap produce plus Middle Eastern specialty products. I bought a large container of Za'Atar (now I won't have to make my own) plus some garbanzo flour, fresh dill in bulk, some carob molasses, falafel seasoning mix (may not need that), more Tahini (They have a huge selection of that), and some Jallab Syrup (made with date molasses and rose flavour--their spelling), which I was unsure about and still am. I does have a strong rose flavor/fragrance but I can also taste the date flavor. I think I might like it better without the roses, but I also might get used to it. We had it on pancakes this morning. I'm going to finish making the falafel this afternoon, and I want to freeze some of the dill. I was thinking I might want to store the dill in lemon juice with some garlic, since I generally add those to dill when I use it. I also need to plan what containers to use for the freezer, and I am thinking I want to get some plastic bottles for hot sauce. I have a lot of plastic containers that I'm not using, but I thought I would save those for leftovers. I like the idea of storing index cards in freezer bags!! I'm definitely going to do that! I have a feeling that the seafood section of my freezer is going to get the most use, but I will also be on the lookout for a cheap turkey. It's going to be nice to be able to shop and not worry about freezer storage space - at least for now. I'm hoping also to be able to cut down on trips to the market. Lars