How to Store and Organize Your Files as a Stationer

Final_Invitation_Proof_v345. Anyone recognize this!? Your millionth file for a client, now multiply that by all your clients for the year and all the years you’ve been in business. Does your brain hurt yet?

If you don’t get where I’m going – stick with me. As stationers, we have a lot of moving pieces for each client, aka files! They add up quickly, not only in quantity but in space as well. So today, I wanted to chat about how I do a little bit of my backend organization for my stationery business and what has worked (and not worked!) for me over the last 10 years. 

Before we get into HOW to organize your files, I wanted to chat about WHERE to organize your files. For the first 4-5 years of my business, every single one of my design files I have ever worked on were saved on my MAC desktop harddrive. God bless that 2009 desktop that literally was just replaced in 2021 and never failed me, minus one $200 hard drive replacement due to lightning. Somewhere in around 2014 I “wised” up and bought an external hard drive to connect to my desktop to do auto backups every day from my computer harddrive.

This way if anything ever happened to my desktop (like that lightning strike in 2015) all I had to do was connect my external hard drive and bring back all my files! I seriously break out in hives thinking about all the years I didn’t use anything external or cloud based and could have easily have lost years of work. But no point in dwelling in the past, I am here to educate you so you hopefully don’t ever have to deal with file issues!

BUT then I started thinking, what if, Heaven forbid, something were to happen to my house!? My computer AND external harddrive would be gone. Along with my life’s work. That’s when I started to do research on cloud based software and getting everything transferred over. 

I know that I wanted something that was very seamless and allowed me to work directly on my computer, even though the files were cloud based and didn’t require me to manually download/upload every time I updated something. That’s why I landed on DropBox, I had always used the free one randomly here and there for things, but I decided to buy the Business account so I had all the space I needed and moved EVERYTHING (10 years worth of work!) over to DropBox. It took a while to get it all transferred, but it has been a literal dream ever since. 

I have it auto backup anytime a file is updated, it syncs between my desktop and my laptop so I have access to all my files no matter what, and if something were to happen to my computer, while it would still be sad, none of my files are hosted there! And as a bonus, when I did upgrade my sad 2009 desktop recently, I didn’t have to shell out extra money for a larger harddrive since I only needed it to run my programs and not actually store all the files! 

So now that we’ve chatted about where I store all my files, I wanted to give you a peak into how I actually organize them all so I can quickly find exactly what I am looking for, even things that are 10 years old! 

I love structure, that’s all there is to it. So when I first started my business, hello logo design for a friend of mine, I knew I wanted to create an easy filing system for everything. So I have a folder for each year, and inside of that folder I have 12 folders for each month (with the number in front so it stays in order) and inside the month folder, each client gets their own folder and that is where all of their files for their entire project are housed.

So it looks something like this:

2021-> 01_January -> Sarah Smith

Inside this folder, I may have sub folders for PRINT FILES, or if we’re working on a design that has lots of small pieces with it I may have a GRAPHICS folder as well. 

Now if I am working with a client on multiple phases (save the dates, invitations, day of stationery), I will have separate folders in the respective months we’re working on them. I don’t want to have to go all the way back to January for a client who we’re working on her day of items in May. 

Another great way you could do it is by date organization using their wedding month/year, opposed to the month you’re actually working on it. So if a client is getting married in June, all of her folders/files would be in June, even though it’s January when you’re working on them. And if you’re doing it this way, you could have sub-folders for “save the dates”, “invitations”, “day-of items” etc.

In regards to the actual files, I use InDesign for all of my designs, and I prefer to have separate files for each piece. Ie, 1 file for the invite, 1 file for the RSVP, etc. I know you can have different page sizes in InDesign which would allow you to keep all the designs in one place, but this is how I’ve always done it, and if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it! 

I hope this has helped give you a better idea of some ways you can store and organize your files as a stationer so you don’t get overwhelmed with the clutter, because trust me, it can add up fast!