Why it matters sooner than you think

A media library is fine unorganised for about three months. After that, "is this logo the current one?" becomes a real cost, and duplicates start multiplying because nobody could find the original.

Structure by subject, not by date

Date-based folders (2026-08) tell you when something was uploaded, which is almost never what you are searching by. Subject-based folders match how people actually look:

  • brand/ — logos, icons, colour assets
  • people/ — staff and team photography
  • products/ — grouped by product or range
  • documents/ — PDFs and downloads

Keep the tree shallow. Two or three levels is almost always enough; deeper structures mean more time deciding where something goes than it saves in finding it.

Naming beats nesting

Search generally beats browsing, so descriptive filenames do more work than an elaborate folder tree. A file named logo-primary-dark-2026.svg is findable from anywhere. One named final-v3.svg is not, whatever folder it sits in.

Avoid "final", "new" and "v2" in names. They are true for about a week.

Handling superseded files

When something is replaced, decide deliberately:

  • If it is genuinely obsolete and unused, delete it. Every stale asset is a chance for someone to publish the wrong one.
  • If it might still be referenced, move it to an archive/ folder rather than deleting. Deleting a file that is still in use leaves broken images on live pages.

Before deleting anything

Check whether the file is in use. There is no undo for a deleted file, and the failure mode is a broken image on a page nobody is looking at — which means it stays broken for a long time.