How to Clean your Inventory...Part One, Quick Start

To keep up with my SL new years resolution, I decided to do a massive clean up and sorting of my inventory. I thought perhaps we could all use a little encouragement in this department and it would be nice to write a tutorial/guide on how I complete my inventory clean up. Just so you know, I'm in no way an inventory specialist but rather I'm someone with way too much time on their hands and a bit of a complex when it comes to SL inventory.

My inventory is currently unorganized sitting at 22,249 items. This is about the time when that red flashing light and blaring alarm goes off, because to me my inventory is busting at the seams and is needing to be cleaned. Only a short couple of months ago it was under 20K. I do try to set aside some time every week to keep up with the maintenance and sort through my items, but with the holiday season, somehow it has escaped being a priority and has fallen into chaos. 

Originally this was going to be one post, but when I started writing I realized this was going to be a long and decided to break it down into three parts. The first part will cover a "Quick Start", which are easy tips and things you can do to reduce the amount of inventory numbers you have. It's a great starting point to giving a quick reduction in any inventory.



The easiest way to sort through all of these items is to utilize the Filter drop down menu. The Filter Menu is located at the very top of the inventory under the search field.  (I am currently using the Phoenix viewer, so I'm not sure if it's located in the same spot on other viewers.)

1) Delete those Calling Cards- I personally haven't found a way to use the calling card and have always thought of them a space collectors. It's best to delete these.

2) Note cards- Clear out all the useless note cards from your inventory. Old sale updates, events, basically anything that is out of date must go. Only keep what is needed or has sentimental value. Keep instruction manuals for objects and Huds, especially if you are a klutz like me. Note cards can easily pile up and be hidden in folders.

3) Landmarks-Clear out Multiple Landmarks, and only keep ones that are necessary. I delete all LMs and rely on search in Second Life to find locations.

4) Gestures- This is really a judgment call you have to make. Since voice was introduced in Second Life gestures have been used less. It's also considered socially unacceptable or rude to gesture spam in large crowds. While I did delete a bunch of old gestures I kept sentimental ones given to me by close friends.

5) Textures/Snapshots- Another way to clear out extra clutter is to delete the adverts that are included in your items. While I like the extra effort that designers make to include the sale ad as a quick look guide I find it to be an extra I can live without. I also deleted old photos collected over the years.

6) Scripts/Sounds- Unpack scripts, Give inventory scripts, Hold Object Scripts, Delete me Scripts, Give all Contents were just a couple of scripts I had floating around in my inventory. I was amazed at how many were hidden.

So after I removed all these items my final inventory total is 19,126! Which means I cleared 3,123 in one cleaning session. I am so doing the dance of joy at the accomplishment and decrease in inventory. Now,  I'm not quite finished with inventory sorting. The next post will cover inventory structure and organization in detail. I plan to crack open the biggest folders I have "Clothing" and provide an inside peek at my closet.