Inventory Sorting Tutorial Pt 2 : Hosiery

June 24, 2011 | by anyaohmai | inventory sorting, tutorial

Hi faise~ so onto Hosiery! I’m a huge collector of socks/tights and what not, I think they’re perfect accessories for bloggers. Which is why this was one of the first sections I decided to do, because I know I’ll have tons of fun finding old leggings or socks hidden within the crevices of my inventory. So let’s get cracking shall we?

Prepare yourself with a pose stand and clean background. A tool that helped me a lot was a form of “Camera Lock”, there’s probably tons on the marketplace but mine was purchased a while back from Vengeance Studio. This helped me standardize some of my shots~

Create another folder on the main Inventory area and name it whatever you like with another exclamation. I named mine “!anya ohmai inventory sorted” so it’s obvious what it is. Within this folder I then created my “Socks, Hosiery” folder.

How should one categorize Hosiery? Do this in a way where realistically you know how to find your items. Which means don’t follow mine to a tee cause this method works for me; it might be confusing for you. But this is how I did mine:

I basically have categories for what type of Hosiery it is:

Tights – Footless
Leggings/Stockings
Socks – Long
Socks – Multiple Lengths
Socks – Med
Socks – Short
Garters
Socks – Legwarmers/Opentoe

Then create sub-categories for what kind of print/pattern it has.
At the same time, go to your desktop/hard drive and create similar folders. However, for this I didn’t sub categorize it because I wanted to easily flip through my pictures.

So find a good angle to get your Hosiery shots and lock it with your camera lock. This is when you start wearing your items and make decisions of whether you should keep an item or delete it.

This is difficult cause a lot of us are hoarders who believe in “One day I will need this!” I know I’m a huge hoarder. There are 2 methods to solving this, one is to realistically know which item you will never wear again and delete. The other is to box items you’re sure you will need one day, just not right now. I won’t go into that because I personally do not like putting things into boxes. I always forget about them and it defeats the purpose… so here I am painfully deleting items *huhu*

Take a screenshot of the item via SL and save to your desktop – completely free! Just takes up space on your hard drive. These are my settings but feel free to use any size you want – as long as you can see it on your computer clearly it works. I like mine at 800×800 or 750×750 because it’s a medium size shot that takes about 100-200kbs in size.

Some people told me the naming process is tedious? All I do is just right click > rename > copy and then go over to the snapshot I took and rename it. Easy peasy~!

Summary
Step 1: Wear Item
Step 2: Take Picture
Step 3: Drag to Appropriate Folder
Step 4: Name Item in Desktop *Copy Paste*

This will probably take a while but once you’re done you’ll see this image on your Rough Inventory area:

And you can probably scream and go crazy cause you’re done. Check out how pretty it is on your desktop or hard drive!

So it seems a little insane, but when you can scroll through your items visually on the computer you feel a sense of pride that’s just indescribable. After going through this method I manage to clean up 3k worth of Hosiery and that’s pretty good! \o/

I hope you guys found this helpful!

12 Comments

como!!
June 24, 2011 at 04:40

anya! this is so good idea >.<
i will try it!! ♥
valen
June 24, 2011 at 06:47

super cool!! thanks for sharing! i’ll try it XD <333
Posh Slade
June 24, 2011 at 10:41

How great of you to share your method with everyone I have recently been packing away my vintage SL content that I don’t want to part with, but never use. I started some years ago, cataloging SL inventory images in a folder system on my PC. However, I never managed to keep it up. It’s really nice to see this and it totally reminds me of Cher’s closet in the movie Clueless ! Maybe, I’ll find time one day to revisit mine.
anyaohmai
June 25, 2011 at 02:51

como Yay! Good luck comoooo <333

valen ngaww no problem! I hope it helps you!

Posh I hope you do revisit yours! I’m not sure how long I can keep this up, realistically it takes a lot of work, but so far it’s the best method for me that makes me feel as if my inventory is somewhat manageable, cause I can see what’s inside. Still the best way to maintain it is discipline and self motivation though XD I’m glad you enjoyed this!
Jen
June 25, 2011 at 07:34

such a good idea! what programme are you using to view your pictures in?
anyaohmai
June 26, 2011 at 03:55

Jen — Thank you! I’m using Mac Apple’s Finder so it’s just the usual folders with a thumbnail~
Chance G.
June 27, 2011 at 11:45

YOU ARE CRAZY, but I LOVE YOU STILL!” ahahaha..I hope you finish this project, cause it’s EPIC in EVERY WAY! <3<3<3
anyaohmai
June 27, 2011 at 21:55

Chance — haha yayy!!! Thank you Chance :D *hugs* I hope I do tooo… I’m so tired of not being able to find anything!
Chamomile Theas
July 4, 2011 at 04:51

I have such a love/hate relationship with inventory sorting that even reading this series totally exhausts me, never mind DOING IT. You are either heroic or utterly bonkers!
Ashleigh
July 11, 2011 at 17:38

I really wish I could find some kind of sorter that looks like the Mac one for my PC.
anyaohmai
February 25, 2012 at 20:23

Chamomile — I like to think it’s a lil bit of both

Ashleight — Aisling posted a comment on another part of this tutorial that might help!

@Anya and all those asking about the Mac Finder interface for viewing pictures – I work on multiple platforms (multiple Mac and Windows OS versions). One suggestion for those who absolutely love the album cover look that Anya is using, you actually can can get something close in windows explorer if you set up your Explorer window correctly. I put and example picture on my flickr. With steps to configure your Explorer window to look like this. One nice thing about this option that goes along with what Anya was saying about being able to view things visually and liking to keep the creators original file names is that not only can you give things ratings (so you can sort by things you liked the best) but you can also put on tags on the file that include things to help you find the right piece when you are searching for something. For example the file name might be “*OhMai! – Brocade Tights – Eggplant” but you are looking for purple tights so when you put in the word purple in search this doesn’t come up, but if you add the tag purple to the file it would come up when you searched your tights folder along with any other ones that had purple in the name or in the tags. Here is the link to the picture (http://www.flickr.com/photos/aislingmacmoragh/6815595655/in/photostream). I recommend clicking on the main pic and going to the full 100% view for the details.
Candida
April 9, 2012 at 15:34

Hai Anya, and the rest.
The sorting in types of clothes, allmost like you do works well for me for years now.
I have sorted categories of clothes and subfolders in (main)colours.
In past i sometimes made pictures to store random on my disc too, but after reading this blog i am so commited to start again with that and more organized!
But i learned to do these things also:

- Outfits (clothing) that i havent worn jet and that are still in a box with a picture on it i rez in my dressing room; i only keep it there on land and not in my inventory. I am lucky to have enough prims to do that. It is like having my private shop (LOL). It is so easy when you need a last minute quick outfit; no need to browse to inventory first.
- Outfits (clothing) that i got for free i only wear once and then i throw it away. Only when its very very awsome or easy (like basic jeans) i keep it. But i try to keep to my own rule as much as possible.
- I allmost never throw away clothing that i payed a substancial amount for. The folder where these clothes are in i allways give an extra name like “bought” so I can remember that later
- I allmost never throw away skins, shoes, hair, makeup, nails, eyes, stockings/socks, assecoires/jewels. Because these items can easily be used over and over again to mix and match. This category’s i am gonna use the picture method for!
- The most expensive items i payed for, like nails, hairs, skins, jewels, and boots (o yeah many!) and that are copy i put in categorized boxes as backup on land. So i have one item in my inv and one in box on land. Just for safety if my inventory should crash or something.
- Skins i sorted on colour of lips
- Hairs on length and or style (like: long ponytail on the back, shoulderlength, 2 tails, up-free neck)
- Jewels on (main)colours: like “black-silver”
- Socks/stockings on height and material (bit similar as anya)
- Shoes in categories for example: boots-high, boots-ankle, highheel/pumps, sneekers, boots-uggstyle etc.
- Lingerie in style n colour example: bikini/bra-slip, bodystocking, slip n pasties, babydoll etc. i allways add material and…. stockings if included is in folder name
- Once every few months i do a cleaning within a category of the items i dont throw away after i weared it. For example a few weeks ago i threw away all the highheels and pumps that have no prim feet. So no more pumps with ugly ankles for me.

And yesh i have a folder too with items that still have to be sorted out; and i am allways behind LOL. But if i try something on and i am not gonna wear i immedetly i tweak the folder name (describing colour, material, catregory etc if that is needed) and put it away in the sorted list.
And for the free clothing that i am wearing, i allways change the folder name in “delete”. Soo after i can select it easy and trash.