The act of moving a file away from the desktop or that archive folder meant I wanted to keep it.
Bonus points: my desktop tended to be clean despite me creating lots of random temporary files on it.
At some point, while switching between OSes, I stopped porting that 2 scripts. I should probably write them again...
While most of us keep our machines running 24/7, we don't know when a shutdown might be required at a moment's notice. If you weren't on your toes, that means that lots of stuff you might have wanted to keep disappears into the bit-bucket.
I keep my 'temporary-save' or downloaded items in the Downloads folder (also linked to a shorter name: 'dl'). From there they either get moved into selected folders for long-term keeping, or get deleted. Most items are there for less than a day. Some items I might save to look at within a few days, sometimes even a week.
At home, I really want to do the same, but already have too many things to catch-up on organizing. I do have a dummy file name "!! Downloads is not permanent" So it usually sorts to the top.
But the other files... well, once in a while I just open the D. folder (every year or two?) and if I can't find a place or a reason to store this file - Del, or for things like FirefoxPortable92.1.6.9.0.exe - Shift+Del
I wish programs and systems could just access small files through the browser as if it was a local folder, that would reduce the need for all that.
Now, in decades past, when I had but one or two hundred megabytes to mess with, I would assiduously comb through nearly every folder by hand to keep the drive clean and neat. Now, with thousands of gigabytes I'm supremely lazy.
My cleaning procedure is to ignore it, get frustrated, then wipe out a lot of stuff. I don't advocate the procedure.
