Download sorting
Renames and files every download by a rule on arrival, so the folder stops being a drawer of near-identical files.
Tools
Google Drive, Dropbox, Zapier, Make, Airtable
Outcomes
Downloads folder empty on most days • Every file named the same way • Unclaimed downloads deleted after a month • Nothing filed into two places
Documentation
Instruction-ready detail below
A downloads folder is the one place on a computer nobody has to look at, so it becomes a drawer of files nobody can name. The rule set is small and written down: rename every download to include the date and a plain description, move it into one folder per kind of document, and move anything matching none of them into an inbox folder that is emptied weekly. The workflow watches the folder rather than the person, so it runs on a phone download as reliably as on a laptop. Each file gets the date it arrived and a description taken from the page it came from, and a file that already follows the rule is left alone. A weekly pass lists the inbox folder and deletes anything older than thirty days that nobody claimed. A small table records where each file went, so the person who needs a document can be told the path instead of guessing the folder. A person still decides which folders the rule covers, what to call a file when the source gives no clue, and what is worth keeping out of the deletion window.