Organizing in the World of Warcraft

One of my favorite activities is playing World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft

I play a minotaur, a Tauren to use the in-game race name.

Sarah’s Tauren character model

Isn’t she pretty? I think so, anyway.

My raiding group does weekly runs on Sunday and Monday evenings. We’re a new group, so we’re still sorting out duties and expectations. Recently, our Raid Leader started handing out assignments to help our 10-man group prepare for Raid Nights.

My assignment was easy — gather 40 Fool’s Caps (an herb) and deposit them in the Raid Group bank vault. I already had the 2 stacks so I grabbed them from my bank and dropped them off. Took 2 minutes.

But deep down, I have to admit it: I have a hoarding problem.

Here are my character bags (seen using the Ark Inventory add-on).

Character bag storage

And my bank vault.

Bank storage

And void storage.

Void storage bank

See how few open spaces there are? I know I don’t need all of that stuff. Why in heaven’s name do I have so much?

Just like Real Life, I haven’t maintained my organizational systems, I haven’t weeded excessive, obsolete, or unwanted materials, and I’m not making the most efficient use of my space.

And also like Real Life, seeing this mess is making my brain twitch. The plan:

1. Evaluate my storage options. What restrictions and rules apply to the different vaults?
2. Evaluate what I’m storing. What kinds of materials am I hanging on to? What can I quickly and easily gather? What items are restricted to this character?
3. Purge unnecessary materials. Toss what I don’t need anymore or things that can be easily replaced.
4. Determine which items I need to carry versus what can be stored. My character can carry quite a bit, so I should make sure I’m making best use of my available space.
5. Level my alt character’s tailor profession. The tailoring profession lets you make, among other things, bags. If I can get this profession leveled up, I could conceivably start making some of the larger bags so i can increase the storage capacity of my main toon.
6. Make a bank alt. It’s time to take the plunge. Send the non-restricted, little used items to this alt along with some gold and extra bags. Keep a record of what this alt has in its bank and bam: more space!

So that’s the plan. I do have one thing going for me — my bag add-on, Ark Inventory, lets you create categories that it will automatically sort your items into. I have a basic system in place right now but it’s still fairly cluttered.

Fingers crossed!