how do you keep track of them,especially if you have a whirlwind of stuff. before my inevitable uninstall/reinstall of the my game my downloads were so unorganized it was just downright shameful. but now i have the main downloads folder with subfolders and subfolders of stuff. is this too much in your opinion or what? i do it to keep my sanity and i am a tad curious on how you keep everything in check.

Nah I use tons and tons of subfolders too, I wouldn't be able to find a damn thing without them.

Right on point. Same here too. I use the same categories as in game: buy mode and build mode with all imaginable subcategories, hacks, Bodyshop etc.

Because I've read where having too many folders nested inside of one another slows down the game, I just have a two-tier approach to my downloads.
I organize it by what it is, or what it does.
For example: Build, hacks, skins, careers, furniture (with subfolders of what kind of furniture).
If there's a house with a lot of stuff, I have a folder with the name of the house on it-such as "65 Piston Lane" or "Winner Street" (Psychosims's houses), or special themes like "Shakerlicious" kitchen stuff.
Of course I have a few folders where I throw everything I can't be bothered to categorize-"Odds and ends", "unsorted downloads".
I also have one folder where I put all untested pieces into it before I really categorize them to make sure that they work in the game. It helps to find them again if they don't work properly.

I have tons of CCs too, but for some reason, they won't show up in the game if they're not directly located in the The Sims 2/Downloads folder. IOW, if I sort them in subfolders, I might as well have no CCs at all. Annoying, huh?

These are my subfolders. I think I've got more folders inside these and all of my cc shows up.

- Build:
* Doors
* Fences
* Floors
* Garden
* Stairs
* Walls
* Windows
- Buy mode:
* Appliances
* Cars
* Comfort
* Decorative
* Hobbies
* Lighting
* Misc
* Plumbing
* Surfaces
- Mods (there are 45 items in here, most of which have a folder each so I shan't list them)
- Neighbourhood Objects (14 folders in here, won't list those either)
- Sims:
* Accessories
* Clothes
* Default face templates
* DL'd sims
* Eyebrows
* Eyes
* Hair
* Make-up
* Skintones

I didn't know that CC wouldn't show up if it wasn't without folders-I know that for a base game you can't have the skin, hair, etc in a folder, because they won't show up, but the others should.

for me the only thing that isnt exactly the most organized is my hacks/mods folder. i throw everything in there simply because its labeled pretty well as they are and i dont have a lot of them currently in my game.