Personally I'm really bad at keeping my cc clean and organized and end up wanting to just delete it all and start all over like once a month because I find a few pieces I don't want and can never find them. What about everyone else? How often do you clean out cc? Do you just clean out unwanted cc or do you ever delete all and start over?

(Also if anyone has tips on keeping it organized that would be great as well)

Never.
I came back to playing after almost a year and a half because of my laptop dying on me. I still have the hood and the DL folder I was playing at the time.
I'd like to start fresh but I just feel overwhelmed by the number of cc one can find out there.
I'd rather play than going on download spree. Go figure!

When my game starts to crash/slow down.

I don't! I just keep getting more and more.

Occasionally I take something out of my Downloads folder because I realise it's not showing up in my game at all, but that's about it.

Uhm... never?

The folder in my full game just keeps growing, and I keep downloading. I've been meaning to do a full cleanup to chuck out some old stuff I've never used, and to find some stuff I really could need, but for some reason I just haven't gotten around to do it yet. I started, but didn't get very far in the process.

I do chuck stuff out for my testing game, but most of it just ends up in a collection of very untidy folders on my desktop. Been meaning to clean those up too...

Um.. always?

Whenever I decide I really don't need something in my game, I get rid of it right then and there. I like to stay organized. If I have any doubts, it's gone.

Constantly. I'm always looking through my Downloads folder since I'm writing a list of custom content that I recommend, which you can find here. It's far from being finished (and it's my tradition to take forever on just about everything) but as I write this list, I often refer to my own Downloads folder and from there I can manually, in a tedious but necessary process, pick the things I want to keep and the things I want to throw away. I mostly throw away objects and clothing that I seldom or never use, and recently, a lot of mods that I care little about. Some bug fix mods were removed because I found a workaround in-game for them (usually involving cheats) or things that aren't really applicable to me, such as the mod that fixes custom drinks for FreeTime food contest tables (since I don't have custom food or drinks in my game, I don't need that mod). Granted, I do often add mods I remove to the list, which may seem ironic, but while I may not have a use for that mod, other people might, and I'm not thinking only of myself here.

It seems weird that I'd be doing what I call "housekeeping" but I've always felt like I've downloaded too much CC sometimes. The temptation to just click "Download" over and over again is terrific, but I should probably fight it before I have a Mount Everest of custom content to go through.

Rarely. I front-load all the work involved in organizing and culling, and once a bit of cc makes it past all the steps I have in place, it's usually a keeper.

I start by going on downloading sprees like everyone, but I only add a few things at a time. Probably about a quarter of all the things I download never make it to the "I would like to put this in game to look at it" stage, and are eventually taken out of my computer's downloads folder and put in my original-downloads-just-in-case-the-site-ever-goes-down-and-I-decide-I-really-do-want-it folder.

As I put in a small batch of downloads, I write down what I put in, and the first thing I do is to fire up the game and look at all of them, from all angles, and (if it's clothing) on different ages/in different colors. Probably about a quarter to half of the things I install to look at (on average) get pulled right back out again because I don't like what I see.

The small batch of downloads that I installed goes into a special folder in my downloads named "1 Red" and the date. After pulling the things I don't like, I'll play with them in my game for at least a week. Anything that causes a crash or a jump bug during that time comes right back out again, never to return. Fortunately, this is only about one tenth of the items I install, at most. After at least a week of GAMEPLAY (one week of not touching the game, or with only a one-hour play session, doesn't count) with no problems, the folder gets renamed to "2 Orange" and the original date, and I continue to play. After at least another week of gameplay with no problems, the folder gets renames "3 Yellow" and the original date. This process repeats through "4 Blue" and "5 Gray."

After "5 Gray," I decide if I enjoyed playing with each item. If I did not, then it is removed. (This is less than a quarter of the items that make it to this point.) If I'm on the fence, it goes into a folder named "Not Sure" until I am sure; 75% of the time, the answer is that I don't like it after all, or it's more trouble than it's worth, or something.

If an item has made it through all the cuts, and if I like it, then it gets sorted into the correct folder from the get-go. I know a lot of people sort things by creator, or by site where they got it, but those systems don't work for me. Things are first sorted by Build, Buy, or Body (with a few exceptions), and then sorted by where they are in the catalog. For instance, the Body folder has subfolders Clothes, Facial Hair, Glasses, Hair, Jewelry, Makeup, and Skin. The Clothes folder has subfolders AF, AM, CF, CM, CU, EF, EM, TF, TM, and Toddler. (You may recognize these as how you buy clothes in the store.) There are no further subfolders -- the AF folder has all my AF clothing files in alphabetical order by file name. I could rename everything to be easier to find, but I find it's lots easier to run CatofEvilGenuis's tooltip program over the folder and change the tooltip to match the file name rather than he other way around.

So by being organized and picky from the start (and by using a system that works for me, not a system that other people say I should use but that doesn't work), I have far less cleaning out to do, and it's far easier to clean out when I decide that I need to.

Nobody got time to be cleaning out CC ... I'm too busy downloading it!!

Not often enough.

I was about to write the same thing as maxon.

I do employ a great deal of immediate culling. Like esmeiolanthe, I download a little something several times a week, in small batches, It might be a furniture set one day, a new hair the other. I look at it carefully in CAS (if it's hair, skintones, clothes, eyes, makeup, etc.) and I try to be ultra-critical. I ask myself if I'm really going to use this in-game, or am I using it because others seem so enthusiastic about it, it was in all these purty colors, etc.

I look carefully at the details. One popular hairstyle, for instance, has this interesting bald patch on top. So many people use it and seem to love it, but that bald spot irritates me. So I culled that one. With skintones, is the skin nicely shaded, IMO (no blotches or weird belly buttons, for instance). Is it that different from my other skintones? I might like extra-pale skin, but do I need 20 variations? Really? Does the clothing have fairly-well-matched and defined necklines and hems? Is there any major clipping that is going to bug the crap out of me later?

I'll set up a house in my test neighborhood and stick all the new furniture in there, if it's "furniture day" for me. I look at that carefully as well. Is the furniture in colors I actually use, and can I coordinate it with other pieces? Did it all come out in-game? is anything missing or crashing the game? And lastly ... do the pieces resemble something else I already have? I like modern styles, for instance, but like the skintones, I don't need 10 styles that look similar.

Mods and NPCs ... time to set up that backup game. I test the crud out of the test game. Does anything crash? Any jump bugs? Will I truly enjoy these NPCs? Some, like certain dragons and birds, I would hate to get rid of.

Also like esmeiolanthe, I find myself deleting a good portion of what I check out within a couple of hours. Not that it's bad stuff ... it's usually fantastic, and I truly thank the creators for sharing them. It's just not for me.

Once in a while, I do across-the-board resets (all hoods either reset or deleted). That's the time I cull some of my lesser-used stuff. If I haven't used it that much in a year or two or three, I probably won't use it too much in the future. That's a PITA. though. Even though I try to be selective, I still have more than two and a half gigs of CC!

Once every when I feel like it. That used to happen 2-3 times each year, but now I imagine it'll happen less often. I've been recreating my hood that was corrupted and became unplayable, and when the fourth attempt went corrupt I decided to do a massive clean to start perfectly. I've never done a thorough total clean before, so now everything is organized and fixed just the way I want it. Clothes, hair and so on is townified, prices of objects have been fixed, and anything else I could think of. I was pretty brutal, and only kept stuff I actually use. If I liked things but knew I'd never use them, I put them in a "CC I like but won't use"-folder in my general sims-related stuff folder elsewhere on my computer, so it's still there but not slowing down my game.

How to keep organized is very individual. I downloaded a folder system by LivLukas, that I heard about in this post. It really helps keep organized. It was a lot of work to go over my previous downloads and put them in the appropriate folder, but it was well worth it.

I don't have the energy to write down all of my "find your CC" and "keep organized"-stuff, but there are lots of programs that are worth knowing about
Delphys download organizer - available here in the download section. While not always sufficient, it can help you locate things like default replacements, or find specific types of files. I used it to locate all my meshes.

CatOfEvilGenius' Filename tooltip - This is my bae, one of the best things ever made. It lets you add filename as tooltip to bodyshop files, which is a lifesaver when trying to find which file is what. It won't work for buy/build mode stuff, but it goes a long way when organizing clothes and hair. Won't help with meshes, but it helps sort out the recolors. Link here.

Wardrobe Wrangler - For bodyshop items. Helpful when trying to figure out what things may be, but mostly just fantastic at fixing CC. It can bin hair, accessories, change genetic values of eyes/skins, fix clothing shoe sounds, categories and everything you may want to do. I have a quickie-tutorial on how to use it, that you can download from my dropbox here SimPE - Useful if you are unsure what something is. You can open it up and look. Mostly useful for fixing CC for your game, to do things like bin hair, and change prices/catalogs of objects.

But the key to having organized CC, is to be very strict with yourself when you add CC, and do it properly. Having done all that work to clean up my stuff would be for no use if I didn't stick to it once it's done. Nowadays I add CC (in named folders) to second setup of the user files, and once I have a bunch I go look at it all in game. What I like, I move to a "Keep" folder, the rest I delete. Then I go over the keep folder, and fix everything that needs fixing. I change names, I bin/townify/change prices/what have you. That way, anything added to my main game downloads is already fixed and won't need cleaning later. Unless I get bored of it, but then it'll be easy to find and remove thanks to the folder system and clear names.

I'm a bit on the lazy side..I'll download a house and install all the goodies, but I've been good at pre-sorting it..I think it's about time I cracked down though..I don't like a lot of deco items-and of course I've got too much for my liking.

I'd say about once a year I'll do it, if I remember.

Typically, when I start a new neighborhood (once or twice a year). For new things that I add to the game, I check them immediately and get rid of them just as fast if I don't care for the way the item looks, or functions in game.

I am not forgiving with CC - if I don't love it, I don't keep it. That alone keeps my game running smoothly and my downloads folder tidy.

Now That a hard job to do clean out CC, whenever I go through to clean out or get rid of items it go like this with me , as I am looking I end up saying I don't really need this CC, but then I turn around and say I better keep it just incase I do. Which mean I end up getting rid of nothing how sad is that. Most of my CC I really like, but if they do not look right in the game then the exact same day that I downloaded the item out they go.

But I must say my download folder is in "order" a place for each items hair, clothes, makeup, furniture etc.
But one major thing I will never ever get rid of is my "Mods" they work.

Never, unless it's messing my game up. In which case I clean everything out and put everything but the trouble CC back in.

Ever since M&G came out and all the mods I use was updated I have not clean out my 138mb of mods/CC.

Don't fix what is not broken.

These are the main times when I remove something::
-when it causes some kind of problem with the game
-when an equivalent I like better becomes available

Umm... never? Why would I get rid of it? I have spent a lot of time carefully putting my cc collection together.

The only time I dump cc is if I downloaded too many colours of something or if was something I dislike. But then I know that as soon as I see it in game and remove the folder as soon as I exit the game.

If for some reason you keep downloading and adding in badly made items then you might need to become more critical and make sure to folder the items.
So as soon as you download an item, make it a folder, label it then check it in game. If it looks like some crummy made Photoshopping from 2007 delete the folder as soon as you exit the game. Make sure to keep all Defaults inside a master Default folder and the same for Mods.

um... when the computer finally blows up, refuses to work, and locks me away from my simmies.
Until then.... MORE CC.... you can never know when you might need something that has always been of no interest to you.

(Currently playing a desert world with Scientist for the first time like ever... now I know what star wars content and pirates are good for)

I'm not particularly heavy with CC, so I'd say never.

Probably more than I should, it usually happens when I go to create a sim to choose their clothes and realize there's way too much to go through to find what I want, that's when I get rid of the download folder (never the mods though) to start a new one, but that same thing just end up happening again.
Well this time I have a different plan, I'm going to try to start downloading CC slowly, like, downloading clothes specifically for a sim I'm playing, and not just clothes I think are cool, and with time I'll have a bunch of clothes, and none of them will be useless! I really hope that works this time.

With what I don't like anymore..Sometimes I wonder why I had it in first place!! Lol..but I do keep the Mods in. Always...

Often? Sometimes it just annoys me, so I get rid of the whole thing because the vanilla game is great! But then I miss it after a while because the minimal CC I use fits my game nicely. Maxis match, a few CAS things, mostly buy stuff. I use a couple of fixes and a mod or two. Like I said all very minimal, so its easy to keep track of everything,and doesn't change the game much. Got some makeup and 7 hairstyles on friday. I'm getting rid of all of them except for 1 hairstyle.
5 years ago I learned a lesson. The difficulties of keeping everything in order and finding stuff in general because I had at least a a GB or two. I still do the mass downloading that I used to, but I only download what I really want/need/ am curious about. Anything that doesn't meet my expectations in game is out. Because who wants eternal sadness and disappointment from something downloading something willingly but being unable to find it in that massive folder of chaos?