The following directories always exist in my $HOME. Usually there are also a bunch of other work-in-progress files scattered around, waiting for me to either categorize them, delete them, or give up and move them to one of the catchall directories (archive, ongoing, tmp, or projects/scratch depending on what they are)

3dp -> 3d printing files

archive -> manuals, papers, website backups, etc

audio -> music and sound files

bin -> scripts and hand-installed binaries

build -> other peoples' projects that i'm building or hacking on

CameraUploads -> symlink to my NextCloud camera upload folder

Documents -> some random documents migrated from Dropbox days

Downloads -> Downloads, organized by year, with cur year in root

notes -> textfile notes

ongoing -> catch all to get rid of stuff that i am not quite done with yet

personal-records -> water & power bills, medical records, pay stubs, etc

pics -> photos (mostly screenshots) from this PC specifically

projects -> my own projects that i'm working on (mostly git repos)

tmp -> theoretically, safe to delete at any time .... theoretically

BACKUP.TODO -> a textfile showing what i still need to back up out of my digital empire