How I Automated File Organisation and Email Reports with Python

#python #automation #programming #beginners

By Day 6 of my Python freelancing journey, I was building tools that actually save people time at work. Today: organising messy folders automatically and sending emails from Python.

The problem these scripts solve

Every small business has the same two problems:

A downloads folder with 400 unsorted files
Someone manually sending the same weekly report email

Both are fixable in under 50 lines of Python.

Script 1: Auto-organise any folder by file type

import os
import shutil

def organise_folder(source_folder):
    categories = {
        '.pdf': 'PDFs', '.docx': 'Documents',
        '.xlsx': 'Spreadsheets', '.csv': 'Spreadsheets',
        '.png': 'Images', '.jpg': 'Images',
    }
    for filename in os.listdir(source_folder):
        filepath = os.path.join(source_folder, filename)
        if os.path.isdir(filepath):
            continue
        _, ext = os.path.splitext(filename)
        folder_name = categories.get(ext.lower(), 'Others')
        dest = os.path.join(source_folder, folder_name)
        os.makedirs(dest, exist_ok=True)
        shutil.move(filepath, os.path.join(dest, filename))
        print(f"Moved {filename} → {folder_name}/")

Run this on any messy folder and it sorts itself in seconds.

The key functions explained

os.listdir() returns every file and folder name in a directory as a list. os.path.splitext() splits a filename into its name and extension — so report.pdf becomes ('report', '.pdf'). shutil.move() moves the file to its new home, creating the folder if needed.

Script 2: Send automated emails with Python

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart

def send_email(to, subject, body):
    msg = MIMEMultipart()
    msg['From'] = "youremail@gmail.com"
    msg['To'] = to
    msg['Subject'] = subject
    msg.attach(MIMEText(body, 'plain'))
    with smtplib.SMTP_SSL('smtp.gmail.com', 465) as server:
        server.login("youremail@gmail.com", "your-app-password")
        server.send_message(msg)