Will the categories actually help? I mostly find that I search for the username or site name, and then it doesn’t really matter if they’re in a folder.

Also this is a rrrrreal nitpick but if you’re keeping them in the database, are they really throwaway?

When you separate them into different databases you add the unnecessary steps of having to remember where you put it. And when you create the password you have to decide how to sort it in. And what happens when a less important thing turns out to be quite fun and you’d promote it from less important to hobby?

Just save the passwords with the URL, name and maybe a descriptive tag or two. Let the password manager deal with bringing up the correct password.

Just give them sensibly labels and tags when making them so they are findable and usable. Don’t fret over organization beyond that, it won’t improve your quality of life, go for a walk or something instead.

I don’t really see the need to organize passwords in a password manager. It’s sufficient to be able to search, along with the right credentials being suggested to the right website/app

Decoy passwords on post-it notes.

Put them all in a single database.

Separating them out can be a false dichotomy - some passwords are more important than others, but all of them need to be kept secure. Keeping 4 separate databases with their own passwords secure is more work than keeping one database secure. It’s generally better to be good at keeping your one database secure than be slightly less good at keeping 4 secure.

Having said I do have 2 password databases. My personal one, and a separate one I use for work. At work we have loads of different tools to use many with their own passwords, so I find it easier just to have that in it’s own password manager all in one place. I use an extension with my work web browser to access those and I keep recovery information in my personal password manager. One reason I do is it I don’t want my personal passwords exposed or available within my work computer or browser - it allows separation of my personal and work life, and means I am in no way personally reliant on my work’s IT security to keep my personal passwords safe.

Other than that, classify the types of passwords within the database; more databases increases the risk of something going wrong in my opinion.

One database called Main, no sub folders, no tags, most unnamed and not working.

I organise passwords by account type. I have my main account that is private but I use for real world things like banking. My main that I use for public facing stuff but also tied to my real identity. My sudo anon alias(this) and my “true” anon alias which I pretty much never use because trying to stay private for 0 reason is exhausting.

A bunch of cryptic notes in Notepad.

I don’t bother categorizing them, as someone else said it’s just extra steps, for what? When I need a password it either autofills or I search for it by name.

Alphabetically

I use keepassXC for passwords. One database. I organize by category. Shopping. Finance. Email. etc…
Then I sync that to my phone using syncthing. I have hundreds of entries and the database is still less than 1mb.

The password manager I use lets me create a hierarchy so I can subcategorise. Reading the other comments here suggests that it’s not a unique feature and so I’ll hazard a guess that most of them can do the same thing.

It also supports different databases if you really want to go that route, but since that means you’ll need a different password for each one, you’re undoing some of the work of having a password database in the first place… unless you intend to have a master password database with a master master password. That just hurts my head to think about.

Keepass has a folder structure so you can organize the passwords by type. I used to do that with my stuff, but as others have said, I gave up and just search for them now

I sort mine by taste