On searching your drive

Of course, you can search your Drive for files and folders with simple keywords or phrases.
If you remember the type of file you are looking for, you can also search from the Docs, Sheets, and Slides home screens.

• Google Docs: google.com/docs
• Google Sheets: google.com/sheets
• Google Slides: google.com/slides

You can organize your drive by list or grid; you can sort it alphabetically or by date last opened, edited or modified.  You can search for incoming files (those created by others) or those files you starred files separately.
 
Clicking on the Learn More link brings up a menu of advanced field search options for in the search box.
So, a search within your Drive might look like this: type:spreadsheet

Options for narrowing your search include:

• title: search a file’s title (phrases may be searched in quotation marks or using Boolean operators)
• before: and after:  search dates following this format: before:yyyy-mm-dd  or before:2013-03-29
• owner: search by file owner  (owner:joycevalenza@gmail.com)
• type: search by the file type (for example: document, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, image, video, pdf)
• is:starred: search starred items

Of course, these navigation and organizational issues are bound to plague our students too and we can offer some very relevant and sticky guidance in this arena.  In fact, GCT Alice Keeler offers a wonderful lesson on Gamify Searching Google Drive.
Here’s the slidedeck she created for her students.

Note: My actual closet is far messier than the one shared above, courtesy of:
XLShadow. computers_0039 http://www.flickr.com/photos/41442491@N00/397861351 12 Feb. 2007