Organizing files within folders alphabetically/numerically.

Before sending the contents of all my folders on my iMac to iCloud, everything was organized in folders such as: Photos and Documents. Now when I am online and have downloaded something to be saved as a pdf, I have absolutely no idea where the file has been transported to in the cloud. For example, I have a folder called "Banking", which includes bank names. Each folder contains years in a folder, and within those folders are account numbers, also folders, with subsequent files named with the account number and date of statement. In another situation I have an "Estate Planning" folder which contains folders for each client that contain a standardized collection of sub folders for various documents. My point being that everything in iCloud is randomly stored. I'm sure there is a way for me to organize the data so I have a semblance of organization. Items get saved to "Recents", but they belong elsewhere. I understand the concept of Recents, but the documents also belong in their own sub-folder and I don't know if they've reached "home". I also have other Apple devices, all of which get unwanted/irrelevant downloads from iCloud in an effort to "synchronize" the Cloud's files with each device. That's driving me crazy.

Any guidance you can provide would be immensely appreciated. Thank you.