how to get my folders back to where they were?

so I keep a ton of blue folders on my desktop screen. one day I am going to learn how to organize them so they are not on my desktop. But I drag and drop alot photos and documents into individual folders that have a WWII soldier's name on it. Been doing this for a long while with no problem. Yesterday I was dragging and dropping into a folder that had other things in the background. I still felt like I was hitting right on the blue folder. Did about 10 items and when i went into the folder to make sure all items were the correct person's item to match the name on the folder there were 340 total items in the folder. How did I do this? the 340 items are items, photos and other blue folders. Ok so I start panicking and try to pick up one blue folder and try to drag it out onto desktop. NOPE it slides right back into place . I try to pull out items and photos and they won't let me drop them onto desktop. So I get to studying and it is a variety of soldiers in there. the blue folders in there with names on them will also have the individual items that are inside the folder present. How do I fix this. It has put a big stop to my research until i get this sorted out. Unless of course I can move forward with a new soldier and a new folder and it not involve this other mess i have going on. any light someone can shine on this i would appreciate greatly