I do not particularly like the standard folders that are automatically created in my $HOME. I used to just delete them and then set emblems on my own folders in XFCE. Some time ago, I found a discussion on LinuxQuestions about what program creates these automatically.

The default folders are set in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs. The file has the following content:

# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
# 
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

It’s easy to just modify Desktop, Downloads, Templates, Public, Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos to whatever you prefer. Paths can be either relative to $HOME (as shown above) or absolute. For the changes to take effect, just log out and in.

Extensive information can be found at Arch Linux’s wiki.