title: Handling static files that dont pertain to an app in Django
body: <p>In the documentation <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/static-files/" rel="noreferrer">https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/static-files/</a></p>
  
  <p>I read that static files should be put with their respective apps and called upon with </p>
  
  <pre><code>{% load staticfiles %}
  &lt;img src="{% static "articles/css/base.css" %}" alt="My image"/&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However later on in the docs it mentions that some static files don't pertain to a particular app. This is where <code>STATICFILES_DIRS</code> comes into play. If I read correctly <code>STATICFILES_DIRS</code> is a tuple for Django to use to look for other static files. I was wondering how would I call the static files that was called from the <code>STATICFILES_DIRS</code>?</p>
  
  <p>ex: something like</p>
  
  <p><code>&lt;link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{% static "/css/default.css" %}"&gt;</code></p>
  
  <p>Also I am not sure what to put for my <code>STATIC_ROOT</code>. Do I leave it empty? (<code>''</code>)</p>
  
  <p>My proj tree</p>
  
  <pre><code>mysite
    \articles
         \static
         \articles
             \css
                 base.css
    \static
         \images
         \css
             default.css
         \js 
    \templates
         base.html
    \settings.py 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is currently in my settings.py regarding static files</p>
  
  <pre><code># looks for static files in each app
  STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
      'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
      'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
  )
  
  STATICFILES_STORAGE = (
      'django.contrib.staticfiles.storage.StaticFilesStorage'
  )
  
  # the absolute path to the directory where collectstatic will collect static files for deployment (OUTPUT)
  STATIC_ROOT = ''
  
  # This setting defines the additional locations the static files app will traverse if the FileSystemFinder finder is enabled.
  STATICFILES_DIRS = (
      # used for static assets that aren't tied to a particular app
       os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
  )
  
  # URL to use when referring to static files located in STATIC_ROOT
  STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  </code></pre>