diff --git a/.exclude b/.exclude
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4e9d05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.exclude
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+.git 
+.vscode 
+.asset-cache 
+_site 
+.github 
+_buildApi
+README.md 
+.gitignore 
+.contentignore 
+exclude_files.txt 
+exclude_dirs.txt
diff --git a/copy_local.sh b/copy_local.sh
index 87f53f4..b6ac42f 100644
--- a/copy_local.sh
+++ b/copy_local.sh
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ if [ -z "$2" ] || [ "$2" = "false" ]; then
   dirs_to_exclude="`cat ./exclude_dirs.txt`"
   robocopy . "$destination" //XD $dirs_to_exclude //XF $files_to_exclude //E
 else
-  rsync -arv --exclude-from=./exclude_files.txt --exclude-from=./exclude_dirs.txt $(pwd)/ "$destination" 
+  rsync -arv --exclude-from=./.exclude $(pwd)/ "$destination" 
 fi
 
 #shopt -s extglob
diff --git a/exclude_files.txt b/exclude_files.txt
index 802382d..971f100 100644
--- a/exclude_files.txt
+++ b/exclude_files.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-README.md .gitignore .contentignore exclude_files.txt exclude_dirs.txt
+README.md .gitignore .contentignore exclude_files.txt exclude_dirs.txt .exclude