How often do you need to use a temporary file, or create a scratch directory you will remove later?
It happens to me a lot. So I use a simple script I'll share here:
#!/bin/sh
tmpdir=`mktemp -d`
(
cd $tmpdir
exec $SHELL
)
rm -rvf $tmpdir
When invoked, it will create a temporary directory (according to what your
OS believes is a good position) and will cd into it. After you are done
and exit from the inner shell the directory is removed, so you don't put
garbage on your disk.