Easy! Just assign numbers to things, in the order that you create them, and put them after the item.
So you keep your structure alphabetical and still get to assign a number.
Eighth thing you create [00.08]
Fifth thing you create [00.05]
First thing you create [00.01]
Fourth thing you create [00.04]
Ninth thing you create [00.09]
Second thing you create [00.02]
Seventh thing you create [00.07]
Sixth thing you create [00.06]
Third thing you create [00.03]
…and so on
(I like putting the numbers in [brackets] because I think it makes them more searchable, and it makes it clear in my mind that they’re not part of the folder name, but this is totally optional.)