I open an archive in fileroller, most .tar.gz archives contain a root
folder with contents and subfolders. What I do is right-click the root
folder and choose extract. In the next dialog, the fileselector, I
chose my homedir and clicked extract.
Ouch, now I found out my homedir is full of files because I didn't
enable the 'Re-create folders' option.
It should be enabled by default.