title: git branches following me whenever I create new directories
body: <p>After running into a few problems trying to push a new project (just one test file) to a new repository on github, I discovered that I've seemed to have made a huge blunder with git in that I have a project and branches following me around whenever I create new directories on my mac. </p>
  
  <p>For example, I create a new directory in the sites folder of my mac</p>
  
  <pre><code>cd sites
  me$ mkdir mynewdirectory
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I do 'git branch' from the sites directory, it shows this</p>
  
  <pre><code>* master
    refactor
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I recall correctly, this master and refactor branch seems to be from a project i was working on a few weeks go. 
  If I cd into mynewdirectory and do 'git branch' I get the same result</p>
  
  <pre><code> git branch
  * master
    refactor
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I then did 'git status' and got a very long list of </p>
  
  <pre><code>a) Changes not staged for commit; and 
  b) Untracked files
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>These are all obviously unrelated to the new project i want to start, and I'm guessing is part of the reason why I had trouble pushing to a new remote origin.  </p>
  
  <p>Is there a way that I can get rid of all this while doing the least amount of harm?</p>