Lightroom :: 4 Folders And Files And Keeping Only Edited Images?

I have been exporting photos into a folder called edited in my originals folder. then i delete the originals and dump the edited into the main folder. but then i can no longer access the photos in lightroom because it says the file is missing. what am i doing wrong? do i have to keep originals and edited photos in my folders? i try to export to replace originals but that doesnt work and it will only work if i put in sub folder. i dont want to keep a copy of originals and edited, but i also dont want to not be able to make more edits in the future.