DIY Filing System

My type-A brain has been searching for a good system for organizing all of our incoming paper.  Between church, my business, and the few bills/statements we can't pay or get online, there always seems to be a stack of paper accumulating on the kitchen table.

We recently flip-flopped the kids' room and our office, so I was determined to find a system that worked.  We've tried those stackable 'inbox' things, and they just don't work for us.  We basically need three piles:  things that need done, things that need filed, and stuff for MacGyver to take care of.  He gets his own file because his nonexistent creative filing system just doesn't work with Ms. Type A over here.

I finally saw something that I thought would work in an issue of Better Homes and Gardens at the gym.  Wouldn't you know, they didn't specify the source.  Not even in the size-3-font page in the back.  Oh, man.  There's nothing more frustrating than knowing what you need is out there, but impossible to find.

I was really left with one choice:  I must make it myself.  I started with these $4 expandable-file-things:

I chose the yellow and green folders because we've got a lemon-lime vibe going on in the office.  Then I Photoshopped-up (it's a verb) some labels.  I slapped those puppies on with some scrapbook tape and we were in business.  I had to smudge out MacGyver's name for the blog.  Because he doesn't really go by 'MacGyver' around the house.

I first tried hanging them with that yellow tacky stuff that teachers use, and it looked like this a few hours later:

Plan B was a few small nails right into the side of the bookcase.  Not ideal, but I know these guys will be around for awhile because it's finally the file system I've been needing.

Not as pretty as what I saw in BH&G, but it gets the job done.