Almost free file folder holder.

I love Paper Source. With all my little DIY heart. What I don’t love about Paper Source is their kinda high prices. They send weekly e-mails pimping their products, and I am always the sucker who goes to the website and sees what they’re offering or what’s new.

This file folder holder stole my heart ever since I saw it in May:

But at $27.95 plus shipping and tax, it was a no go. I think if I actually liked the folders themselves I would have justified it in some way, but I am not crazy about the folders. Just the pool blue holder.

Naturally, when Monica Wants It, Monica finds a way to get it. Enter free USPS $9.95 flat-rate mailbox.

I then drew an opening and cut it out where I wanted my file folders to go:

Once that part was off I put in my brand new damask/pin stripe/houndstooth file folders that I snagged at Wal-Mart on clearance. This step was mostly to see if the box was still too tall, etc.

Obviously it’s too tall so I just kept trimming off the top until it was at the height I wanted. Once that was done, I grabbed my gift wrap. Yuppers, good ol’ fashion gift wrap. I used the same gift wrap that I used to line my entire bookshelf (pics of that in another post) so it would all match and be cohesive. The roll was about $4.00 at Wal-Mart, and it came with a ton of paper. Great deal and it matches my office color scheme.

Then I line up the paper, start taping, snip off any excess.

Keep trimming as you go around all the corners and on the inside.

And then all of a sudden, you’re done!

I could have stopped there, but no. I wanted pretty labels.

I made 9 categories of commonly used stuff that I use, and sometimes Daniel. I put about 20ish sheets in each folder, and then rest is all tucked away (out of sight) in the bottom part of the bookshelf. I will refill the file folders when that particular folder gets low on that item. It’s a quick way to grab the paper that we most commonly use.

And here it is sitting on it’s home in the bottom part of the bookshelf. So, you get to see a tiny bit of the bookshelf/bookcase today, and you’ll see the entire thing tomorrow. Yes, I am ridiculously vain and put up my own bridal portrait in my office. Actually, we used this frame at the wedding to show off my bridals, and I was too lazy to switch out the picture, so for now it stays. It is a nice picture though. :-)

Anyway, I love my new file folder holder, and the best part is that it cost me NOTHING! FREE! Who doesn’t love free stuff? And if I don’t blog for the next few days, it’s because the USPS people came after me for using their materials for non-shipping reasons! Yikes!