The Covid-19 Pandemic has us all staying inside, and I’ve been doing a lot of DIY projects lately to keep myself and my son busy. Between the boredom of being stuck in the house and the upcoming tax season, I thought now was a great time to reorganize my filing cabinet and implement a color-coding system that would make keeping the cabinet neat and tidy easier.
I filmed the whole process and created two IGTV videos of how I used products I already had on hand to knock out this whole project without going to the store or spending any money.
Cricut Joy has a free app to help you create great projects like this one without Design Space. To see its simplified layout and learn how to use it for labels, vinyl, Iron-On, and paper, read my exact guide.
Organizing The Inside
I organized the inside of my filing cabinet using a color-coding system. This makes finding documents really easy, and helps other family members put things back in their correct place.
I started by going through all my folders and making sure everything was up to date. I threw out anything I didn’t need anymore, and added a few more folders and sections. I came up with six broad categories (Home, Family, Finance, Medical, Employment, Misc) and stacked all corresponding folders into six stacks.
I didn’t have any adhesive-backed colored paper, but I did have a lot of scrap pieces of vinyl, so I used those instead. Based on the scraps I had that were usable, I assigned all six of my categories a color. Then I had my Cricut Joy cut out tabs that I created in Design Space.
Since you can’t write on vinyl, I just added some small pieces of Cricut Sticker Paper on top of the vinyl tabs. I wrote each folder name on the Sticker Paper tag and stuck it over the colored vinyl tab, making sure the color was still visible.
Here’s The Full Tutorial Video On IGTV:
Supplies I Used:
- 6 colors of Cricut Vinyl (or adhesive backed colored paper if you have it)
- Cricut Sticker Paper (or labels, adhesive backed paper, or scrapbook paper/glue)
- File Folders (reuse the ones you already have)
- Cricut Pen (or any pen/marker)
- Cricut Joy (you can use any Cricut Machine)
- Cricut Light Grip Joy Mat (12″)
- This template I created in Design Space (link will open in Design Space)
Decorating The Outside Of The Filing Cabinet
Now that the inside was pretty and organized, I wasn’t quite ready to stop yet. I had some rolls of Smart Vinyl that I hadn’t decided how I use them yet, so I grabbed five colors that went well together from my Vinyl stash and used them to create an artsy abstract design on the front of the cabinet.
I found an accent wall project template in Design Space and modified the size of the triangles so they would be the right scale for the filing cabinet. Then I cut ten triangles in each color (I ended up not using all the triangles) and adhered them to the filing cabinet drawers by just peeling and sticking in an abstract pattern.
I did remove the drawer handles first to make the application a little easier, and I used my Cricut TrueControl knife to cut off the excess overhang and the vinyl covering the handle holes.
Once I had the design the way I wanted it and cut away the edges, I reattached the handles. This was such an easy project and took less than an hour from start to finish. I’m really happy with how it turned out!
Here’s The Full Tutorial Video On IGTV:
Supplies I Used:
- Cricut Smart Vinyl in Wine, Mint, Silver, Gold, and Tulip (light pink)
- Cricut TrueControl Knife
- Cricut Joy
- This design I modified from a free Cricut Design Space project (link will open Design Space)
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