I came across one utility which can turn your gmail account into a file system in your system. It's a cool idea. It's GMAILFS. Check the following discussion about this software. It stores the files as attachment. But, you can retrieve those files without the hassle of opening, selecting a particular mail and downloading the attachment. You can do everything from Windows Explorer just like a local file system.
To avoid clutter in your gmail inbox, you may consider creating a filter for mails with prefix "GMAILFS" to archive and apply a label. I don't know how GMail management will react to this kind of software. Currently this software is working. If GMail wants, it can block this kind of software at any time.