Saturday, June 2, 2012

Finally! Functional Drawers

Have you ever started on something and then had to put it on hold for whatever reason? That's the story of my life.

Finishing projects is becoming more important to me since I no longer have time to play around with unimportant ones.

When I decided to build my own drawer dividers, I had no idea that it would take me five months from when I started drawing the plans until I finished the final drawer. A big part of the delay had to do with the availability of materials. I was working with a very limited budget, so I reused door trim that I bought at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. It took a while to find plain pieces that were only sanded as opposed to fancy, mitered trim. That was the only difficult part!

Organization is a big must in my house, or I can't find anything. Take my kitchen drawers, for example:

Even though this drawer has a childproof latch, the knife handles frequently slide down within reach of little hands... And I worried the baby could reach in and grab one...


This was actually the first one I finished, and the drawer that inspired the entire project. I am happy to say that it works just as well today as it did back in January when I finished it.



Keeping the twisty ties and clothes pins separate from the baggies and foil was the main objective with this drawer.



The results are pure bliss.


I took this photo when quite a bit of silverware was in the dishwasher. The space that hold smaller forks looks unusually empty. A family of 6 uses a LOT of flatware each day, and my little plastic divider has not been adequate for years. Notice also the piles of children's forks and spoons and baby spoons which have nothing stopping them from moving freely within the drawer. *headache*

Now I can keep all the silverware in the drawer at the same time and it doesn't ever get mixed up!! I have to say that this is my very, very favorite. My girls agree :)

This is my drawer for stuff that won't sit in a canister on the counter. It looks pretty nice, but with 4 kids and my husband all closing it in a hurry, things quickly become jumbled and makes it difficult for me to reach in and grab something as I'm cooking... like the measuring spoons, which regularly wind up all over the drawer..

So I designed the dividers to provide the easiest access to the objects I most frequently need and stow the less often used items in the back sections.

The last two pictured are also removable in case I ever decide to change the layout. I did have to glue the dividers to the sides of the drawers with the knives and baggies.

Gorilla glue is some amazing stuff! I also used a skil saw to cut the door trim to the proper lengths and hand sanded the cut ends smooth. Each divider set was cut out and glued together in such a short time that I am confident I could have made all four in one afternoon if the materials hadn't been hard to find.

The trim pieces were less than a dollar each and I bought four total. One was enough for the first two, two were needed for the third, and one for the fourth.

Now I get a great sense of satisfaction every time I open a kitchen drawer.