DIY Drawer Organizer (for less than $2)

Just thought I would share with you all a little kitchen organizing tip.

Here is what my utensil drawer looked like before.







We purchased this drawer organizer a few years ago. I think we paid somewhere between 5-10 dollars for it. While it helped a little to organize our drawer, it had a lot of faults.

  • It didn’t fit in the draw to well leaving gaps of wasted space. 
  • It slid around every time we opened the drawer. 
  • And the knives didn’t fit to well in the knife compartment.

On one of my many trips to Home Depot I discovered these…

They were 3 feet long and $0.55 each. 

(Note: I purchased these before we moved. I have since been to our local Home Depot and they are $1.50 each so I guess this depends were you live. However, I often find similar pieces in the scrap bin for $0.50)

I started by taking everything out of the drawer. I then set a few items back in the drawer and played around with the location of each item. Once I found a system that I thought would work best and allow for the least amount of wasted space I started measuring and cutting my pieces.

I started at the front of the drawer and only cut a few pieces at a time. I then placed them back in the drawer and took a step back to look at it and make sure I was happy with the placement of everything. 

Then I continued cutting the rest of the pieces. I connected the pieces using wood glue but I made sure not to glue anything to the actual drawer. I wanted to be able to take it out in case we ever buy new utensils that are a different size or decide to sell this place and the new owners want their utensils in a different location.

I’m more than satisfied with the end results. I was even able to fit a few more items in this drawer, and free up some space in my other drawers. Not only that but I had enough wood left over to get a good start on another drawer (I’m only missing one piece).

Total cost – $1.65

(less if you want to subtract the wood I had left over but I’m terrible at math so I’ll just leave it at that.)

Total cost if I would have bought the wood at my current location – $4.50

Quite a bit more but still cheaper than the original store bough organizer.

I didn’t keep track of the time while I was doing this project but if I had to guess I would say about 20-30 minutes. This would probably take considerable less time for someone who is experienced with wood working

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24 thoughts on “DIY Drawer Organizer (for less than $2)

  1. Ill vote for you! I love this idea I have the same problem with my drawer dividers. Hey …I have that exact same red cork screw too …

    -KAT-

  2. This a great idea! The pre-made ones never work right in our drawers. Thanks for sharing.

  3. Very cool idea! We have narrow drawers in our apartment, and a lot of utensil holders do not fit. Thank you for the great (and inexpensive) idea!

  4. This is a great idea! I should try this. Never thought of this idea either!! So smart of you!

  5. Thanks for the idea! We're moving into our own new house in a few months and I would love to do this after the move!

    1. I used a table saw. I'm sure a simple hand saw would work though. I've also seen people use razor knives on similar wood but I'm not sure how well that works.

  6. Great idea. My own drawers are a hot mess so I need to organize them. I have one of those little $10 plastic pieces and it's not all that helpful. I also like that you can remove the one you made because let's face it, sometimes crumbs or dust get in the drawer and cleaning is so much easier when there aren't a ton of spaces to go around.

  7. This is a super idea! I have little bins for all my utensils, but they're always moving around when I slam a drawer. Thanks for sharing. I found you at Junkintheirtrunk's linky party.

  8. i loooove loooove love this! I needed something like this in my kitchen!! New follower.

    1. So glad you like it. Thank you for the follow. I'm going over to check out your blog as well.

  9. What a great and cheap idea! Standard dividers never seem to work for me! I'll have to try this out!

  10. Such a cheap idea! Another great idea is this wood utility drawer inserts. Any size of utensil is perfect for this drawer organizer.

  11. Wonderful! I have the SAME exact organizer and it does ALL of the annoyances you mentioned! I will DEFINITELY be doing this in the coming weeks! I might use white paint on the wood and use a colored liner on the drawer itself for personalization. Thank you!

    northernbellecreations.wordpress.com

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