After my successful adventure in organizing my peninsula drawer with all its kitchen tools, I decided to keep the ball rolling and design and organize the only other large drawer in my kitchen: the silverware drawer.
Since the step-by-step instructions are in Part One, I'll show you the step-by-step process in photos here, with a brief explanation as you scroll down. Photos are better than words, anyway.
The Before Photo:
Tape together paper to fit the size of the drawer. (Obviously not the first step--first, clean out the drawer, then remove the drawer onto a table. There.)
Use a yardstick and pencil to design the spaces you want. Feel free to erase. A lot.
Lay out drawer items to make sure they'll fit (generally) on the paper spaces. Keep in mind that the Sturdy Board (which is what I used for the walls) is about 1/8" thick, and you'll lose a little space once it's in place.
Frame out the drawer. Don't do the side pieces first--do the long, wide pieces first! We unknowingly did it right the first time--cut the longer, width-side pieces first, then anchor them in place with the shorter side pieces. Also, the front long-side piece will bow inward just a bit, due to the drawer face screws and knob/handle screws (which you can see below). Cutting the long pieces first then anchoring them with the side pieces will help those long pieces stay in place. Remember, cut the long pieces first!
Start cutting out the inner pieces according to your paper design. All these pieces are the height of the inner drawer side walls--2.5 inches. (More on that below.)
All the pieces are in place--nothing is secured yet. (Don't breathe!)
Take a popcorn break. I did.
Double check all the spaces.
I set several pieces of silverware inside the spaces to check for depth, etc. Still nothing glued yet--walls kept falling down on me!
Okay, here's an important note: See the fallen-down walls in the above photo? Since those walls are deeper in the drawer, we cut their height to two inches, half an inch shorter than the rest of the walls. This helped with ease of reaching in to the back of the drawer, which is pretty deep, once the drawer is back in its cabinet. You can see their shorter height in the image below.
Next step--Elmer's Glue! Just a little around each joint, then let everything dry. Go do the laundry or something. More gluing comes later.
I didn't take pictures of the "more gluing" stage for this drawer, since that's detailed in Part One. You simply put the drawer on its side and place a bead of glue along each seam. Once those are dry (do some more laundry, or dust, or something), flip the drawer on its other side and place a bead of glue along those seams. Let those dry, too. You get to accomplish lots of chores while all the drying takes place. I did each drawer over a period of two days. Patience!
Voilà! The finished drawer is in place and ready to be filled--the most fun part. Note the walls that are the shorter two-inch height for ease of reaching in!
In Part One, I noted that my walls weren't exactly square; they ended up just a tad bowed in some spots. That problem persisted in the silverware drawer, as your discerning eye may be able to see in the image above. But they're generally, decently square, and my own perfectionist heart does not care. So you shouldn't sweat it, either.
I made a little slot in the front left corner of the drawer for my twister container:
Notice the glue hasn't quite dried in the above image? I'm not that patient.
In the front right corner, I created a little space for my
Also along the front center is a space for cell phone charging cords. (And the cords are twist-tied so they don't go all over the place!)
The After Photo:
P.S. We're Not Done Yet.
I found candles floating all over the original silverware drawer. What to do, what to do...
I love those little zipper-lock craft bags, about 2x3 inches, that you can find at Hobby Lobby!
The candles are contained!
I found a spot for the candle bag in the peninsula drawer, between my Tupperware freezer labels and the Post-In Notes.
Supreme bliss!
***UPDATE: If you're using your drawer organizer to store heavy items, such as silverware as I've done in this blog post, please read this new blog post to see how I solved the problem (that you'll end up eventually having) of sagging drawer bottoms and creeping kitchen items!
Back to life,
Christine
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Oh my goodness, you are one of the most organized person I've ever seen. It all looks so great. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!! I'm somewhat of an obsessive organizer, but I'm never 100% organized 100% of the time. And much of it is accomplished over years.
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