In my quest to get my kitchen organized, I have used cabinet door organizers, a magnetic spice rack, and built an over the refrigerator cabinet organizer. These DIY kitchen drawer organizer ideas are the next step to getting everything in order.
I don’t know about you, but no matter how I try, my kitchen drawers always end up in a mess with a jumble of cooking utensils.
I can never find what I’m looking for, and everything is so hard to get at.
So I finally decided that enough is enough. I have to do something!
But the big question is…how??
The problem is that standard-sized store-bought drawer organizers just don’t fit in my kitchen cabinets.
Which means I have to resort to making DIY kitchen drawer organizers. And that isn’t really as bad as it sounds.
First most of these aren’t difficult projects to do.
And it means that all of my drawers have custom-made storage that makes sure all of my utensils fit perfectly.
So I thought I would share my favorite DIY kitchen drawer organizer ideas in case you want to create custom storage for you kitchen, too.
1 | Utensil Drawer Organizers
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In my opinion, drawer dividers are a must in pretty much all drawers…whether they are in the kitchen, bathroom or my desk.
Building custom-sized drawer dividers that exactly fit what you need to store makes them even more useful.
And given the fact that DIY drawer dividers are really easy to make, there’s really no excuse for not having your own!
Find the tutorial for how to make your own custom wood DIY drawer dividers HERE.
And if you want to make sure that your stuff always goes back in the right place, make these vinyl kitchen utensil drawings from Kati at House Full Of Handmade so everyone knows where to put things.
Click HERE to get the full tutorial from her site.
Of course, you can use them for organizing cutlery, too.
And if you prefer not to make them yourself, you can always buy these bamboo organizers* which can be expanded to fit different sized drawers.
2 | Baking Supplies DIY Drawer Organizer
Baking utensils are another thing that I like to store in my kitchen drawers but don’t really fit into the standard drawer dividers that well.
Which is where my other favorite organizing material comes into handy…pegboard!
Installing some pegboard on the bottom of the drawer with some dowels lets you configure your drawer storage perfectly for storing things like cookie cutters, a rolling pin, biscuit cutters, and apple slicers.
You can find the step-by-step instructions for my custom pegboard DIY drawer organizer HERE.
3 | Dish Drawer Organizers
Larger kitchen drawers can be a great place to store dishes.
They are just deep enough to stack a few plates or bowls, and are in a location that is easy to access.
However, they tend to slide around in the drawer which can cause them to get chipped.
To fix this problem, you can use similar ideas to the utensil drawer organizers.
By making grooves in the sides of the drawer, you can install dividers in bottom drawers.
Which will make storing dishes in those drawers easier to organize.
And prevents them from moving around too much when you open and close the drawer.
You can also use a version of the pegboard drawer organizer to keep sets of dishes in place.
You’ll need stronger construction since the drawer is larger and the contents are heavier.
Get the step-by-step instructions at queenbeeofhoneydos.com.
If you don’t want to make this pegboard drawer organizer yourself, you can buy one*, and just install it.
4 | Baking Goods DIY Drawer Organizer
Speaking of dividers for larger drawers, they’re also great for storing things in containers, like pasta, rice and flour.
The drawers make the containers easy to access.
The dividers keep them from sliding around and help to make sure they go back in the right place.
For even less movement, try making a drawer organizer that fits your food storage containers perfectly, like this one from Toni at Design Dazzle. How awesome is this for keeping those supplies close at hand but out of sight?
Get more details about this project HERE.
5 | Spice Rack DIY Drawer Organizer
Next up on my list of DIY kitchen drawer organizer ideas is to build a spice rack in a drawer.
All you need is a few scraps of plywood, and you can build your own drawer spice rack like this one from ana-white.com.
It is a really easy project that doesn’t cost a lot of money.
Since I’m happy with my magnetic spice rack, I didn’t do this project, but if you have a drawer that is conveniently located, it is one way to make your spices easy to find.
Or you can buy a bamboo one* that fits your drawer.
Just make sure to measure so you get the right size.
6 | Knife Rack DIY Drawer Organizer
Another great DIY drawer organization idea (that I haven’t done, but I will if I can find a spot for it) is to build a knife block into one of your drawers.
This gets the knife block off the counter…and still makes the knives easy to find when you need them.
If you happen to have little ones running around, “hiding” them in a drawer makes it harder for them to find.
Of course, if you don’t feel like making it yourself, you can always buy a knife block drawer organizer* that will do the job quite nicely. This one even has a space for your knife sharpener.
7 | Pots And Lids Drawer Organizer
To get your pots and pans in order, you can install this pull out organizer* which can be added to a 12″ or a 21″ wide base cabinet.
It’s a great way to fit a lot of pots in a fairly small space.
And the lids are always easy to access.
8 | Garbage Can Drawer Organizer
To keep garbage cans out of sight, install a pull out shelf with cabinet fronts attached to the front.
You can make this yourself by installing a DIY pull-out shelf (get a similar tutorial HERE) that fits your cabinet. Then attach your existing cabinet door to the front of the shelf using large corner brackets.
Or for a little less of a DIY project, buy one like this* that just needs to be installed in your cabinet.
Other Kitchen Organizing Ideas You Might Like
- DIY Cooking Utensils Rotating Storage Rack
- How To Convert Base Cabinet Shelves to Drawers
- DIY Under Cabinet Cookbook or iPad Shelf
I just redone 3 of my drawers using heavy duty poster board as a base of the drawer and foam board as the dividers as I am not handy with saw and did not want it permanent. I wanted to be able to take it out to clean the drawer and put back in…and if at some point of I want to redo cost wouldn’t be an issue..just some more heavy poster board and super glue and piece of foam board cut to size with razor blade…love the organization
That sounds like a great way to add a drawer organizer, Suzette! thanks for sharing 🙂
I agree with dividers! My husband and I built dividers for our stainless plus utensils. The drawer is 36” wide, so it would be chaos without. We used leftover 1/4” plywood and made it adjustable in case we needed to change it.
I totally agree, Mary! Dividers are a necessity for keeping drawers organized…especially if they’re big ones like yours. I love the idea of making them adjustable so you can re-configure them if necessary 🙂
Ok yeah that’s what I was thinking thanx
Hi Wanda. Why do u have to screw in the pegboard?
Hi Jamela…it isn’t absolutely necessary to screw in the pegboard. It just prevents it from shifting when you open and close the drawer (but if you cut it so that it just fits in the drawer that shouldn’t be an issue).