DIY Wooden Drawer Organizer
Need a simple solution for a drawer that just won’t stay organized? Building a DIY wooden drawer organizer is a really simple project that will make a huge difference!
One of my favorite things about our kitchen is that our island has large drawers. They’re 25″ on the interior, which means we can store a lot in them. The downside? It’s hard to contain chaos with that much space! A few years ago I was really struggling to keep our silverware drawer looking nice and organized, so I took matters into my own hands and built a simple DIY wooden drawer organizer.
Three years later, it’s still holding up beautifully. I can’t recommend this simple method enough – and the best part is, it’s assembled with nothing but some plain ol’ wood glue!
How to Make a DIY Wooden Drawer Organizer
Materials Needed
- Half sheet of 1/2″ plywood
- Weldwood Instant Wood Adhesive
- Circular saw (learn how to use one here!)
- Measuring tape (see my favorite one and a few tips here)
Step One: Planning
Your first step will be to figure out exactly how you want your drawer organizer to be laid out. I obviously was doing it for a silverware drawer, but this would work for a junk drawer, your cloth napkin drawer, or anything else!
I started by making a numbered list of everything I wanted to store in the drawer, by category. This helped me see how many sections I needed Then, I took some measurements and sketched out a simple plan.
It’s a rough sketch, but it was enough to get started!
I also made sure to measure the depth of the drawer – it’s just over 3″ deep. I made the larger dividers (that separate things other than silverware) 3″ tall, and I made the silverware dividers 1.5″ tall. The different heights look really nice and make a good distinction between the two sections!
Step Two: Cut Plywood
After you’ve got your drawing all planned out, you’re ready to cut your wood strips!
Here’s a labeled drawing of our organizer so you can get an idea of the spacing I used on mine:
There isn’t anything scientific happening here, I just measuring my existing silverware drawer organizer and the drawer itself and kind of did what made sense to me.
But, generally speaking, these measurements should work for most silverware!
Use a circular saw (or a table saw, if you have one) to cut the strips out of your plywood. I highly recommend doing a test fit of everything in the layout you’re picturing before you start gluing it all together!
Step Three: Glue The DIY Drawer Organizer Together
Once you’ve ensured your plans will work and everything is appropriately placed, you’re ready to glue it up!
You don’t need a ton of the Weldwood Instant Wood Adhesive. It doesn’t need to be overflowing the seams or anything like that. Just put a line of glue on the side of your plywood, place it up against the other piece of wood, and clamp it into place.
You’ll likely need to work in stages. Thankfully, since the glue sets up in just 30 minutes it doesn’t take terribly long. I was able to put mine together with just three rounds of drying. Just set up what you can easily clamp, let it dry, then once it’s done you can remove the clamps and add some more pieces.
It’s really satisfying to watch this come together. Or maybe I’m just easily excited by new organization systems. Either way, I found this to be incredibly fun.
Step Four: Add The Organizer to Your Drawer and Fill It Up!
Once everything is fully dry, you’re ready to slip it into place! I specifically made something that could easily be set into the drawer and pulled back out because I have commitment issues when it comes to this sort of things.
It fits more or less like a glove (that was the goal!), and doesn’t move around at all.
We’ve had this super simple little system in our silverware drawer for a solid three years now, and I still love it just as much as I did on day one! It has held up really well, and our silverware drawer stays organized and looking great at all times.
It’s the little things in life, you know?!
Other Simple Organizing Projects:
If you’re looking for some other super simple ways to get your home organized, allow me to point you in the direction of a few other posts that you may love.
