Bring Order to Your Space with This DIY Drawer Organizer

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Are your drawers used as a general dump for anything you are reluctant to throw away? Do you struggle to find things in there? 

Then why not consider the nuclear option to drawer organization by making your own purpose-built drawer organizer? If so, then follow this simple guide on how to make one. 

As you can imagine, you'll need some tools and materials before you get started.

Materials and gear needed

• Timber
• Orbital sander
• Desk saw
• Wood clamps (ideally corner clamps)
• Basic tools
• Wood glue

With all your gear in hand, let's get on with the build.

Step 1: Make the frame

The first step is to take your timber and cut it into thin strips. Ensure the cut edges are perfectly at 90 degrees when doing so. With that done, cut the long strips into shorter ones as shown in the instruction video.

With that done, route, or cut, grooves in the wooden strips to enable the construction of the drawer organizer. The number and location of these grooves will depend on the design of your organizer, as you can imagine. 

Where needed, cut and insert into place small pieces of wood into the grooves. For the main parts of the frame of the organizer, cut some wooden joints, like half-laps, to make assembly easier. 

Measure and mark out the position for compartment walls and continue to cut grooves into the wooden frame pieces to match the design of your desired organizer for each compartment. 

Step 2: Begin the main assembly

With all the constituent pieces now ready, we can begin to assemble the piece. Take all the parts and perform a "dry assembly". 

This is to ensure that all the pieces needed are to the correct dimensions, and their matching grooves are of the required depth and location. It is useful to perform this stage in case modifications are required to any, or all, of the parts. You can also check all the angles between the pieces to ensure they are fully 90-degree angles. 

If not, modify, trim, recut, etc as needed. Once you are happy, take your sandpaper or orbital sander and give all the pieces a good once-over to remove any burrs. 

With that done, we can now begin to assemble the piece. Take your wood glue and apply a layer to each of the lap joints. 

Match up the pieces as needed, and glue the joints as needed. Clamp as required until the glue has fully cured.

Start by gluing and clamping the main box frame of the drawer organizer, for obvious reasons. Corner clamps are perfect for this sort of thing, but any wooden clamps will do. 

Step 3: Assemble the interior of the organizer

Once the outer frame has fully cured, remove the clamps and take the inner divider pieces. Match them up to their grooves, and glue them into place as with the outer frame. 

As before, you can hold the glued joints together using clamps until the glue is cured. 

Ensure to check the angles of all dividers as you go and adjust as needed. Leave the glue to fully cure.

Step 4: Finish the piece

Once the glue has dried, remove all the clamps and give the entire piece a good sanding down with your orbital sander. This will help remove any excess dried glue from the joints.

Once done, take your lacquer and apply it to all exposed edges of the piece. You can either use a spray can or apply it by hand. 

Leave the lacquer to fully cure.

And with that, your brand spanking new draw organizer is now, effectively, complete. Take it and install it inside your desired drawer and get organizing your draw stuff!

If you enjoyed this project, you might enjoy some other woodworking projects? How about, for example, making your own wooden toilet paper dispenser?