A DIY drawer divider is one way to try to keep the chaos contained inside your drawers. Unfortunately, nobody but yourself knows exactly what would work for your chaos, which is why it’s so hard to find the perfect drawer divider. So, making your own is an option that is easy, inexpensive, and custom!

How to make a DIY drawer divider insert

But FIRST!

Let me introduce you to my drawer of shame.

This drawer currently resides in our kitchen. We call it the all-purpose drawer. It sounds better than junk drawer. We have a few office supplies, small tools, kitchen timer, tape, etc.

Since we spend most of our time in the kitchen, we like having a place to find little things like that without having to…..heaven forbid….WALK to the garage for a screwdriver, or the home office on the other side of the house for a paper clip. Bless our hearts.

If you look closely,  you may notice there is a divider already in the drawer with a bunch of stuff inside it. And around it. And under it. Yeah when stuff gets under it and the drawer gets caught it’s no fun. Frustrating is an understatement.

Do you have the same problem? I am guessing you do, or else you wouldn’t be reading this.

No worries!

With a little wood, glue, and nails,  you can build a custom drawer divider insert to help you sort all the junk important items you need to have at your finger tips. And, as  you have probably figured by now,  you can remove this when you want to clean your drawer! Boom.

DIY Drawer Divider Insert

Materials Used

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• 1″x3″ white wood board. I bought two 6 foot boards and made three inserts.
• Wood Glue
• Nail Gun (or a hammer and finish nails will do!).
• Saw (or have your pieces cut at the store)

How to build a Custom DIY Drawer Divider Insert

Step 1: Measure your drawer and cut your pieces

This is going to be different for everyone, but let me give you some tips:

Start with your end-to-end pieces, then measure as you go. For instance, I cut two pieces the length of the drawer and placed them in, then I measured the width and cut the horizontal pieces.

Then it was a matter of playing with the smaller pieces to see where I wanted them. It helps to put the actual stuff in the drawer to find the arrangement that works best for you.

If you are having your pieces cut at the store, plan ahead. I like to draw my dimensions on graph paper to visualize how it’s going to look. Make sure you account for the width of the boards when you measure. Each board is roughly 3/4″ wide. You will want to subtract that from the width of your drawer. Here’s an example of my old school graph paper drawing!

Step 2: Glue and nail

Once you have the pattern you like, mark the longer pieces with a pencil so you know where you will be gluing the shorter pieces. Use wood glue and glue all seams together. I did this in shifts because I didn’t want the thing to fall apart like Jenga. I worked from the outside in, letting the glue sit for about 20 minutes.  Then I reinforced with nails using my awesome battery operated nail gun. This thing is the bomb. All power, and no compressor. Yipee!

Once the two outside pieces were together I nailed in the middle piece.

Ready to go inside the drawer!

If you don’t want to bother with nails, the wood glue may be enough to hold this! I did not try it but I noticed when the glue was set, it seemed pretty sturdy. I wanted to be extra sure it wouldn’t fall apart, so in went the nails.

Now the chaos is contained.

Step 3: Make more!!!

After I did this, I got all organization-happy and made another one for my utensil drawer. My hubby was so happy. He hated the chaos in all of the drawers.

I love that I can remove it to clean in there. I don’t know how it happens, why does the utensil drawer get all cruddy??? Yuk.

There you have it! I hope you like these! Now go get organizing.

Make sure you pin this for later, and share it with your friends whose kitchen drawers look like mine!

If you like easy wood projects join the sawdust sisterhood ! I promise you will only hear from me when it’s something worth sharing!

If you love easy wood projects like this, check out the projects below:

Easy DIY Wood Serving Tray- Farmhouse Style

DIY Wooden Box Centerpiece

DIY Chalkboard Serving Tray

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