I’ve been wanting to make some kind of DIY drawer organizer for this drawer for quite awhile. I keep seeing all of these clever ideas for drawer organizers, usually really expensive, custom drawer organizers of course, and I always think to myself “We could totally make that!” When the GE Sealants team asked us if we wanted to tackle another easy DIY project using their Iron Grip* Adhesive, I finally had my excuse to tackle this project!
This is the drawer we’re talking about here. You might have something similar in your house. In fact, you probably do. No matter what great advancements the plastic food container people seem to come up with, we seem to always find a way to make a mess of it, don’t we? I do normally keep this drawer at least semi-decent, but lately it’s really gotten out of hand. All it takes is one person unloading the dishwasher in a hurry one time, throwing things in willy-nilly and then the precedent is set! Mayhem ensues! Well, I’ve had enough of it! 🙂 Time to tackle this thing once and for all!
Our plan was to decide which styles and which sizes of plastic food container we use most, stock up on those, and then design the organizers perfectly for them. I think that part of the challenge with keeping these types of drawers tidy is that we all just buy so many different shapes and sizes of containers from all over the place and then it’s hard to find a space for every single different type. If you have more of the same size and type, then they can stack neatly together and you can actually fit a lot more in the drawer and take up a lot less space.
So once we recycled all of the old containers or moved them to craft supply storage, we were able to get started on our design. It’s pretty simple, but it really does the trick!
We started out by drawing up a simple plan and mulling it over for a few days, thinking about how and when we actually use this drawer whenever we were in the kitchen. We made a few adjustments, realizing that we would probably need more space for certain sizes and less for others, and also that there were some things like the small lids that could be kept completely separate from their containers because they’re just so teeny.
Then it was time to start building! We used basic MDF because of its straightness and because it’s just so easy to work with when you’re trying to fit together a whole jigsaw puzzle of pieces like in this project.
We measured and cut our pieces and then dry-fit them in place to make sure we liked it.
Next we painted all of our MDF pieces to make them easy to wipe down and to make everything look pretty and finished.
We used this great GE Iron Grip* Adhesive to hold everything together. This is so nice for little projects like this because it’s such a strong adhesive and can bond all kinds of materials, porous or non-porous, without issue. Our drawer itself was made up of different materials like laminate covered MDF inside and painted-metal sides, so this adhesive was perfect for this project. You’ve seen us use this Iron Grip* Adhesive elsewhere in the kitchen last year when we were building our vent hood pipe cover and our cabinet trim work, but they’ve even upgraded it further since then to make it even more DIYer friendly. It’s now available in this new Point and Seal* packaging that allows you to use it effectively without having to use a caulking gun at all. So it’s really a grab and go solution now. We even have an upcoming post where we’ll show you our 11-year-old daughter Kennedy using the new Point and Seal can just as easily as Chris does, so you’ll see that it’s really extra easy to use! GE Sealants also makes indoor and outdoor silicone sealants for many different applications in this new Point and Seal can, so definitely check those out if you’ll be doing some of that type of work this spring!
What we really love about the Iron Grip* Adhesive is that it sets up really quickly, so clamp time is really reduced to a minimum. We were able to put this project together in a couple of hours instead of having it take all weekend. We were also pretty excited about how the can allows you to just dispense a little bit of the product out of the tip to seal it up after you’re done using it. Then, the next time you want to use it, you just break that little bit of dried adhesive off and you’re good to go! We used this same tube of adhesive for another project a couple of days later and it worked! No fussing with duct tape to try to seal the tube up for next time anymore! This is a big deal. 🙂
To finish our organizers off, we topped the MDF edges of our dividers with these metal channels to prevent any kind of wear and tear on the edges of the MDF when we toss things in to the drawer. I love that the Iron Grip* Adhesive dries so quickly because we were able to have our drawer finished and fully functional that same day! I get excited and a bit impatient with projects like this, so I love that I don’t have to wait to start using it!
So here’s the finished drawer, all beautifully organized and ready to make my everyday life easier! I especially love the little sliding insert that holds all the lids for the smallest containers!
The tray slides up!
And the tray slides down!
We put together a quick little video so you can see a bit about the design process and how the whole project came together as well. I always find it helpful to be able to see a project in video form before I actually attempt to tackle it myself so I hope you find it helpful for visualizing your own kitchen drawer organizer project too!
This was such a great simple project to complete but I love what a real, useful upgrade it was for our existing kitchen. If you’ve been eyeing up some of the new kitchen organization components that you can get in custom kitchen cabinets these days, there’s a good chance you can probably add something similar to your existing kitchen for a fraction of the price and start enjoying the good (organized) life right away!
If you think you’d like to give GE Iron Grip* Adhesive in the new Point and Seal* Precision Flow Control can a try this spring, you’re in luck! The manufacturer of GE-branded sealants has sent me a prize pack to give away to one lucky reader!
The prize pack consists of:
- Two (2) cans of GE Iron Grip Adhesive with Precision Flow Control
- A $100 gift card to Walmart®
To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below telling me what project around your home you’d love to tackle this spring using Iron Grip* Adhesive! Please include the hashtag #contest in all comments used for entering the giveaway!
Giveaway open to U.S. residents who are 18 years or older. Giveaway ends March 10, 2017 at 11:59 pm EST.
*Iron Grip and Point and Seal are trademarks of Momentive Performance Materials Inc.
I partnered with the manufacturer of GE-branded sealants and adhesives to bring you this post, and have been compensated for my honest opinions. All opinions, ideas, and suggestions are 100% mine as always!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.