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How to Organize Every Drawer in Your House

Organize every drawer in your house with these simple tips and tricks and beautiful inspiration photos!

I’ve organized a lot of drawers over the years. Dresser drawers, kitchen drawers, bathroom drawers… I’ve organized them and re-organized them and updated them, trying to find the way that makes the most sense for the purpose we needed them to fulfill.

I thought it would be fun, then, to get all of our organized drawers together for a little “drawer tour,” first, because drawers are surprisingly pretty, but also to share some inspiration or ideas with people who may be looking to get their own drawers more organized!

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How to Organize All of the Drawers in Your House

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

How to Organize Dresser Drawers

Let’s start with my favorite drawers– the dresser drawers! We started using the filing method of folding (aka the KonMari Method) several years ago, and it was a total game changer. I love it because it allows me to see everything in the drawer at the same time, without having to sort through piles of clothes to find what I need.

Sometimes if the clothes need a little help standing up, I will add bins to help divide the space and add some extra support. These SKUBB boxes from IKEA are perfect drawer inserts!

There are also narrower bins in the SKUBB set that are perfect for socks and smaller items…

Another thing I love about the filing method of folding is that it can be tweaked and adjusted for all sizes and shapes of clothing. Donnie’s clothes are bigger, so I just add an extra fold so that the shirts still form a small rectangle. (You can see a video of how I fold our clothes here. )

Our boys share a room and there is only space for one dresser, so using the filing method is the only way I could fit both of their clothes in such a small amount of drawer space!

Being able to see all of their clothes helps them be more independent; they can grab their own items whenever they need them.

Related: The Filing Method of Folding Clothes (aka the KonMari Method)

How to Organize Kitchen Drawers

We use the kitchen so much that having organized drawers is a must! The cooking process is so much easier when we can quickly find everything we need.

I love the combination of a pretty drawer liner + acrylic organizers– so practical and beautiful at the same time!

This drawer liner is my favorite– I use it all over our house! They don’t sell my exact drawer organizers anymore, but these ones are very similar and you could use a colorful drawer liner with them!

Several years ago, I switched from a knife block on the counter to an in-drawer knife organizer, and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. I like having the freed up space on the counter, and the knives stay neatly tucked away.

I use the filing method of folding for our dish towels and washcloths too! This shot is from our townhouse where we had an IKEA kitchen, so the divider in this drawer is one of their kitchen accessories.

Related: Our Current Organized Kitchen

Our Townhouse Organized Kitchen

How to Organize Bathroom Drawers

Bathroom drawers can be an organizing challenge because the drawers are typically deep and narrow, causing everything to fall over and get messy easily. I’ve found a few different drawer dividers that are the perfect size for bathroom drawers and help to remedy the falling over problem!

Two of these three-part organizers side-by-side are the perfect combination for corralling smaller items like hair accessories.

I also use a ton of these 6″ x 6″ acrylic bins in the drawers in both of our bathrooms. They are the perfect way to divide up the drawer and keep it tidy.

The 6″ x 6″ bins are great for holding everything from nail supplies to lotions and creams to washcloths and rags.

I am not using them in our bathroom drawers currently, but IKEA’s GODMORGON boxes also worked well for us in the past.

Related: Our Organized Primary Bathroom

Our Organized Guest Bathroom

Our Organized Townhouse Bathrooms

How to Organize a Junk Drawer

The junk drawer can easily become a huge mess, but the easiest way to keep that from happening is to create some division within the drawer so that everything has a spot!

My exact drawer dividers are no longer available, but I love this set that you can easily configure in any number of different ways!

Our “junk drawers” are in our kitchen and contain office supplies, batteries, and tools that we use often so we can grab them quickly and easily.

Related: How to Organize a Junk Drawer

How to Organize Office Drawers and Craft Room Drawers

Office and craft room drawers are always filled with fun stuff! Again, when I’m working with smaller items like office supplies, I like to divide up the drawers with an organizer to keep everything neatly in its spot.

I used an organizer similar to this one to separate office supplies in my desk drawer.

Quick tip: When I’m using acrylic organizers, I like to label the bottom of the organizer so that whenever we take something out, it’s easy for everyone in the house to know where to put it back!

I used my Cricut machine + adhesive vinyl for the labels shown below. I have a tutorial for how I make these labels in this post.

The organizers in my “sharps” drawer are from the IKEA GODMORGON set. Still using my favorite drawer liner too!

The IKEA SKUBB boxes work perfectly to organize my drawer of party supplies too. You can see all three sizes that come in the set in this drawer. They’re so versatile and can hold allll the things!

I used two more acrylic drawer organizers to keep my mod podge and painting supplies tidy. This is the larger organizer and this is the more narrow organizer.

Related: My Home Office Tour

Organized PAX Storage System Tour

My Organized Office/Craft Room in the Townhouse

My Organized Office/Craft Room Closet in the Townhouse

Related: How to Organize DVDs and Video Games

How to Organize Dining Room Drawers

Finally, the dining room! This room tends to be textile-heavy, so a simple repurposed dresser-turned-sideboard with several drawers was the perfect solution!

Again, we used the file folding method to organize our tablecloths, runners, and placemats.

Napkins are ordered by color and are easy to grab whenever we go set the table.

Related: Our Organized Dining Room

Dining Room Refresh

My Favorite Drawer Organizers and Accessories

Whew! So that completes our “drawer tour”! If you’re looking for any of the organizers I used, simply click on any of the images below for more details!

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Drawer Organization: Frequently Asked Questions

Want to save this post to revisit later? Be sure to pin the image below so you can find it easily!

Happy Organizing!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

The Easiest Way to Organize Any Drawer In Your Home

Now having lived in 8 different homes, I’ve done my fair share of organizing drawers and have admittedly spent a lot of time and money testing different solutions. While it is indeed exhilarating to find or make perfectly-fitting dividers for a particular drawer, more and more I now turn to my favorite drawer organizing “hack” that works in any drawer, no matter its size, shape, or location within the home. This “trick” is not only quick and easy, but it also utilizes items you might already have on hand. Let me show this easy-yet-effective way to organize any drawer in your home!

Table of Contents

Why I Skip Expensive Drawer Organizers

One thing I have learned from moving so many times is that we need serious flexibility when it comes to our organization systems. A dresser that holds office supplies in one house might become a bedroom dresser in the next. An ottoman that holds games now may hold pillows and blankets in a guest room later.

Figuring out the best organization solution for every spot in our homes is one of my very favorite parts of moving so much; but this is also precisely why I don’t like spending a lot of time or money on “perfect,” high-end, or very specific-fitting organizers. Not only does it take a lot of time (that we often don’t have) to find just the right product, but there is just no guarantee that what I buy for one home will work in the next.

When I’m organizing drawers, I don’t want to spend a ton of time or money hunting down or making the perfect organizers…so I usually turn to individual bins, boxes, and baskets and make my own “custom” arrangement instead.

How to Organize Any Drawer…the Easy Way

Below is a snapshot of my clothes in my San Diego closet drawer. Can you spot what I’m using to create dividers within the drawer?

Tired of my t-shirts and sweaters being a disorganized mess in this oversized drawer, I dug some clear plastic shoe boxes out of my organizing stash. Their size was big enough to file-fold my clothes nicely, and their height was shallow enough to allow the drawers to open and close with ease.

Instead of having to measure, shop, or DIY something to fit these drawers specifically, four inexpensive boxes created the dividers I needed in order to keep my clothes sorted, tidy, and looking oh-so-nice. And it took all of about 5 minutes!

Here’s how to pull off this easy trick in ANY drawer!

Step 1: Create Sections With Bins & Boxes

Stop looking for all-in-one organizers that fit your drawers just right. Instead use small off-the-shelf boxes, bins, and baskets to create your own series of dividers within bigger drawers.

Sometimes this may require hunting around your home for items you have on hand. Or you might even need to make a visit to your local Dollar Store or Target Dollar Spot. But with a variety of containers in hand, you can likely “Tetris” your way to a ton of order within any drawer.

Step 2: Embrace the Empty Space

When you’re organizing drawers with generic boxes or baskets, the likelihood of items fitting perfectly is pretty low. However, this doesn’t need to be frustrating. In fact, empty space can easily be turned into an additional “compartment” within the drawer. Here’s what I mean…

See that channel along the right-hand side of the drawer? Sure, I was bummed when two more shoeboxes wouldn’t fit there. But honestly, I didn’t need them. The edges of the shoeboxes themselves create a divider, and items can sit both within the box and outside it. So I was able to create four compartments with the boxes, and a 5th by leaving an open space on the far right-hand side of the drawer.

Whether you use as many bins that will fit or intentionally use bins to create pockets of open space, you’ll be able to make a variety of sized compartments to hold exactly what you need!

Step 3: Keep Bins In Place

When placing boxes or bins into drawers to create division, you might be able to fit everything in so snuggly that nothing moves around when you open and close the drawer. However, if your boxes don’t fit quite tight or you intentionally choose to leave open space (as described above), you will quickly grow frustrated by your boxes sliding all around.

There are now lots of options for keeping drawer organizers in place within a drawer. For each of these products, you’ll want to place the sticky product on the bottom corners of the organizers so they adhere to the base of the drawer and keep whatever arrangement you come up with firmly in place!

Command Strips
Adhesive-Backed Velcro
Heavy Duty Double Stick Tape
Museum Wax

Same Concept, Any Drawer!

If you look through all the drawers I’ve organized over the years, you’ll see this drawer organization hack in play over and over. Whether I use some cardboard boxes I have leftover from Christmas to hold my socks or purchase a variety of matching bins to hold pens, pencils, and craft supplies, each one is the same concept: individual bins arranged in such a way to create custom divided compartments within a drawer!

Organizing Dresser Drawers for Clothes

In my dresser, shallow bins from IKEA fill the width of this drawer to create smaller compartments that are easier to keep tidy. (See More: A Look at My Capsule Wardrobe in My Closet & Drawers)

Organizing Pantry/Kitchen Drawers

Kitchen drawers can be segmented with large bins to hold a variety of items such as snacks, utensils, cutlery, dish towels, and more. (See More: How to Organize Pantry Drawers)

Organizing Junk Drawers

You can even contain the clutter in your junk drawer with a series of mis-matched cardboard boxes wrapped in pretty paper such as contact paper or drawer liner. This is a great solution for sticky notes, paper clips, medicines, makeup, highlighters/markers, and so much more! (See More: How to Make Drawer Organizers with Cardboard Boxes)

Organizing Bathroom Drawers

Just because boxes have lids doesn’t mean you have to use them. These Sterilite clip boxes were the perfect fit in our bathroom drawers but didn’t make sense with the lids. We used the bases and stored the lids for later. (See More: Creative Ways to Organize Bathroom Cabinets & Drawers)

Organizing Office Drawers

Individual acrylic bins in a variety of sizes can help you make the most of even the skinniest of desk drawers in your workspace, when other organizers typically won’t fit! (See More: How to Organize Cords In a Drawer)

Organizing Deep Drawers

Wondering about the best way to organize deep drawers? Just look for larger bins, shoeboxes, or baskets to fill up the space and hold bulkier items. The (empty) far channel in the drawer below is another example of employing leftover space when organizing drawers! (See More: Creative Ways to Organize Bathroom Cabinets & Drawers)

Finding the Right Bins For Organizing Drawers

Once you have the right containers in hand, this type of organization project really couldn’t be simpler. Just place them in your drawers, play around until you find the best arrangement, secure in place, and put your things away.

However, finding “just the right” bin or basket can admittedly take some work. Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind while shopping or hunting through your garage:

Height is Most Important. Make sure whatever bins or baskets you choose are shallow enough to allow the drawer to close (but are still big enough to hold what you need to store).
Consider What You’re Storing. Think about what you need to put in the drawer before selecting bins. If you need to organize small items like batteries, jewelry, etc, smaller containers are better. If you need to store clothes, toys, or bigger items, larger bins will be required.
Keep the Bins Consistent. Surely you can use whatever you can find; but if you’d like your drawers to look clean and streamlined, use bins in all the same finish/color. (You can even wrap mis-matched bins in coordinating paper like I did here.)

I love a good bin or basket and use them pretty much everywhere. But even if you aren’t a crazy basket lady like me, I hope this post demonstrates that organizing drawers doesn’t require fancy, expensive dividers or fussy DIY projects to create some order. It’s been my experience that finding inexpensive, sturdy bins to fit drawers is pretty easy; and with some experimenting, you can come up with some pretty amazing arrangements to take advantage of every inch you have and store whatever you need!

See You Soon!
Megan

Chest of drawers SELENE 4 Szynaka (Poland) at the best price in Minsk in the chain of stores “Furniture from Europe and Israel”

Chest of drawers SELENE 4 Szynaka (Poland) with an elegant design and four spacious drawers. An excellent choice for organized storage of linens, clothes and various other things and items. Built-in drawer handles allow you to conveniently open the drawers and add practicality and style. The compact design of the chest of drawers makes it a great choice even for small living spaces.

Chest of drawers SELENE 4 Szynaka (Poland) with an elegant design and four roomy drawers. A great choice for organized storage of bed linen, clothing and various other things and items. Built-in chest handles allow you to conveniently open drawers and add practicality and style. The compact design of the chest of drawers makes it an excellent choice even for small living spaces.

DIMENSIONS (cm):

height – 80
width – 65
depth – 40
weight – 27 kg

MATERIAL:

body – laminated chipboard
facade – MDF

white gloss
sonoma oak

DIMENSIONS (cm):

height – 80
width – 65
depth – 40
weight – 27 kg

MATERIAL:

body – laminated chipboard
facade – MDF

COLOUR:

white gloss
sonoma oak

Dear visitors!

We invite you to our salons “Furniture from Europe and Israel” located:

Minsk, Pobediteley avenue 65/1 6th level of the shopping center “Castle” trade facility No. 474
Mob. A1 : +375 (29) 127-27-44 (Minsk)

Working hours: from 10-00 to 21-00 daily

Minsk, Independence Avenue 154 building D Korona-DOM shopping center trade facility No. 160
Mob. A1: +375 (29) 682-82-90 (Minsk) 9 0006

Operating time : from 10-00 to 21-00 daily

Minsk, st. Timiryazeva, 123/2 Shopping center “Grad” trade facility No. 504
Mob. A1: +375 (29) 308-50-48 (Minsk)

00 to 19 -00 (Monday closed)

Mogilev, st. Lazarenko 4,
Mob. A1: +375 (44) 544-32-93 (Mogilev)

Working hours: Mon-Fri from 10-00 to 19-00; Sat-Sun from 10-00 to 17-00

We work seven days a week and a lunch break.
With the possibility of extending the working day by prior arrangement with you.

Dear visitors!

We invite you to our salons “Furniture from Europe and Israel” located:

Minsk city, Pobediteley avenue 65/1 6th level of the shopping center “Castle” trade object No. 474

Mob.A1: +375 (29) 127-27-44 (Minsk)

Independence Avenue 154 building D of the shopping center “Crown-HOUSE”, trade object no. 160

Mob.A1: +375 (29) 682-82-90 (Minsk)

Opening hours: from 10-00 to 21-00 daily

Minsk, on the street Timiryazeva, 123/2 of the shopping center “Grad” trade object No. 504
Mob.A1: +375 (29) 308-50-48 (Minsk)

04 Mogilev, on the street Lazarenko 4,

Mob.A1: +375 (44) 544-32-93 (Mogilev)

Opening hours: Mon-Fri from 10-00 to 19-00 hours; Sat-Sun from 10-00 to 17-00 hours

We work without days off and lunch breaks.

With the possibility of extending the working day by prior arrangement with you.

9 simple daily activities to help you become more organized

Productivity

December 7, 2022

Among them – always carry a notebook with you, regularly check bank accounts and more.

You can listen to the short version of the article. If it’s more convenient for you, turn on the podcast.

Thinking about how to be an organized person is much easier than actually becoming one. And anyway, what does it mean to be more organized? It is possible to clearly understand where the necessary things lie. Or beat the habit of being constantly late. Or to find an inner sense of readiness for any development of events when you yourself control your day.

Of course, staying organized every minute is unlikely to succeed, but good habits will help on the path to excellence. Try starting with these small steps.

1. Keep the things you need in the same place

This applies to anything you take with you every day, like headphones or a wallet. Choose a convenient place for such trifles near the front door – for example, put it on a closet shelf or in a chest of drawers. So you will no longer run around the house in a panic, trying to find the keys. You can also buy a special stylish box for such things, or use a cute old box that you were going to throw away.

2. List tasks

Every morning or evening, make a new list based on what you did and didn’t do the day before or the day before. Try this method, even if you are used to writing down only large tasks. Try to cross out what you managed to accomplish, or what has lost its relevance. This will help you remember all the things and feel productive.

3. Check bank accounts regularly

Start checking your balance every day. So you can keep under control even small daily expenses and correctly allocate finances. In addition, regular checks allow you to notice any fraud attempt in a timely manner and motivate you to save money.

Try it 💰

How to make a financial plan and save up for a dream

4. Carry a small notebook with you

A handy pocket notebook is the key to an organized life. It is useful to keep track of things, make a shopping list or write down thoughts and feelings. In addition, a paper notebook will never need recharging and it takes up very little space.

5. Organize your wallet

This is one of the quickest and easiest daily organization methods. You can clean your wallet at any free second, for example, while you are in public transport. First of all, get rid of unnecessary checks. Then sort out the cards – perhaps half of them take up extra space. Remember the little things – you can throw it into the piggy bank and start saving money.

Check 👛

10 things you shouldn’t keep in your wallet

6. Create a menu

Compose, follow and check your menu every day to make changes if necessary or add missing ingredients to your shopping list. In addition, you can also plan time for cooking and shopping. Gradually, all this will turn into a habit, and life will become a little more organized.

7. Choose clothes in advance

This is another simple habit that will make you feel much more collected. Morning is the most important time of the day when you are in a hurry, getting ready for work or taking the kids to school. Make it easy for yourself and make a set in the evening of the previous day. You will be surprised how much time you have freed up.

8. Prepare any things in the evening

Just like preparing clothes or accessories, this ritual will help you leave the house with joy, and not in a hurry with irritation. Focus on your schedule and lifestyle. If you’re preparing lunches for work, leave the container on the dresser by the door. Pack your office bag in advance or fold your workout uniform. Check the weather forecast and take out an umbrella if you need it. The more prepared you are in the evening, the better the morning will be.

9. Follow a regular schedule

Make a detailed schedule for the day, including the most common activities, such as washing your face or brushing your teeth, and cross off completed items throughout the day. A productive routine will help automate important tasks because repeated actions make us happier and create good habits.