Easy DIY kitchen drawer dividers

I love an organized kitchen...however if you look in my kitchen drawers on any given day, you might question my organization skills:

We've bought drawer organizers before, but they never seem to fit the space *just* right, plus they're EXPENSIVE! I knew there had to be a better solution, so I headed to Lowes.

Project List:

• measuring tape
• 1/4" poplar wood (you choose the width - I chose 3" wide)
• gorilla glue
• miter saw, table saw, or jigsaw
• sandpaper

Instructions:

Step #1: Using measuring tape, measure the drawer's width, length, and depth. (Mine is 19" deep, 13.75" wide, and 3" tall)

At Lowes, I found 1/4" poplar wood that was 3" wide. It came in 4-foot-long pieces, so I bought 2 pieces to play with. In the first drawer I worked on, there are all kitchen tools in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so I decided that I wanted that one to have one long section on the left to wrangle tongs, long spatulas, wooden spoons, etc, and 2 sections on the right for the miscellaneous, smaller items that easily get jumbled up in the big open drawer.

Step #2: Using a miter saw, jigsaw, or table saw, cut the poplar wood to the length(s) you need. Sand the raw edges with sandpaper to smooth them out.

Mike made the first cuts for me on the miter saw, then I made the rest!

3 cut pieces of the 1/4" poplar

Step #3: Arrange the pieces in the drawer, to ensure they fit. They should fit pretty snug, but not so tight that you have trouble getting them in and out of the drawer. (You can use a heavy-grit sandpaper to subtle-ly shorten pieces). Using a pencil/pen, draw a line where you want the 2 perpendicular dividers to touch each other. Once you have a good fit, remove from the drawer

Step #4: Follow the instructions on your gorilla glue, running a small line of glue along the edge of the short piece - line up with the pencil mark on the long piece and glue the 2 pieces together. The gorilla glue will expand, so be sure to use a small amount. If you'd like to glue the dividers to your drawers, go for it! I wanted the option to remove and clean the liner underneath the divider/utensils, so I only glued the 2 divider pieces together.

 Step #5: Once the glue has dried completely, add your utensils back into the drawer for easy access!

TADA!

I did a similar divider for my baking-utensils drawer. This time, I turned the drawer on it's side as the divider was drying, using the weight of the rolling pin to ensure a good glue-seal between the poplar pieces. 

Once the glue dried, I removed the dividers, inserted the white liner underneath, then reinserted the divider...

and filled it up with all my baking tools for easy access!

Oh happy day...an organized kitchen!!!

Have any good kitchen organization tips to share?