unshallow drawers

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Started 1 year ago by EraserGirl
Latest reply from Julia
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EraserGirl
Member

basically just an observation:
i finally realized that most drawers are too DEEP for any useful sorting.
you get a desk or a bureau and you get 4 maybe 5 drawers.
so they items go in the bottom of the drawer and you are stuck piling additional items ontop. now every time the drawers are opened things get messier and messier.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgodsey/5366631739/

i acquired a couple of drawer units as i went along, i am not sure what the top one is..the drawers are 12" x12" so perhaps it is for sorting scrapbooking items.
the bottom unit is an old GAME drawer side table.

i use them for my office supplies...each drawer holds a 'theme' one for shipping supplies, one for gadgets and accessories, one for writing items, one for notepads and post its and so forth.

the success of these two pieces have made me realize how useless most other drawers actually are. I am now looking for one for my kitchen utensils..perhaps something like a mechanics toolbench...if you notice THOSE have skinny drawers too.

Posted 1 year ago #
STLMom
Member

You are right - deep drawers can be hard to organize. I like your shallow drawers!
My husband has a wonderful, antique desk. Most of the drawers are shallow and have wooden dividers that can be moved around into different slots. The one deep drawer also has wooden dividers, so you can store notebooks, folders, etc. vertically.
It seems to me that all deep drawers should be designed so that you can easily divide them vertically to keep things organized. Most drawer organizers I've seen only work in shallow drawers, and my DIY version using shoe boxes also doesn't work in deep drawers.

Posted 1 year ago #
NeatFreak
Member

The top one looks kind of like the IKEA ALEX drawer set. Very useful indeed! :)

Posted 1 year ago #
hazygirl
Member

I disagree. I love my deep drawers in the kitchen. I have 4. One holds the cannister for flour, sugar, cornmeal, etc. One holds pans (dutch oven, 2 sauce pans, grater, oven mitts). One holds the crockpot and pieces to the blender (all blades, to-go cups and main pitcher and lid). And one holds trivets, towels and food wrap (plastic, aluminum, bags, etc).

Put small items in shallow drawers, but surely you have some large items to put in the deep drawers.

I don't know what I ever did before I had these. I also have 2 shallow drawers that I use for utensils (serving, eating and cooking).

Posted 1 year ago #
jbeany
Member

I have deep drawers in my antique dresser. Instead of making piles of things like tank tops or camis, I roll them individually and stand them up on end. Same amount fits, but I can see each one and don't have to dig for a particular color.

Posted 1 year ago #
shebolt
Member

Deep drawers are fine for big things. Blankets, for example. For anything else, they are just mess magnets.

I gave up an entire bedroom set because I realized that I have a hard time keeping drawers neat. I bought a bunch of Ikea's Expedit shelves. The cubbies are perfect for me! They are so much easier for me to keep neat than a big, deep drawer.

I also bought a nice cabinet with very shallow drawers for my rubber stamps. Each drawer holds a maximum of two "layers" of stamps, so I only have to remove a stamp or two to get at one underneath.

Posted 1 year ago #
lottielot
Member

I have 3 deep drawers in my kitchen which are useful: one holds pans, one holds all our crockery stacked up in dividers and one holds our cat food. The other one doesn't really work, it's a art drawer but also holds some random stuff like handheld hoover, placemats etc. I have lots of containers in there but it's still a bit chaotic.
We have deep drawers for clothes in our chest of drawers, that works OK for stuff like jumpers but is pretty useless for kids clothes.
You're right about the utensil drawer thing though, very difficult to organise in even a normal size drawer!
You've made me think I need to rearrange my kitchen a bit now.

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

I have a chest of drawers (7 drawers high in one column) in which the drawers are roughly 12 inches by 12 by 5 deep. That's about perfect for t-shirts, undies, etc. And the chest fits inside my closet.

Conversely, my platform bed has four big drawers and things are constantly getting lost in the back.

My kitchen has four shallow drawers that are fairly easy to organize, two deeper drawers that I just use for linens, and one big drawer, under the wall oven, that I use for pans. I hate that big one with a passion. It's all the way down at the floor and I hate having to pull the whole thing out in order to get my saucepan from the back. If I were designing a dream kitchen it would have a wide, shallow cabinet across one wall and my pans could hang from hooks inside it (don't like hanging pans in the open, too dusty here in SoCal!).

In fact, now I am thinking what an idiot I am, because I could keep the roasting pan and other less-frequently-used items in that stupid drawer, and keep my saucepan under the cooktop where it belongs.

It's so helpful to talk things through here! LOL

Posted 1 year ago #
Anita
Member

I had to laugh at the idea that there could be a dichotomy of shallow drawers = good and deep drawers = bad. I should think it stands to reason that the ideal size and shape of your drawers depends on your storage needs. For small things like writing supplies, hand tools, jewelery, utensils etc, it's common sense that a shallow drawer would do a better job. For bigger things, or things that can be stored vertically, deep drawers are much better. It's ridiculous to say one is intrinsically better than the other, IMO.

In my home office, I have both shallow drawers and deep ones. The shallow ones hold my small office supplies and my photography accessories. The deep ones hold my hanging files and larger office supplies like binders, notebooks, envelopes etc. Same thing in my bedroom, where small, shallow drawers hold my make-up and jewelery, and 2 deeper bins hold my hair care products (stored vertically), hair dryer, and other body care stuff.

Posted 1 year ago #
Claycat
Member

I have to agree with hazygirl about kitchen drawers. Unfortunately I have shallow drawers. As a result, I'm always having trouble closing them, because something is in the way. I have so little in the drawers, you wouldn't think it would be a problem.

Also, I have roomy dresser drawers which I love. My husband has a small dresser with drawers that are way too shallow. It is a nuisance trying to make everything fit.

All in all, I'm a deep drawer kind of gal! :)

Posted 1 year ago #
irishbell
Member

I don't think anyone is saying that one or the other drawer is best for all things.. I think the idea behind shallow vs deep drawers is that if you have shallow drawers in a certain area that don't work for what you want to put there- they aren't useful/functional.
The same can be said for having deep drawers in an area where shallow would work better.
It's all in what you're trying to store in a particular place.
Personally, I like a variety of drawer sizes...lol.

Posted 1 year ago #
Sesberry
Member

In general I agree, shallow drawers are much easier. But I'm in the process of re-doing the study in our house and have found this - http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60180300 - which I think will be fab for my yarn stash which I'd much rather have in deep drawers as it's fun to dig through and you can shmoosh it all down together

Posted 1 year ago #
EraserGirl
Member

my shallow drawer unit isn't from ikea..it's hardwood with masonite for drawer bottoms..i just painted it green. but i do like the units from ikea..just can't afford them.

as for deep versus shallow...i'm not saying that deep is bad..i'm saying SHALLOW is rare. if the world had an even distribution of both, i'd be happy. my kitchen has 2 shallow drawers and i am glad they aren't deeper, i'd just fill them with more stuff.

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

EraserGirl, I like the shallow ones as well for anything but clothes. Shallow means your stuff is in just one layer! Soooo much easier to see what you've got.

Posted 1 year ago #
Julia
Member

@jbeany: regarding "Instead of making piles of things like tank tops or camis, I roll them individually and stand them up on end." -- that is such a good idea; now I wish I had deep(er) drawers so I could do that!

Brilliant solution. I have to think about this now...

Posted 1 year ago #

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