You can see it in your mind’s eye — the perfect layout for your drawer. Quick, make a sketch before the image fades!
If you’re like most of us non-engineering types, you sketch your layout in two dimensions. The artistic quality is akin to a stick figure, which is fine as long as you realize that, like stick figures, stick drawer organizers don’t exist in the real world. Real-world drawer inserts have dimension (or thickness). Are you with me?
I sometimes receive drawings like the following along with a message like this: “This is a pretty straightforward design. Can you make this?”
Well…no, actually. Here’s why…
The drawer’s internal depth is 19″. The perimeter walls and the two horizontal fixed walls will be 1/2″ thick. When we subtract the thickness of the front perimeter wall (1/2″ thick), the back perimeter wall (1/2″ thick), and the two horizontal fixed walls (1/2″ + 1/2″ = 1″), we’re left with 17″ of usable depth.
There’s 17″ to divide among the front, middle, and back sections — not 19″. So it’s back to the drawing board. At least one section’s usable space will need to be reduced. If that’s not possible due to the length of the contents being stored, a different layout is needed.
P.S. If things just won’t fit, maybe you need an outside-the-box solution.