[uniblonder]

Okay, so after much planning and craziness, I called IKEA DIRECT late last week to submit my order. It's been a game of telephone tag with some great conversations with an very helpful kitchen planning representative. I am also ordering things for the bathrooms, and 4 PAX systems, so it's a big order and it's pretty complicated.

The kitchen was done by my builder (I'm building a house) and it's been okayed by my IKEA contact, so I've finally relaxed (somewhat) about the layout.

In choosing IKEA and in seeing Ikea both in the stores and in real-life, I was always impressed with the lower drawers and the organizers that were available. So when I was reviewing the order today, I told the rep that I wanted an organizer for each of the drawers. His reply? YOU want SEVENTEEN dividers for SEVENTEEN drawers?? and here's where I started getting paranoid. I went back and revisited my plan and kept trying to think maybe I needed a cabinet (at least one) with doors. .... NOPE. I'm not very organized by nature and I don't find a lot of promise in lower cabinets with doors that seem to promote the inevitable losing items in the dark corners in the back of their shelves... But .......he still seems like he couldn't believe that I actually wanted a divider for all those drawers.

Am I missing something here? For those of you with working/lived-in kitchens...do you use the dividers ..and if not, how do you keep things straight in those big, deep drawers!?!?!? HELP!! I'm feeling very insecure about my choices. TIA !!!!!

	TIA definition TIA means "Thanks In Advance!"

[Tigratrus]

I don't see anything wrong with having dividers in them all as long as you'll have space for any really big things like roasting pans etc.

Personally, from our recent experience with our kids, I'm a VERY firm believer in having a designated place for everything. Dividers help you with that, and they would tend to discourage anyone helping you put things away from putting things in quasi-random locations. As random stuff placement is very much a problem when my Mom visits, this is something in the forefront of my mind on a regular basis .

I'd say if you want dividers on everything, more power to you! Stick to your guns, if it's what you think will work best for your kitchen, then what somebody else things is just... Well, what they think, IYKWIM .

And you can never... NEVER have too many drawers. Drawerless bottom cabinets are just asking for things to get lost in the deep dark recesses, at least IMO.

James

[Keter]

The deep drawers are really deep. Other than my portable roasting oven (it's happily stored on the highest shelf above my main oven since I don't use it often) , I don't have a thing that won't fit in a deep drawer. I compacted three cabinets of shelf storage into two cabinets of drawer storage. Go for it.

[NBeth]

I am all about the drawers! Do you have a corner cab? I can't remember. Anyway, if you do, that gives you a place for the super tall stock pot or whatever. On the other hand, I have only bought one set of dividers and not used any of them yet. We have flatware divided inserts of course, but otherwise, everything just sits in the drawers. So far I'm feeling OK about that. The dividers are pretty expensive, so maybe you could do w/o some, esp in cabs where you'll be storing canned and boxed pantry items?

[fisheggs]

Also - haven't the drawer dividers been around for a while? I can't imagine that they'd discontinue them or change them without some warning. You could buy a few sets and see if you like them and then get more.

We have one deep drawer right now with nothing in it but dividers! Hee hee!!!

I really, really like the dividers for my shallow cooking utensil drawer. I was able to make a little compartment for the can opener, a slot for all my spatulas, etc. etc. Even the citrus reamer has it's own spot.

[gleamingeye]

I love my drawers, too. The only cabinet with shelves is my recycling cabinet, which has 2 big stacked bins in it.

But, you may not need drawer dividers for all of them. For example, these are the drawers of mine that Don't have dividers:
the dish towel dr. (shallow);

the tea drawer (medium)- it has tea boxes, sweeteners, powdered drinks, etc. and they stand up quite nicely-- a divider would take up more room and is not needed;

my veggie drawer (medium)- well, it has 2 of those really great veggie boxes in it that store lemons, limes, avocados, potatoes, onions, garlic;

the foil/baggies drawer (shallow)- with all the saran wraps, foils, plastic baggies and the like; the bread and snack drawer (medium)-- it has 2 baskets in it- one for opened snacks like goldfish and pretzels and one for the bread, then it has jars of nuts and raisins and the tortillas lie flat on the extra pretzel bags;

the flour/sugar drawer (bottom);

the water drawer (bottom)- with water bottles and juice bottles- the big ones;

the pot/pan drawer (bottom);

the baking sheet/mufffin drawer (shallow & 30");

the other drawer (bottom)-- it has roasting pans, enormous skillets, colanders and cutting boards that stand on the side.

That's probably more info than anyone cares to have about my organizing, but there it is.

I DO have the Ikea beech cutlery tray for my 18" utensil drawer, the big plastic one for my 24" utensil drawer, and I have a deep divider for the bottom drawer that stores all the kiddos plates, bowls, cups, etc. That one is fabulous and very much appreciated! I also will be getting one for my big 36" middle drawer that stores big bowls, measuring cups and the like.

So, my point is: think through what items you'll actually be storing where and whether or not they would benefit from the dividers.

[uniblonder]

Thanks for some real-life applications on this...I think I'm going to go w / about six or so and then so how it goes from there.....now that the Charlotte store will be opening (yay!! did I say yayayayayayay!!!!!!????), I can just drive up and get more if I need them.

	W definition W is a wall cabinet designation, as in W18, can be a stand-in for Wide, or when followed by a / stands for With.

[JeffGuy]

You must have at least one cabinet with doors - you do have a sink don't you??