DIY Wooden Cutlery Organizer Review

Making DIY wooden cutlery organizer: Screw you IKEA!

I was searching for this crap both online and in local stores for weeks; it is unbelievable how this simple, but essential, kitchen drawer chaos murderer, is hard to find. 

There are plastic, of course, but plastic is joined with the Dark Side, and currently I am too busy to have a Master teaching me stuff about nature of the Universe, conquering planets and other trivialities. Those few that are made from wood are either too small, or utterly overpriced (hello, and screw you again, IKEA, in case I wasn't explicit enough in the title when I said, "Screw you, IKEA"). 

So, one day a jigsaw hit me on the head.

Then, some other day, not related with the one that hit me with a jigsaw, an idea started to grow around my head. 

Eventually I captured it and stored it somewhere inside my brain, in the folder marked "DIY". 

Several weeks past since the initial idea, and then, one random day, I went into my workroom (a plain room which becomes messy after jerking around with my power tools, so I could call it "the workroom"), wearing my comfy home clothes and slippers, found some old leftovers from wooden ceiling, and some other leftovers from industrial beech pieces (destined to burn in our wood burning stove), and started to saw.

Power tool organization: important first step of every DIY project. This one is following the methodology called "throwing needed stuff on the floor".

Other needed stuff: a manual backsaw  (which was replaced immediately with powered jigsaw), a most-of-the-time-useless miter box, wood glue, really cheap clamps, ruler with spirit level. 

First I made the base plank: I cut one plank 2m long into 4 pieces (50cm each). Using wood glue and bigger clamps, I fixed the planks together and left the glue to dry overnight.
I went on with sawing compartment barriers according to the sketch I previously have drawn on the paper. 

Sanding all the parts with belt-sander. 

Transferring all the parts to the installation location - the kitchen. Next step: assembly.

Measuring the location of the barriers (which are on the other side), so the screws don't miss them.  Of course the screws will miss them, but in this way I will not be mad at myself because I didn't do this.
Nah, I'm kidding, it really helps. To measure. Stuff.

Although I initially thought that there are no chance in hell that screws won't break apart the thin dividers (they are approx. 10 mm thick) when screwing vertically in them, everything went fine. However, I was using some more expensive screws (Spax screws) for the parts I suspected would break. 

I took this picture to better show the locations of the screws.
I think.
Or maybe just because I wanted to show how cool the organizer looks on the side which will never be looked at again. 

There you go. I didn't even protect the wood with oils, varnish, or any other stuff. It looks great, and does the job better than any commercial stuff, because this is precisely (well..) measured to fit our kitchen drawer. 

DIY Wooden Cutlery Organizer The Good:

1. Almost free. I did not buy anything for this, made it completely out of scrap materials found at home.
2. Easy to make with just basic set of tools.
3. Looks great, feels great.
4. Made from natural materials.
5. You can make a precise fit for the inner dimensions of your own drawer.
6. You can proudly say: Screw you, IKEA!, and run into the woods naked, wearing only one sock and a butter knife.

DIY Wooden Cutlery Organizer  The Bad:

1. You make a mess if doing it indoors (it was cold outside at the moment. This winter never seems to end.)
2. You could be staring at some LCD or LED display instead of doing this practical work.
3. There is no sensory ALARM integrated when you are out of knives or spoons or forks. You need to use the manual system: 1. Open the drawer. 2. Say: "crap." 
4. You need to clean up at the end of the work, and put all the tools back into their natural heap. This is the moment when the "work room" restores its designation to just "room" again. A sad moment in time. 
5. You can throw away your comfy home clothes and slippers which you were wearing while doing the job, too lazy to get into the work clothes. Seriously, I do more than half of these kinds of things wearing slippers.