I’ve shared that Hubby and I were already established as adults when we married. We had both lived on our own, and we each had most of the basics needed to set up a home.
Add to that a wholotta wedding gifts from people who were thrilled we were FINALLY getting married, and our first apartment was bursting at the seams before we even moved into it.
But we only had one silverware drawer thingamabob, and it was Hubby’s.
I never loved it, but I’m good at making do.
For, like, fifteen years at a time.
I didn’t love it because it didn’t fit everything we needed. It only had designated spots for knives, one kind of fork, and one kind of spoon. Our silverware (and every kind I’ve seen that comes in the sets) had two kinds of forks and two kinds of spoons. Those forks and spoons just got shoved into the other two spots.
I never loved it, but I never spent the less-than-ten-bucks to get a new one.
Then we got new silverware, and the spoons didn’t even fit in the can-only-be-used-for-spoons slot. This led to extra messiness in a drawer already prone to messiness.
Back in December, I proclaimed loudly (in the presence of a child who puts a LOT of thought into purchasing Christmas gifts) that I SURE would like to have a new silverware organizer. I might have proclaimed it a few times, just to be sure he heard.
I was thrilled to unwrap a much better silverware tray from him.
Look how much better the entire drawer looks! And I love that it takes up more space so I have less space to randomly throw things I shouldn’t throw in there, but do.
Things like:
Toothpicks that went to the other side of the kitchen where I look first if I need toothpicks. (I’d never look in this drawer for them.)
Trash. I’m sure there was some subconscious rationalization going on when I put napkins and straws and such in that drawer, but . . . a broken plastic fork?
Ugh.
Note: I call it silverware. It’s not silver. I know some areas of the country call it cutlery, but I just can’t do that. Not sure why, but that feels like speaking a foreign language.
Another note: Yep. That’s an (Amazon affiliate link alert) extendable fork
Yet another note: That’s the drawer pull that keeps falling off the drawer. It’s another problem I’ve lived with for way too long.
One last note: As long as I’m adding in affiliate links, here’s the drawer organizer
Related Posts:
My Two (And ONLY Two) Decluttering Questions (These made it super easy for me to know where to put the toothpicks!)
Read more of Hubby’s and my life-combining story in my FREE e-book, Giving God the Worst of Me.
--Nony
So much better! Are the utensils at the bottom ones you use regularly? If not you could flip the organizer, so they are at the top. I took a picture the other day to put on Facebook that shows my spoons sharing a section of our organizer. The small spoons are upside down, with handle next to bowl of large spoons…my husband saw in done in a hotel kitchen this way.
Yes, I’ve been doing that forever too. I actually have the little forks upside down with the little spoons and in another slot I have the serving spoons with soup spoons upside down. But I have baby spoons just loose beside the organizer. My utensil drawer is way more complicated but we finally decluttered and reorganized it last summer using the organizers I already had plus a small box that was cluttering up another space. 🙂 it’s actually staying pretty neat now. Yeah for little wins!
i hate silverware drawers… that’s why a while back i added 4 storage cups for it to my kitchen rail. i love it, but every single visitor needs to be pointed to it after opening all drawers to find a spoon, even though it’s right in front of their eyes 😉
That silverware tray is the bomb 🙂 You may have to ask aforementioned child where it was purchased. Your devoted public needs to know! Lol
Walmart!!
Isn’t it amazing the things we just put up with? I’m so glad you found something that works for you. My grandma had a silverware drawer that had been divided into three big sections with metal dividers. She just chucked the utensils into the appropriate section. I duplicated it in a house I used to live in because I loved the system so much. Now I rent, so I can’t do that as easily.
Your insightful posts and the real life responses they elicit are helping us in an adjustment I never thought we would have to make. Since my husband and I think in different ways we need these strategies to be able to work together to declutter. When we were young we had very little stuff so it didn’t present as a problem. Now we have just laid to rest the last of our older relatives (my mother, aged 102). With each one that we have cared for we have dealt also with their stuff, but the most important thing was their mind and their body so we concentrated on that and never got to the Stuff issue. Now at three score and ten (plus) we have time at last to address the issue and you have given us your thoughtful, proven strategies. We have both read your ebooks which collect for us the nuggets from your posts and put them in an order that makes a lot of sense. Thank You! The comments to your posts indicate that Many people face this issue so you have already been thanked, but I want to add my heartfelt gratitude to the list. P.S. I also enjoy your love (and respect) for your husband and children!
Thank you so much for this comment, Linda! I’m honored (and a little in awe) to hear such kind and encouraging words from someone who is surely much wiser than I am!
(This might have been said)
If you turn it around so that the big ‘random gravy spoons’ slot goes in the back, it works even better… unless you use ‘random gravy spoons’ often…
Sincerely,
Learned from Experience 🙂
I second this suggestion. 🙂 It keeps kids from grabbing gravy ladles or serving spoons for ice cream too.
Haha! Love your signature!
What a coincidence! I did my silverware drawer today as well. Haven’t done it in this house ever. Moved in 18 mos ago. Had loads of plastic silverware packets that got tossed. At least a hundred different condiment packets. It feels so good to see it clean and organized.
My silverware drawer is fine but I have a second hand piece of furniture in the living room which was missing some drawer pulls, I bought new ones but they barely fit and were always falling off so I had to leave the drawers slightly open at all times. Over Christmas some relatives visited and one of them fixed all the drawer pulls! I’m not sure how they even did it, I could never get them to stay tight, but I’m very thankful!
Don’t you love when someone does that for you!
I did this same thing recently and bought the same cutlery organizer to do the job at Walmart! My drawer looks great! My previous organizer was too small. This larger one has enough spots for all the different types of silverware to have their own spot. No more putting big and littles in the same spot! That makes me happy every time I open the drawer. =)
That is so funny! The original looks exactly (I mean right down to the same random trash and the exact same silverware holder in the exact same color) as at my mom’s house when I was growing up. It was for this reason that my hubby and I bought one that not only had plenty of room, but had an expandable last slot so we could exactly fill the drawer and have no space for things that don’t belong. We believe strongly that appropriate infrastructure prevents a multitude of problems!
My boyfriend and I moved together in June. Our kitchen area definitely needs gone through. We’ve been sick this Winter but I also want to go through our towels and donate extras to our local animal shelter for the animals to have something to lay on.
Your picky comment for the day has arrived.
Plastic (and stainless) silverware is called flatware.
Cutlery is knives, scissors and other things that.. cut!
Using “cutlery” for “flatware” is a thing now because some marketing person didn’t know there was already a word for plastic forks and abused “cutlery” on the box in an attempt to describe what was inside.
I appreciate the explanation! Flatware was the word I couldn’t find in my head. I knew cutlery didn’t sound correct!
Now you just need to fix the drawer pull. 😉
I’ve heard “flatware” as an adult, but I still call it all “silverware”, even the plastic stuff! Habits learned as a child are hard to break!
I use the divider trays all over my house. I have them for everyday flatware in the kitchen, the silverware in the dining room, the plastic flatware in the storage, the smaller serving pieces in the kitchen. I also use them for organizing supplies in my sewing machine desk. The scissors, rulers and tools in one drawer. The small packages of needles, elastic, etc, in another. I have another one in my writing desk for separating pens, pencils, markers, etc. These divided trays are a great, cheap investment for my sanity.
I struggle w this one too. Unfortunately, I 1960-something plastic molded drawer boxes. I didn’t even know such. Thing existed till we bought the house. Too narrow for a sufficient organizer. Rounded on the bottom instead of clean corners so individual bins won’t sit properly. Any ideas?
The container store sells dividers that work using tension. Maybe those would work?
I bet that plastic fork wasn’t broken when it was left in the drawer. Your “before” photo looks clean and organized compared to my drawer: I’m constantly finding broken items in the drawer that were whole when placed there 🙁
Of course it’s “silverware”! Any good Southerner knows that! 😉
Why don’t you replace the drawer pull for a handle?? Handles seem to work so much better for me, since I seem to use superhuman strength to open drawers.
Gorgeous! I’ve always been one to rearrange someone’s silverware drawer of it was unruly. It’s my only sense of order so I like to spread it. Of course this is ONLY if I am putting your silverware away and am close enough to you to be rummaging around in your drawers.
I call it “flatware”……. Nice job on the drawer, Dana! Thanks for your encouraging posts and books.