DIY Cutlery Drawer Divider - on my $0 budget

I have always disliked (more accurately hated, but I taught my kids that hate is a strong word and it should not be used easily) the drawer divider for my cutlery. We have not been able to find one that fit perfectly into our drawers so we had to buy a 'standard' size one, and cut it so it fit. It never did fit properly, especially it was not wide enough so I had to place the large knives on the side of the divider. 


So to continue with our "make it on a $0 budget" we made this:

I got the idea to make my own wood dividers for this post on Under the Table Dreaming.  Stephanie Lynn used thin pieces of poplar wood to create dividers for her kitchen drawers but the wood she used still works out to be expensive here in Canada. Plus, I am still on my $0 spending limit for this month so anything other than what I had in the house is too much money!
 Before:

After:

So my husband came up with a great idea to use wood paneling board (I don't know what it is actually called) cut into strips. I originally purchased the 8 foot x 4 foot piece of materials for under $10 and had intended to do a magnet/chalk board for my son's room. I might still do that but we had lots of extra materials to play with.

We decided to make an outer box that fit perfectly into the drawer and then insert inner dividers. The reason I decided to do it this way, as opposed to gluing it to the sides of the drawer, is so I can take the wood divider out to clean all the crumbs and stuff that seems to mysteriously appear in with my cutlery.

We (again this means my husband) measured the width, height and depth of the drawer and cut long pieces to be the height of the outer drawer. We made an outer box by gluing (Gorilla Wood glue) and stapling the corners. If you don't have a stapler, you can do this with just the Gorilla glue. It is amazing stuff!

Once it was set, we cut more thin strips of wood (this time we made them 2.5 inches so it wasn't too deep to reach the cutlery) to make the inner dividers.  I mapped out where I wanted the cutlery to be placed and my husband cut the wood to the exact measurements. We glued all the pieces together with some more Gorilla Wood Glue. Again..amazing stuff!

I really wanted a knife block divider in the drawer so my husband came up with the idea to use an old piece of cedar (I had from the Block letters that everyone in blog land has done..including me :) ) and he put 1.5 inch deep slits every 3/4 of an inch. He then he cut the bottom of the block off 3/4 of an inch below where the slits ended.

We placed the block with the slits and the extra piece that was cut off in the drawer. The knife blades fit in the slots and the handles rest on the extra piece.

Pretty amazing isn't it! I have to say my husband amazes me on a daily basis! Who would have thought an Electrical Engineer could build stuff...not me :)

I put that cheap rubbery bumpy gripy stuff under the divider and that is it!

The entire project took us about an hour and a half and cost us $0!! If I were to go out today to buy the materials, it would have probably cost us under $3 ...cedar is pretty expensive :)  $0 verses the ridiculous prices they charge for these dividers! I will never buy another one!

One more AMAZING look! Come on, don't you agree this is a WOW moment?

The next project is to tackle my junk drawer..I don't think any divider will help that :)

Please let me know what you think. I really do love comments...it makes me know people are actually reading this.

Remember April 1st is the $0 Budget party here. Please stop by with your frugal ideas or stop by to see what others are doing on e $0 budget. Hope to see you all!

Stephanie