Silverware Drawer Before Repair

In my kitchen, I have a nice expandable bamboo cutlery organizational drawer.

Unfortunately, over time, the bamboo drawer separators have become unglued. 

Now the drawer is not organizing my cutlery and it looks a mess.

I really like the strong bamboo this drawer is made out of.

This item is too good to toss out so I decided to repair it.

The first step is to remove all the items from the drawer.

I then found all the missing slats which were mixed in with the cutlery.

All the crumbs were removed and I wiped everything down.

Cleaning out Bamboo Drawer Slots Filled with Wet Glue

Make sure you first fit the pieces together to see where they go before adding the glue.

This step reminds me of doing a puzzle.

I actually had my drawer upside down and had to pull out a few slats and start over.

I placed a little glue in to the bamboo slots and fitted the pieces where they belonged.

Use a good wood glue.  This is important because there is a lot of movement in the drawer putting items in and taking things out.

Regular white household glue will not hold the slats for long.

I’m actually using a wooden skewer to dip into the glue bottle since I have better control on how much glue I want to use on the ends of the slats.

I don’t want a sloppy over glued drawer.  Be sure to wipe off excess glue.

Wood Glue and a Wooden Skewer Hammering a Loose Edge on the Drawer

There were a couple of areas where I could not “hand push” the slots back into place.

On these few places, I put an old rag over the area and gave it a gentle tap with a hammer. 

That seemed to do the trick and pushed things back into place.

Wet Glue on Repaired Silverware Organizational Drawer

The repaired expandable cutlery drawer is now drying.

The wood glue needs to cure for 24 hours and then the project will be complete.

I love to cook but find myself constantly looking for the lemon zester or the measuring spoons, etc.  This newly repaired cutlery drawer will help me find things quickly.

Tomorrow my kitchen drawer will be nicely organized.

Wow, it looks like new!

Repaired Cutlery Drawer in Kitchen

Don’t Replace, Repair that Broken Item!