Are drawers better than cabinets? I’m a professional layout & organizational designer sharing the 5 genius reasons you’ll want drawers over cabinets to max out your storage (& nail smart organization for yourself)!
For yeeeeears I’ve been telling the world that drawers are better than cabinets!😅
(Yes, it’s a difficult job being The Town World Crier of Drawer Love, but I do it because it saves lives!💃)
Not only did we design our last kitchen with 45 drawers and zero lower cabinets!)…
…but we’ve also utilized our “Drawers Only” methodology throughout our bathrooms, walk in closets, built-in closets, entryway, laundry room and more!
PS: If you’re looking for how to convert your cabinets into drawers, we help you save dozens of hours by doing it this way.
We’ll also answer popular questions like
- “Which rooms need drawers rather than shelves or cabinets in them?
- “What are the benefits of drawers?”
- “Are drawers better than cabinets?”
- “Are there pros and cons to cabinets vs drawers?”
- “Where to put drawers?”
- “Where to buy drawers?”
- “Are cabinet doors or drawers more expensive?”
DRAWERS BETTER THAN CABINETS
“Why Are Drawers Better Than Cabinets In a Bathroom?”
Most under-sink bathroom vanities are cabinets.
Unfortunately, that’s a HUGE mistake (and kills me slowly every time)!😆
I’ll show you below what we did in our bathroom vanity to solve these problems with drawers…
…and we also have these posts that go into even more recommendations on what exactly to do (+ what not to do!) with drawers in your bathroom!
- Our 7 solutions for under sink storage (both in bathrooms as well as kitchens, utility rooms, and more) in THIS post!
- See why we recommend you avoid putting your trash can under your sink! (Even with a drawer!)
Cabinets in your bathroom will fit only 50-75% of the things you could fit in with proper drawers! From cubic inches to accessibility and ergonomics, I list the 5 smart reasons drawers are better than cabinets in further detail below that will apply to ALL these rooms!
You can also see inside our bathroom vanity (and we teach you how to make it yourself as well)!
BENEFITS OF DRAWERS
“Why Are Drawers Better Than Shelves In a Closet?”
While some cabinets and shelves can be used well in closets, the majority of your closet storage should still be drawers!
Our own master closet has 29 drawers, including…
…the hidden drawers that house our folding ironing board…
…as well as our hidden hamper drawer! Looks so clean! (I have a BIG thing against traditional laundry hampers, which you can read here! 😉 )
We also utilized drawers in our two secondary bedroom DIY built-in closets!
These eight closet drawers not only fit all our kids’ folding clothes but all their toys as well! (YES, drawers are amazing for toy storage!)
- Shelves in closets are only preferable to drawers once you’ve analyzed exactly what you’ll be storing and where (and you’ve definitively determined that shelves will give you better access to the items you’re keeping there)!
- As a general rule of thumb, I like to do closets in the lower part of the closet until it becomes far too high for you :), then work in the hanging rods, shelves, etc.
- If quality and smooth slides are important to you, you’ll want to stay away from the cheap-n-flimsy IKEA drawers, especially for closets! Our way is less expensive than even IKEA (and higher quality too!).
DRAWERS BETTER THAN CABINETS
“Why Are Drawers Better Than Shelves In a Laundry Room?”
This post goes into great detail about WHAT EXACTLY I used our laundry room drawers for, which made doing laundry an almost-literal breeze! 🙂
Contrary to popular belief, I do NOT believe in using these laundry room drawers for clean clothes! I have another system… 😉
And while it might appear those are shelves (in the above right photo), they’re really a type of drawer you can see here! (Along with the only 3 laundry room shelves you need!)
DRAWERS BETTER THAN CABINETS
“Why Are Drawers Better Than Cabinets In the Kitchen?”
In our kitchen, we have 45 lower drawers and 0 cabinets.
Zero!
And never—NEVER—have I once wished for a lower cabinet again.
Why?
We’ve been able to fit everything we need COMFORTABLY in our drawers. Is it possible to have too much storage in one’s kitchen?)
For example, we’ve used drawers
- to hide appliances
- to do a slide-out cutting board drawer
- to store all baking stuff together
- to avoid tea disaster with deliciously easy tea drawer organization
- to store our spices in a way you’ve never seen before
- to get our cooking utensils off the small stove-side counter
- to help our backs with plate storage
- to organize the pahooey out of EVERYTHING we use daily, weekly and monthly (from utensils to shake/smoothie stuff with our DIY drawer dividers (you never want to buy premade drawer dividers from a retailer)!
Once you learn how to design your drawers properly, you’ll never go back!
PS: We didn’t just do all drawers and share our 21 hacks & ideas we did in our own kitchen HERE!
BONUS: Right now we actually have a FREE (!) simple guide on How to Organize Your Kitchen Utensils In a Drawer!
If you’re curious about more kitchen-specific “drawers vs cabinets” questions, you can see those here.
If you need extra help: Whether you’re trying to work with the kitchen you already have OR you get to design your dream kitchen from scratch, we’ve created THIS resource full of videos, tips and tricks, our recommendations, lists of what to do and what not to do, and everything you could need for Kitchen Design & Organization!
ARE DRAWERS BETTER
Entryways, Bonus Rooms, Art, Craft, Miscellaneous Storage & More!
In the interest of not making this post longer than it needs to be :), I’ll pop in links to supporting posts that show you The Magic of Drawer Use and how drawers are better than cabinets throughout your entire home!
- Drawers in an entryway or mudroom!
- Drawers in an Art, Craft, Homeschool or other type of Bonus Room!
- Drawer in a Guest Bedroom!
ARE DRAWERS BETTER THAN CABINETS
The 5 Reasons Drawers Are Better Than Cabinets!
Now that we’ve looked at examples of our real-life use of drawers and how they can be used in EVERY ROOM YOU HAVE :)…
…let’s discuss the 5 full reasons why drawers are better than cabinets!
BENEFITS OF DRAWERS
Reason #5: You’ll Get More Cubic Storage!
Think about it. Because the lower cabinet space can be broken up into smaller sections with drawers, more of that space is usable. Of course, if you just replaced one cabinet with one drawer, that may not be true—but when you can replace 1 cabinet with 3-4 drawers, suddenly you’re able to fill so many more cubic inches (and feet!).
DRAWERS BETTER THAN CABINETS
Reason #4: You’ll Get Better Organization!
Because of #1, you can better section out your lower storage.
For example, instead of one or two big cabinets that hold “pots & pans,” you could do three to six different drawers. One big drawer for the big pots. One drawer for the smaller pans. Another drawer for all the lids, or section out the lids into different categories.
cheese board | cutting board | small cutting board | drawer dividers | Kitchen Organization & Design Bundle
The point is, YOU get to decide how you want to organize it, drawer by drawer, and YOU will find exactly what you need as soon as you open that particular drawer.
Some will ask about drawers vs cabinets for pots and pans. We still believe that drawers make your pots and pans infinitely more accessible than cabinets do! (Instead of having to rummage around in the back of cabinets for a small pan or a lost lid, you can just pull out a drawer and easily access everything stored “in the back.”)
DRAWERS BETTER THAN CABINETS
Reason #3: You’ll Enjoy Less Hassle (& Wasted Time)!
Drawers instead of cabinet doors means eliminating hassle and time wasted looking for things.
No digging around in cabinet shelves to find something.
No pulling out a bunch of items from the lower cabinet shelf to get to the other stuff behind it.
You open a drawer and there it is! The exact thing you needed! Right there before your very eyes! It’s storage magic! 🙂
PS: Don’t think you have enough space to add drawers? You can create it!
BENEFITS OF DRAWERS
Reason #2: It’s the Most Updated, Classic, Will-Last-Forever Look!
For decades, traditional home builders have installed lower cabinets instead of drawers. That is starting to look dated, and installing drawers instead of cabinets gives your kitchen, bathrooms, closets, and entire home a much more updated, will-last forever look!
If you’re remodeling and trying to figure out how many drawers you need, the layout, the interiors, and what exactly to put where, you need THIS!
Here’s a brief video I made showing just a few of our drawers in action! 🙂 (You can subscribe to our channel here to see more and yes, it’s free!)
BENEFITS OF DRAWERS
Reason #1: It’s Forward-thinking (a.k.a. Better Resale for You)!
Maybe it’s because I’m The Crazy Drawer Lady😉, but I genuinely think that people doing drawers instead of cabinets is the way the world is going!
Drawers are smarter, more efficient, and there are zero drawbacks that we’ve experienced!
Here you can see TWO of our kitchen drawers being utilized together: our cutting board drawer with our pull-out garbage drawer!
With that, if you ever sold your home in future, having been forward thinking about installing drawers instead of cabinets is something we believe will get you a better resale value on your home!
If you’re feeling frustrated or overwhelmed because you can’t afford a full remodel but you still want to have drawers instead of cabinets, we got you covered! THIS outlines everything you need! (Some you may have thought of already; some you definitely haven’t!)
DRAWERS VS CABINETS
“Can you tell me where to put drawers in my room?”
YES!
Let’s say you’re asking about kitchen layout: First, we need to analyze whether you are
- Working with the kitchen you already have, versus
- Designing a whole new kitchen from scratch
This will dictate whether you can place whatever drawers you want wherever you want…
…or whether you’ll need to work within the constraints your room (in this case, a kitchen) already has set up for you.
For example, when we analyzed this kitchen remodel, the cost of moving the stove and its walls to the side vastly outweighed the benefits, so we worked within those constraints and that’s one reason we did the vertical drawers we did (which ended up being fantastic!).
PS: Never do the spice drawer pull-outs like the below. (I discuss why here.)
DRAWER COSTS
“Are cabinet doors or drawers more expensive?”
How valuable is your time to you?
While kitchen drawers typically are more expensive than just doing plain cabinets, you might want to calculate your time savings. We’ve done that with some of our kitchen hacks, which have saved us thousands of hours.
Many people ask us, “Can you replace kitchen cabinets with drawers?” The answer is YES! (It’s no our first choice, but sometimes it can be great for the interim until the time is right.)
(We did this in our first house’s tall pantry cabinets and loved the results! All that cubic footage converted into usable cubic footage! It blew our minds at the time, and we vowed that this house would be Drawer City!)
WHERE TO BUY DRAWERS
“I’m wondering where to buy drawers!”
You’ll want to stay away from the cheap generic places like IKEA or Target, and we generally recommend building them yourself.
Why?
- It’s less expensive…
- …while simultaneously being the highest quality!
- You’ll get EXACTLY the measurements you need!
- It’s easy for even a beginner DIYer (and uber-empowering!).
We teach you how to
Next…
No matter what room you have cabinets in, you’ll want to turn your existing cabinets into drawers using our technique and materials HERE!
Or if you just want to tackle your kitchen: While we’re currently booked through next year, you CAN get our kitchen organization and design help both with videos and printables HERE (right this very minute, no waiting, you’re welcome 🙂 ).
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