Tea Drawer Organization DIY: Our #1 Tea Trick!

Looking for a good tea drawer organization DIY? Today we’re sharing our favorite tea storage trick of all time!

Something that always bothered me in previous homes was how tea boxes would

1) accumulate and

2) fail to adhere to any kind of organizational system I’d impose upon them.

I’ve tried (and seen others try) organizing tea boxes in their cabinets, pantries, drawers, and all kinds of store-bought organizational systems that promised delightful tea organization—yet in reality just didn’t work!

I did always admire those beautiful wooden tea boxes you could buy (you know, the ones with a hinge and a glass top, like at a coffee shop? like this one)…

…but the problem I still have with those lovely boxes is that

those still usually live out on your counter.

And if you’ve been following our blog for even a short bit of time, you know that Jess doesn’t like things out on her counter.

(Not if she can help it, anyway.)

TEA DRAWER ORGANIZATION DIY

Hidden but Accessible

Plus, in this kitchen, I was going for clean countertops. Minimal. Uncluttered. Simple and ready for the work that would be done on them.

Enter my tea drawer idea.

“What if,” I asked myself, “I could custom-size the dividers EXACTLY to the width, height, and depth I wanted for my teas?”

And I didn’t stop at the tea bags. Oh ho-ho no. We took even the extra tea boxes into account. (Because, like any good hostess, I always have backups.)

---

➜ We created 3 kitchen guides to help you get the kitchen you’ve always wanted!

Get our Kitchen Design Bundle here!

drawer dividers | fennel | licorice | peppermint | ginger | earl grey | english breakfast | dandelion root | throat coat | my favorite coffee ever!

It seems like such a simple idea, and yet I’d never seen anything like this before! I just knew I needed something like those wooden, hinged tea boxes mentioned…

…but in a drawer.

Away.

Sight unseen.

And yet smoothly, easily accessible. Right at my fingertips whenever someone might need a tea, select a tea, or even just think about maybe having a tea.

From tea emergencies to mere tea perusals of options, we’re ready for any tea circumstance that comes our way.

PS: If you’re new, you don’t know yet how we did 100% drawers in our kitchen and zero lower cabinets! See that HERE!

TEA DRAWER ORGANIZATION DIY

DIY Dividers: How To Build + Organize Your Tea Drawer

We’ve found these dimensions to perfectly hold the contents of a tea box with 16 individually packaged tea bags. In our drawer, we were able to fit 15 individual tea sections (5 deep x 3 across).

To save you time & effort, you can simply follow our easy DIY drawer divider plans HERE!

drawer dividers

However, the whole divider isn’t attached inside the drawer! It’s like our own DIY tea drawer divider insert. The dividers are simply built to fit inside, and then we slipped them in! We can slip them out (like when I need to clean the inside of the drawer—SO much faster & easier than individually cleaning every single compartment)!

Easy breezy!

There are 3 different designs you can use in our drawer divider plans, so you don’t just have to stop at your tea drawer—you can do ALL YOUR DRAWERS! 🙂

We also built a storage section to hold all the boxes of tea, which are our extras (because between all our + our guests’ tea-drinking habits, we buy in bulk—it’s just smart grocery budget sense for us!).

When we run out of one, we just refill its little section. A happy little family of teas lives in here, and we visit them every day.

So that bonus storage section is 9.75″ x 16.25″, which perfectly fits 18 tea boxes! (6 boxes by 3 boxes, as you can see in the photo below.)

Update: We now keep our bulk teas in the lower right section. It took me awhile to find the perfect containers!

drawer dividers | fennel | licorice | peppermint | ginger | earl grey | english breakfast | dandelion root | throat coat | my favorite coffee ever!

PS: Don’t think you have enough space to add more drawers in your kitchen? You can create it!

TEA DRAWER ORGANIZATION DIY

The Verdict

Any regrets with our tea drawer? How’s it been using it in real life these past six years?

Easy answer! It’s been PHENOMENAL. And while it doesn’t matter what others think, it’s worth mentioning that everyone who comes over loves our tea drawer!?

drawer dividers

It almost even feels like this tea drawer has a helpful personality. Like it’s been waiting for me my whole life to imagine it up and make it come to life so it can offer us teas in the most organized, beautiful fashion.

We created this video to show you our tea drawer in action!

See all our kitchen posts HERE! (And grab our drawer divider guide as a tool to help you achieve organized drawer paradise! 🙂 )

Need immediate kitchen help? Get our Kitchen Design Bundle!👈

Next…

1. The 3 bonus cabinet storage ideas every kitchen needs.
2. How we did 100% drawers and ZERO lower cabinets in our kitchen!
3. 5 ways we made our kitchen look bigger.
4. Our favorite way to hide kitchen appliances!
5. 5 kitchen organization ideas that make life easier.

➜ Our complete list of every single home project is viewable HERE.

*This post contains affiliate links, which are no extra cost to you but help us keep this site alive!