Professional organiser Dilly Carter made an appearance on This Morning to share her sound advice for organising chaotic drawers. From junk drawers to kitchen cupboards, her tricks help restore order once and for all.
Dilly is our go-to for decluttering advice, whether it's her helpful life hacks, from supermarket tips to her genius storage measuring method.
Akin to how the best small kitchen storage essentials transform limited spaces, savvy dividers and containers are invaluable for making drawers feel more orderly – an easy yet effective way to make navigating the kitchen easier.
Dilly Carter's top tips for organising drawers like a pro
Tip no.1: Find purpose. "Before we can organise drawers, we need to make sure the layout is right," Dilly tells This Morning viewers. "Where you have things in your kitchen really matters, so don't just chuck anything into any cupboard or drawer, make sure that your drawers have purpose and a certain segment for everything."
Tip no.2: Declutter. The professional organiser notes the importance of limiting clutter on her Instagram @declutterdollies. "Let's stop those utensil drawers from being a danger zone. Do you really need four peelers, 12 wooden spoons and three garlic presses? As well as the 26 Nurofen syringes, the bunches of keys you have no clue about and some random spanner? NO!"
"What can you reduce to make that drawer lighter and only contain the things you use on repeat. Get it out, get it clean, get it organised," she instructs.
Tip no.3: Use drawer dividers: "We can contain everything we have in our drawers by using drawer dividers. These are great because they extend, so whatever size your drawer is, they will work." She then demonstrates how they can go into your drawers vertically or horizontally, depending on which suits your setup better.
Dilly's drawer dividers match this 6-pack of expandable drawer organisers. With an adjustable range of 27.6 to 52cm, these drawers separators can be used in all drawers, fro, wardrobes for clothing to the kitchen utensil drawer.
Same in principle to the plastic drawer dividers in Dilly's kitchen but more aesthetically pleasing for bespoke wooden designs. The 4-pack of expandable drawer organisers 32.5 to 43cm to offer flexibility. The spring laded design means no tools are required.
This set of 5 organising trays offers a more structured approach to sorting drawers – handy in bathroom or kitchen drawers where items are smaller and more likely to move around more freely. They work in exactly the same way as the extendable dividers by added dedicated storage compartments.
Tip no.4: Categorise. Dilly suggests using drawer dividers to separate utensils into different categories, saying: "We've got all our serving utensils, such as spatulas and spoons, in one section. Then we've got all the cutting devices and then we might have all our baking goods."
The drawer dividers help give each section a dedicated purpose, which makes navigating the kitchen easier when meal prepping and serving.
Showing how she organises kitchen drawers by removing all the items, giving them a good clean, and putting extendable drawer dividers in place to create a more streamlined storage system.
"These drawer organisers are a game changer for keeping things sorted that are big and bulky as most cutlery drawer dividers don’t fit what you need."
"And don’t forget you can use those to separate anything within any drawers, from clothes to Tupperware and water bottles," Dilly goes on to say. After trying all the best wardrobe organising techniques, we recommend implementing these dividers in a chest of drawers to keep smalls separate – perfect for keeping your capsule wardrobe essentials in order.
During her time on This Morning, she also tackles the dreaded 'junk drawer'. Instead of having just a drawer full of junk, full of chaos, we can use old takeaway containers." The handy trays provide the perfect free alternative to buying drawer organisers.
We're not the only ones feeling inspired by Dilly Carter to sort our drawers out, as one Instagram follower writes: "You’re inspiring me, I’ve started to give my cutlery drawer a quick clean every time I put items into it from the dishwasher! Lift items still in there, Quick wipe, drop items back in, and items from the dishwasher! Done!" – clearly delighted with the professional organisers helpful tips.
