How to measure a drawer and plan organizers that fit

Measure the inside of the drawer at its narrowest point, take 2 mm off the height, and let a 1 mm gap sit between every bin. Do that and a printed set drops straight in, with no sanding and no rattling.

What to measure

1. Inside width, side to side. Measure at the front, the middle and the back: cheap drawers are often a few millimetres narrower at one end. Use the smallest number.
2. Inside depth, front to back. Stop at anything that sticks in, such as a front lip, a handle screw or the back panel's groove.
3. Inside height, from the floor to the lowest thing above it when the drawer closes. That is often the drawer above, a rail or the worktop, not the drawer's own sides.

Measure in millimetres with a steel ruler or calipers. A tape measure's hook can add a millimetre or two.

Watch for the hidden lumps

• Rounded inside corners. Many moulded drawers have a 5–10 mm radius in each corner. Square bins will not sit flush there: either round the corner bins or take a few millimetres off the width.
• Runners and soft-close parts that poke into the drawer, usually near the back.
• A sloping floor or a raised middle in plastic drawers. Measure the height at the lowest point.

Split the space into bins

One big tray that fills the whole drawer is rarely the best choice. Several smaller bins are quicker to print, fit on any printer and can be moved around later. A simple rule: aim for bins whose sides are no more than about twice as long as they are wide, and keep at least 15 mm for the smallest one.

Remember your printer. A bin has to fit on the bed, so a 300 mm drawer on a 180 × 180 mm printer (a Bambu Lab A1 mini or a Prusa MINI) needs at least two bins across.

Let SO3D do the sums: Fill my drawer

In the generator, Fill my drawer does all of this for you:

• Type the drawer's inside width, depth and height, and pick your printer from the list (Bambu Lab, Prusa, Creality, Elegoo, Anycubic or a custom size).
• It plans the fewest bins that fill the drawer and each fit your printer, with 1 mm between bins and to the drawer sides, and makes the bins 2 mm lower than the drawer so it still closes.
• Prefer your own layout? Choose the number of bins across and front to back yourself, and it shows straight away whether they fit.

Before you print the whole set

Print one small bin first, or just the bottom few millimetres of a big one, and try it in the drawer. It costs a few grams of filament and catches a wrong measurement before it costs a whole spool.

Worked example: a kitchen drawer

A drawer measures 380 mm wide, 460 mm deep and 70 mm high inside. Fill my drawer plans it like this:

The check: three 125 mm bins plus four 1 mm gaps make 379 mm, inside the 380 mm drawer. The bins are 68 mm tall, 2 mm under the drawer's height, so it still closes.

Common questions

My drawer is wider at the back. Which width do I use? The narrowest one. A bin that fits the narrowest point fits everywhere; the extra room at the back is only a few millimetres.

Should the bins touch the drawer sides? No. Leave about 1 mm all round. It lets you lift a bin out with one finger, and it allows for small printing differences.

Can I mix bin sizes? Yes. Choose your own number of bins across and front to back in Fill my drawer, or design each bin separately with the size you want.

The drawer is deeper than my printer. What now? Use more bins front to back. A 460 mm drawer on a 180 mm printer needs at least three rows.