I still love the kitchen pullout, but it's a bit messy and wastes a lot of storage space the way I've been using it. And I find myself having to lift stuff out of the way to get to things when I bring extra food storage containers for takeout leftovers on multi-week road trips.
I'm going to make some rectangular bags like the green one on the right to store stuff more compactly and improve organization in the drawer
- A bag for my white gas backpacking stove stuff, including fuel bottles, matches and windscreens
- A bag for stuff I use to eat. Plates, bowls, cutlery, and utensils for digging food out of fridge containers
- A bag for cooking/meal prepping. Cooking utensils and my favorite fry pan
- Spice rack, salt and sugar bag?
- An open top, tote bag for misc pots I don't use often to store them more compactly.
- maybe another tote style bag for air tight food storage/take out containers
I'm not going to add zippers to the bags, I'm going to use coroplast signboard to reinforce the bags so they stay in box shape. I'll have to sew an inner bag liner to cover the coroplast. I like signboard because its cheap, light, easy to cut, and flexes a little. I want the bags sturdy but lightweight, but also have some box-like rigidity, so they keep their shape when pulled out of the Drawer. Wood boxes would be too heavy, and 3/4" thick wood wastes a lot of space.
Speaking of wood boxes though, I plan on these bags being a weird mix of my sewing, riveting and woodworking skills. For the cutlery/utensil bag, I'm going to reuse some of the hollow patio railing spindles and post sleeve cutoffs in the bags. I'm going to rivet them in place through the inner bag lining to a thin aluminum strip behind the inner bag fabric. Unlike the drawer now, there will be an upper and lower row, so i'll have to figure out a clean way to block the bottom of the upper row of hollow rail spindles so the forks and spoons don't fall through.
The other part of the plan is to hang the bags from the rear bumper swing arms (going to add hooks to the arms), so I'm going to make one large side of the boxes square shape easy to drop down after opening a twist lock toggle holding the side panel in place (like an old school lunch box lid).
The side panel that drops down will also have a mesh sleeve to hold bigger stuff in place when the bag is closed up. Like plates, bowls, pots or pans. That mesh sleeve will be upside down when the bag is closed, so when the side panel drops the stuff doesn't drop to the ground.
I might even redo the padded bag I made for the induction plate. it's just a tad too big, but that will come last. For now, I just have to push down on it a little to shut the drawer.
The goal is I want to easily pull a bag out of the kitchen drawer slideout, hang it on a bumper swing arm, untoggle the strap holding the side panel in place and drop the panel exposing everything. Just like a metal lunchbox I used as a kid. Stuff in the fabric box has to be easy to see, remove, and put back into the bag without everything spilling out all over the place.
Maybe I'll make some youtube vids as I work on it. If done correctly, I may have enough room in the drawer to store my half-size 3quart instant pot or blender in the drawer too.
Right now, there's just a lot of empty space in the pullout drawer most of the time. Pull out bags will use the space better because it will let me vertically stack shorter stuff better, AND it will keep things better organized. The trick is making it easy to use the bags or I'll just go back to the open mess approach.
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