Inside Consumer Reports Test Labs: Kitchen-cabinet organizers

“Top drawer” took on a new meaning when Bob Karpel (in the video right), a Tech/Appliance Program Leader for Consumer Reports, and his team put a wide array of pullout drawers, refuse/recycling containers, and rotating lazy Susans through a series of grueling tests as part of our August 2008 report on kitchen-cabinet organizers. At prices ranging from $20 to $220, these add-ons can be a cost-effective upgrade to kitchen cabinets.

Here’s how we tested the gear:

Ease of Installation
One of the heavily weighted factors in our Ratings is ease of installation. Each of the 28 organizers we tested was installed in a typical kitchen cabinet. Those models with clear instructions and modest tool requirements (typically a screwdriver, ruler, and cordless drill) earned higher marks.

In general, bottom-mounting slide-out drawers and refuse/recycling containers were easy to install, but those with side-mounting rails proved difficult as a one-person job. Three of the refuse/recycling containers mounted directly to a cabinet door, which entailed the extra step of shimming out the side-mounted rails with wood blocks.

With the lazy Susans, centering and leveling the center posts and fitting all the needed large parts into a restricted cabinet also proved difficult. Note that if you have stone or composite counters, you’ll need to add a spacing block inside the cabinet to attach the lazy Susan’s top spindle mount.

Pulling-Force and Spinning Usability Testing
Bob added weight to each drawer component, then measured the force needed to pull it open. An alarming surprise: After durability testing, the stop mechanism on one low-priced unit worked only when its front section was heavily weighted; otherwise it just slid free of the rails.

Bob loaded each lazy Susan with some common kitchen items and turned each unit a set number of times to test for smoothness, stability, and sagging. Considering the installation also, the least-expensive model was best overall. And one model had a nice feature: an internal spindle with special grooved threads to allow quick shelf-height adjustments.

Durability Testing
Bob’s “pièce de résistance” for this project was a “durability rig” (right) that used a pair of electric motors and a couple of crank arms to pull the drawer components in and out thousands of times; it also rotated the lazy Susans back and forth. Bob felt this setup would simulate five to 10 years of use, depending on a family’s size and lifestyle. The testing machine was set to push each drawer unit against its stop.

Women want a clutter-free home

What do women want?

That age-old question should be on the minds of builders, remodelers, and manufacturers of products for the home. Why? Because 91 percent of all new household purchases are made by or influenced by women, according to Paul Foresman, who earlier today at the International Builders’ Show delivered the “Her Home in 2015” seminar, which focused on the design and amenities that women will want—and expect—in their homes in the coming years.

The typical American woman is stressed, and builders/remodelers and manufacturers need to design spaces and products that will make her life easier and her home a haven from the madness, says Foresman, director of business development for Design Basics, a home-plan-design company and runs the quarterly publication Her Home.

Some other key points Foresman made during his presentation:

• Household messes cause stress, but cleaning is no walk in the park either. The solution? Provide women with products and spaces that are easier to clean, say showers without doors.

• Women want to eliminate clutter in the bathroom, kitchen, and garage. They’ll expect to see well-designed storage systems that can rein in the mess.

The simplest stress reducer I can imagine? Have everyone in the house put his or her stuff away without nagging. My colleagues and I agree that would alleviate a lot of tension.—Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman

Essential information: Read our report on closet and garage organizers to find the best products to unclutter your home.

Q&A: I'm agonizing over organizing. How can I get my home in order?

My No. 1 New Year’s resolution was to organize my home, including the garage. Any tips for managing the mess?

You’re not alone. Getting organized ranks high on resolution lists, up there with losing weight and spending more time with family and friends. The National Association of Professional Organizers even designates January as Get Organized Month. This drive to organize spells big business for manufacturers of de- and uncluttering products: The storage-and-organizing industry is a $6 billion business, and Americans will spend $8.6 billion on organizing products in 2011, according to the Freedonia Group, a business-research company.

But while plastic bins and drawer dividers can be part of an organizing strategy, buying them is not the starting point. “I try to steer my clients away from buying products, at least in the beginning,” says NAPO president and Boston-based organizer Standolyn Robertson. Instead, she gets homeowners to figure out how they want to use a space. In a garage, that might mean creating space for a small plant-potting station—“not to mention the $80,000 worth of cars that are currently parked out on the driveway,” says Robertson.

Once you’ve figured out what function a space will serve, it’s time to purge and purge again, as our colleagues at ShopSmart note in their March 2008 issue. Debra Proctor, an organizer based in Raleigh, North Carolina, stresses the importance of sorting. She has clients take everything out of a given space and sort it into three piles: essentials, useful stuff that they’re not crazy about, and items that no longer serve any purpose. She has them sort through the useful pile again until only the bare necessities are left.

The next step involves getting rid of unwanted items. Some of the cast-asides will merit a date with the dustbin. But keep them out of the landfill, if possible, by observing local recycling laws. For example, rather than toss paint cans out with the household garbage, take them to your local household-hazardous-waste station. Learn more about dealing with leftover paint here and disposing of other household materials. And visit our Electronics Reuse & Recycling Center.

For items that are still in decent shape, find charities that will take them off your hands for free. Some organizations will even come to your home and haul away the goods—and you might even earn a tax deduction in the process. Click on each category below to find an organization that will take your items.

Appliances    Automobiles    Books    Building Supplies    Cell Phones    Computers    Electronics    Exercise Equipment    Furniture 

Other options for getting rid of your stuff include Freecycle and Craigslist. Remember, your trash might be someone else’s treasure.

Once you’ve parsed, purged, and passed along, you’re ready to find a home for the stuff you’ll be keeping. “Placement is important,” says Robertson, emphasizing that you should keep objects near where you’ll use them. In other words, don’t store DVDs in a separate room from where your home theater is.

The execution stage is the time to make any purchases that will help keep things in their proper place. We’ve tested pro-installed and DIY systems for closets and garages. Some of the DIY systems delivered nightmarish results—wobbly parts, confusing instructions, indifferent customer service—while others were as good as professionally installed systems for a lot less money and required only your time and basic tools.—Daniel DiClerico

Essential information: Share your ideas with or get advice from other readers in our new home-organizing forum.