How Do I Fix My Stuck Kitchen Drawer?

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A kitchen drawer is stuck, likely due to a spatula wedged inside, preventing it from opening more than a quarter inch. Various suggestions are offered for resolving the issue, including pulling out a lower drawer to access the stuck utensil from behind, using tools like a butter knife or a metal coat hanger to pry it loose, and even drilling from the bottom of the drawer to retrieve the item. Some participants share their own organizational strategies, such as using vases for utensil storage and keeping flatware in a separate drawer to avoid similar problems. A humorous reference to a fictional deity for kitchen mishaps is made, highlighting the commonality of such issues. Ultimately, one user resolves the problem by installing an angled deflector in the cabinet to prevent future occurrences.
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The draw i keep my kitchen implements in is stuck, i am sure it is the the spatula thing for picking up fried eggs as it has done it before, but this time i can not un wedge it as the draw will only move about 1/4 inch, i have tried shaking, wiggling, pulling, banging it but nothing works this time.
Any ideas?
 
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Why don't you call up a repairman instead ?
 
In some cases, if there is another drawer below the stuck one, you can pull that one out, reach around the back, and get the offending spatula. Don't put it back in.
 
jimmysnyder said:
In some cases, if there is another drawer below the stuck one, you can pull that one out, reach around the back, and get the offending spatula. Don't put it back in.

Not this one, i would have to be an India rubber man to reach around the back.
 
wolram said:
Not this one, i would have to be an India rubber man to reach around the back.

Find yourself a rubber man, then follow jimmy's directions.
 
wolram said:
Not this one, i would have to be an India rubber man to reach around the back.
Perhaps you can find some tool that you can use. I'm thinking of something long and thin with a handle at one end and a flat surface at the other.
 
I'd be willing to blame the spatula too. Though, I've had ladles cause that trouble too. I don't know why cabinet makers always make the utensil drawers so shallow that there's barely room for a spatula. This is why I only keep flatware in the top drawer, and the other utensils in the one below it. If a utensil gets stuck, I just pull out the flatware drawer and can reach into the one below it easily.

You might be able to get in with a butter knife to pry down the edge of whatever is sticking. Or, if you have one of those skinny metal jimmy stick things for unlocking car doors, that could work, or a metal coat hanger you could bend to squeeze into the space.
 
I am working on it, i can just pull the draw out enough to slip an hacksaw blade in, trouble is the more i pull the more wedged it is.
 
Moonbear said:
This is why I only keep flatware in the top drawer, and the other utensils in the one below it.
My wife has taken a vase and used it for the purpose of holding spatulas, rice paddles, tongs and other utensils of that sort.
 
  • #10
jimmysnyder said:
My wife has taken a vase and used it for the purpose of holding spatulas, rice paddles, tongs and other utensils of that sort.

I have my knife shoe and wok set on the counter plus my slow cooker, with a small kitchen there is only so much space.
Still have not open the draw, i think i will have to measure one of the other draws to get the screw centers and drill them out.
 
  • #11
Have you tried praying to Anoia (obscure Discworld reference) ?
 
  • #12
mgb_phys said:
Have you tried praying to Anoia (obscure Discworld reference) ?

Keep them Disc world gods away from me, things is complicated enough as is :smile:
 
  • #13
Try cleaning your bike in the kitchen.
 
  • #14
I guess, if worse comes to worse, you could drill up from the bottom of the drawer. Thread a wire through the hole and try to catch the utensil that is catching.

And if you want to make a million dollars - or pounds (even better!) - think up a way to prevent this from happening, because it happens to everyone!
 
  • #15
lisab said:
I guess, if worse comes to worse, you could drill up from the bottom of the drawer. Thread a wire through the hole and try to catch the utensil that is catching.

And if you want to make a million dollars - or pounds (even better!) - think up a way to prevent this from happening, because it happens to everyone!


Great minds, well one great one and one little one, this is what i ended up doing. and i now have an angled deflector fitted to the top of the cabinet.
 
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