If you’re tired of digging through cans and boxes to find a jar of tomato sauce hidden at the back of the cabinet, these rollout bins might be just the ticket. You can size them to fit inside any lower cabinet and customize them to suit the items you want to store.

Reader's Digest Kitchen Rollouts

This article will show you how to build them. The bins are simply plywood boxes with adjustable shelves—very easy to build. Sizing the boxes and mounting them on drawer slides can be tricky, but we’ve worked out techniques that make those steps nearly foolproof.

Money, time and tools

All the materials for these three rollouts cost us just under $100. You could buy and install a manufactured system, but expect to spend about $80 per rollout.

You don’t need advanced cabinet building skills or tools to make your own rollouts—the joinery and assembly are simple. But a table saw is almost mandatory for fast, accurate, good-looking results. And we recommend a pneumatic brad nailer, although you can certainly hand-nail or screw the parts together. Ordinarily, the side-mount drawer slides are tricky to install, but we make even that step foolproof, so don’t let that part intimidate you. You’ll be surprised how fast you can build yourself a few rollouts. Put in a full day and you’ll be loading them with groceries that evening.

Get more storage space—without remodeling

Lower cabinets offer the biggest storage spaces in most kitchens. But according to kitchen designers, the back half of this space is usually wasted—it’s packed with long-forgotten junk or left unused because stored items are out of view and hard to reach. Rollout bins let you see and use the whole space.

1. Plan rollout widths by laying out the cleats along with the items you want to store. Space the end cleats with 3/4-in. blocks.

Reader's Digest Measuring the size of your drawers

2. Assemble the boxes by gluing and nailing all four sides to the back panel and to each other. Nail the lip to the bottom shelf before assembling.

3. Drill 1-1/4-in.-diameter finger pull holes. Clamp a block against the back side to prevent splintering inside.

4. Tack shelf standards to the inside of the front and back of each box. Use spacers to position them.

5. Screw the drawer slides to the cleats. Position each slide flush with the front and top of the cleat.

6. Pre-drill and screw the cleats to the cabinet. Use plywood scraps the same width as the boxes for perfect spacing.

Reader's Digest Putting in the Drawers

7. Screw the hold-down rail to the cabinet back directly above the cleats with 1-5/8-in. screws.

8. Release the drawer slides from the cleat slides and screw them to the side of each box flush with the bottom and the front.

Sizing your rollouts

Everything you need for this project is available at home centers. You’ll have to guess at the quantity of rollouts at this point so you can buy the proper number of drawer slides. One sheet of plywood will provide enough material for at least four rollouts. You can roughly figure one rollout for every foot of open base cabinet space you have. You can always return any uncut lumber or hardware you don’t use.

To determine the width of your rollouts, gather the items you want to store. Cut the 1x3 cleats to length and space them from each side of the cabinet with 3/4-in. blocks (Photo 1). That space allows the rollouts to clear the doors and hinges later. Then start arranging your dry goods, separating them with the cleats. Leave at least 2-1/2 in. between the dry goods and the cleats. This allows for the clearance of wood thicknesses and drawer slides and 1/2 in. extra to make it easy to load the items and take them out. It takes a bit of rearranging and thought to arrive at the best sizes. If your base cabinets have vertical dividers between the doors, give each opening its own rollouts.

Reader's Digest Kitchen rollouts make your space problems nonexistent.

You’ll probably have some rollouts facing one way and some the other. That’s because rollout access may be blocked by neighboring cabinets at inside corners or because some cabinet doors don’t swing all the way open. Determine the access direction while you assemble your rollouts. That’s as simple as drilling the finger pull hole at the proper end. After the boxes are assembled, they’ll work for either orientation.

Materials List

One 1x3 the width of the cabinet (hold-down rail)
2 ft. of 1x3 (drawer slide cleats)
8 ft. of 1/4-in. x 1-1/8-in. mullion (base and shelf front lips)
Four 2-ft. shelf standards with clips
One pair of 90-lb.-rated full-extension side-mount drawer slides
1-1/2-in. pneumatic air nailer brads
Woodworking glue
Small box of 3-in. screws
1-1/4-in. Forstner drill (for drilling finger pulls)