How to fish out something stuck behind a dresser drawer

I recently discovered that my dresser drawers don’t come out. They’re bolted to the track somehow. And there’s a slab of wood between each drawer. Manufacturers make them this way to prevent drawers falling out, but it has a side effect you’re much more likely to encounter: when something gets jammed behind the drawer, it won’t just fall into the next drawer, and the drawer it’s stuck behind can’t be removed so you can pull it out.

In some models, you can keep pulling the drawer after it stops and it will release. Others have a catch (but you may not be able to reach it). Neither of these options worked on my dresser, so it looked like my only choice was to remove the wood panel on the back of the dresser, pull out the stuck item, and reattach the back panel. But I was in the middle of unpacking from a move, so the last thing I wanted was to stop everything and go hunt for my tools.

Instead, I tied a piece of ribbon to a stick (I think a spatula would have worked even better, though). I kept the ribbon in one hand so I could pull the stick out if I lost hold of it. With the other hand I put the stick in behind the drawer and fished around for the item. I was able to get the stick wedged under the item and push it up over the back of the drawer so it landed in the drawer, but this is why next time I would use a spatula or just in case the stuck item was something flat that I couldn’t maneuver the stick under.

This was a quick, simple solution. If it doesn’t work, then you will have to take off the back panel, which usually just involves removing a few screws and putting them back in later.

Of course, a really quick simple solution would be for manufacturers to put releases on drawers and make them easy to reach. But I guess that would be too simple. Once again, life has taught me a lesson: don’t buy pre-assembled expensive furniture. Buy cheap furniture you assemble yourself, then personalize it with a funky finish so it’s unique. This is better in every way than spending a lot on gorgeous furniture that ends up frustrating you with what ought to be an easily solved problem.

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