To remedy a sticky drawer you must first determine where it is the drawer is actually sticking. Basically there are three parts to a drawer, the front, the sides and the rear.

Using a dresser with three drawers as the model the first thing you have to determine is whether the drawer that is “sticking” is actually having guide problems. Most drawers glide along plastic or wooden guides. A guide can be situated in the center of the bottom and top of the cavity where a drawer belongs or along the sides. A guide’s job is to keep the drawer from rubbing wood directly on wood. Sometimes a guide can become loose or skewed causing major sticking problems. Noticing a loose guide and stabilizing it will definitely prolong the life of your dresser and lessen the chance of a sticky drawer.

Now that you have taken each drawer from its hole and determined if there are guides and whether they are loose or still tight. The next thing to do is to examine the drawer itself from the underside and also the space in which it enters the dresser and search for worn places. The worn places need to be treated with the basic process of a sticky drawer. The basics for un-sticking a drawer has much to do with the same gliding action a guide provides. Taking a sticky drawer and running a bar of soap or wax candle along the places where the corner-sides of the drawer will touch the area inside the cavity of the dresser in which they belong will solve the problem immediately.