30'' minimum for good pot and pan storage. Nothing smaller than 18'' for everything else.

I really wanted at least one 30" drawer base both because of advise here and because we had pots and pans in a 30" base with roll outs before.

We ended up with no drawers wider than 24". I have 3 24" 3-drawer bases that hold pots and pans and some other odds and ends like mixing bowls, scale, 8c measuring cup, etc. It is working out well for us. But, we're frameless so our 24"w drawers are almost 21"w inside. There are some empty pockets in a couple of those drawers but we're still finding the arrangement of stuff that works best for us. We're also still waiting for a few shelves and roll outs, so there's a bit that hasn't even made it's way into the kitchen yet.

The other drawers I have are in the base of my 21"w pantry, another 3-drawer base. The bottom drawer holds flour, sugar, rice. The other two drawers hold snacks, cereals (in other containers) etc.

The drawers I'm most surprised/happy with are in the 21" w 4-drawer base. I can't believe how much fits in those drawers! I used to have plastic bags in one drawer, wraps in another, towels had to be in the bottom drawer to all fit. That base has misc. utensils and napkins in the top, all wraps and bags in the second, all towels in the third, and some mixing bowls, tupperware and misc. storage containers in the bottom. A crazy amount of stuff fits in that stack.

The other two drawers I have are 18" above my pull out trash (trash compartment is enclosed, it works just fine for me) and below my speed oven (more misc. containers).

Overall, I'm happy with my arrangement. I still need to negotiate what goes in what of the 4 top drawers (the 3 three drawers over on the range side of the island and the 1 21" on the sink side). It's a very different way of cooking/being in the kitchen with the island. Things don't always have a logical place. Some things where we had duplicates and we assumed we'd get rid of one, we keep one on each side.

With frameless, I'm happy with the 24's and I could have been okay with 27's. I'm not sad I didn't get my 30 though. If I was going framed, I'd imagine I'd need at LEAST a 27 but 30 would be better for pots and pans.

i went with traditional framed cabinets and did all standard 3 drawer bases. i did not put my pots/pans in drawers however, they are in my lazy susan.
the top drawer on my smallest drawer stack is a little shallow and spoons have to be laid end to end but that is an 18" drawer. i don't have that problem with the 24" , 30" or 36" stacks.
pic of my 24" stack opened.

My kitchen isn't huge. I have 3 drawer stacks - one 4-drawer 18" (filled exactly like cal_quail's 21"); a 24" with cooking utensils on top, plastic containers in the middle, and sugar/flour/etc on the bottom; and a 34" stack with potholders/tools on top, pots and pans in the middle, and cake pans and pie plates (stored on their sides) in the bottom.

One thing I specified to my cabinet maker was the usable height of the bottom drawers in the 3-stacks, to make sure my baking canisters and cake pans would fit as planned. As a result, the bottom drawers are taller than the middle ones (which didn't need as much height).

I also specified the height of my super susan shelves, to make sure my tallest small appliances (happens to be my rice cooker) would fit on one shelf.

In other words, the best sizes that will work for you are the ones whoch best hold all your things.

I have lots of sizes. They are all great!
I have a stack of 13-14 inch drawers which hold silicon trivets, gloves, towels, and utensils. I even put lee valley dividers in to hold apple and egg slicers.
I have a 15 inch stack which holds my wraps, graters, and mixing bowls.
I have a single 18 inch drawer with the required trash/recycle underneath. I have a my "forceps" and and a few other tools(ok- I worked in the medical field and they aren't really forceps)
My stack of 30's is in my bake zone.
My stack of 37's houses a collage of cooking vessels - mostly on their sides.
My large 42's hold my dishes and every Tupperware and other containers and no avalanches!
Above the giant drawers are a pair of 22's which hold knives and peelers on one side and flatware in the other half.
I wanted function over absolute symmetry but the key elements line up or are centered.

I inventoried everything to decide what size drawers would work best for me. My drawer stacks are mostly (except for 2 pot drawers) 3-drawer stacks and sized to fit quart canning jars in the middle drawer and large (half gallon) canning jars in the bottom drawer. I like to store spices/dried goods in canning jars, and those drawer heights worked for many of my other bowls, etc. so that is what I went with :-)

thank you all for the responses! this will be my first "real" kitchen. i've always had small rentals and hubby and i are currently in a co-op with a tiny kitchen so i'm not sure exactly what type of space we'll need. we've made due with the small kitchen but that's with all our wedding gifts (pots, pans, small appliances, utensils) still in my parents garage (we just have the basics in our co-op right now) so i am hoping everything finds a home in our new kitchen. i really wanted drawers based on my sister's kitchen (she has one drawer base i think and is madly in love with it) and all the advice i'd read here but unfortunately, i think my only really "large" drawer base with be 24". i will also have one 30" drawer below the wall oven and one 30" drawer below the microwave in our peninsula. otherwise we'll have a small 12" drawer base and an 18" drawer base. we got sort of screwed because the kitchen has 3 blind corners. we are getting magic corners in two of them (not sure what we are doing with the other) so i'm hoping those magic corners provide good storage for pots/pans and i can use the 24" drawer base for dishes. we do of course have uppers but the dishes in the drawers with the pegboard look so cool!

i highly recommend you check out the super susan option for one of your corners. i love mine and it holds all my pots and pans plus room for extras. it is sturdy and vey easy to use. i thought about eliminating it but am so glad i went with the newer super susan instead! those magic corner things are cool but i think the susan holds and is easier to use.

thank you for the suggestion ardcp, but i really hate susans. my mom has one and the pots and pans have caused it to sag over the years making turning difficult and i always feel sort of crouched down when trying to get anything out of there. i think it's my own personal hang up about them because people do seem to find them quite useful.

you do bring up a good point about the magic corners not holding very much. i couldn't really find that many reviews here from magic corner users. i'm wondering if i should nix one of the magic corner blind cabinets and just turn it into another 18" drawer base (losing the blind cabinet space). ugh i'm so confused.

i hear you about the old lazy susans. i had the pie shaped kind with the pole in the middle and i liked it ok but it was nothing like the super susans of today. mine has no pole in the middle and takes up almost the whole cabinet so the shelves are huge.
another solution is to do the corner cabinet with no susan just shelves. someone on this site did that and loves it..i think it was debrak2008.
other people have done drawers and blocked off the corner. my corner was too tight for that to work.

a few here have left the corners dead and put drawers on both sides of it.

do any of your corners share a wall with another room? If so, you could have the dead space open into that room with drawers or doors.

Any advice on how deep the drawers should be? How deep should a drawer be for one of those slanted spice jar inserts?

Drawer owners,

Are any of you concerned about your drawers being TOO WIDE? More size = more weight. I'm wondering if at some point too much weight becomes a problem /destroys the drawers?

Someone on this forum (Romy?) had a too-wide drawer fail due to weight.

We also had to replace a slide because of weight, but the new heavy-duty one is working fine.

MrsPete - a2gemini had drawer failure due to weight.
See her comments in the earlier thread linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Earlier thread about drawer sizes