Fully Desk Drawer Review

[Editors’ Note – April 21, 2023 – MillerKnoll, the $3B parent company of Fully.com, officially shut the company down on April 20th, 2023, after an 18-year run. Indeed, Fully’s phone lines and chat function have already been disabled, and the only way to reach customer service for product support is via email. We first reported this on March 8th after being notified by a number of Fully’s suppliers that the company was discontinuing operations.

Founded by ergonomics industry pioneer David Kahl in 2006, the company – which was originally known as ErgoDepot before a rebranding a few years ago – was acquired by Knoll. Knoll itself was shortly thereafter acquired by Herman Miller. This cataclysmic event is the latest in an ongoing set of challenges the industry has endured since the pandemic.

As a consequence of the company being wound down, we have taken down the scores for all of the Fully products we’ve reviewed to 0.5-star (including the Jarvis Standing Desk, Jarvis Standing L-Desk, Fully Jarvis Reclaimed Wood Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Albright Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Evolve Standing Desk, Fully Remi Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Whiteboard Adjustable-Height Conference Table, Fully Jarvis Bamboo Adjustable-Height Conference Table, Fully Jarvis Tabletops For Standing Desks, Jarvis Monitor Riser, Jarvis Bamboo Desk Drawer, Fully Jarvis Single Monitor Arm, Fully Jarvis Dual Monitor Arm, Fully Jax Single-Display Monitor Arm, Fully Floatdeck Balance Board, Fully Sidekick Mobile File Cabinet, Fully Cable Management Kit and Fully Cable Management Tray). Fully has sadly been added to the Office Fitness Industry Dead Pool.

Ostensibly, Fully’s, “most popular products,” i.e. those that they still have a lot of inventory remaining, are being offered through the Herman Miller and Design Within Reach websites. We checked these listings and they are at full list price, unlikely to be purchased by any savvy shoppers. The nearest alternatives to Fully products are going to be found at iMovR (American-made) and UpLiftDesk (similar Chinese-made products). For more details on the company’s closure, see our article on Is Fully.com Out Of Business?]

For all the great things about switching to a standing desk, losing drawer space is a tough pill to swallow. But there are options. Be sure to check out our full roundup of standing desk storage options (including add-on drawers, standing desks with drawers and file cabinets) to see why standing desks don’t usually have drawers and more details about how you can get some storage back into your active workstation.

The Fully Desk Drawer is one of the cheapest add-on drawers we’ve reviewed and looks like it with a decidedly no-frills plastic and metal construction, as opposed to other options like the Jarvis Bamboo Desk Drawer. It’s very simple with a main compartment and a front section that has four small compartments. Overall, the drawer is 20.5”x13”x1.75” and the main compartment is 18”x8”x1.75”.

The weight capacity is 33 lbs, more than enough for a drawer this size.

A common complaint you’ll see with drawers of this design is that they don’t pull out all the way, and this Fully Desk Drawer is no exception. This is especially true if you install the drawer 1” back from the front edge of the desk as Fully states in the directions. Because of the slim profile of the drawer and this limitation in pulling out, the back half of the drawer will be tough to access and it could also be hard to get a tablet in or out of the drawer.

A workaround would be to install the drawer even with the front edge of the desk, giving you an extra 1” of access. This helps but doesn’t completely solve the problem. It also makes the drawer more visible, which may or may not bother you.

Assembly

There’s no template for where to drill holes, so you have to hold the drawer up on the bottom of your desktop, position it exactly where you want it, mark the holes, then pre-drill them. Check out the full assembly instructions from Fully to see all of the steps.

If the drawer is going on a new desk, or you don’t mind taking everything off your desk, the process would be easier with the desk flipped over. Whether you flip the desk over or not, we always recommend using a drill bit with a depth-setting collar to make sure you don’t drill through your desktop and destroy it.

Measure, Measure, Measure

Fully says on the drawer product page that it is compatible with all Jarvis desktops except the 30”x24” grommeted top, but that seems a little optimistic. We heartily endorse getting a tape measure and actually seeing how the drawer will work on your specific desk before purchasing. There are too many desk models with too many different configurations of crossbars, power units, etc.

Even if the drawer fits, it’s helpful to see how it will change your desk space. Will it hang down too low and bump your knees? Will it affect your ability to rotate your keyboard tray to stow away?

The Takeaway

The Fully Desk Drawer is decent, simple and cheap. It can be hard to tell exactly what usable space you’re getting and if the drawer will work with your workstation, so make sure you measure beforehand.

Don’t Stop Here

Standing desk storage is an excellent place to start but it’s best to think of your ergonomic setup as a work in progress. There are always ways to improve. Check our in-depth reviews on standing desks, keyboard trays, monitor arms, ergonomic seating, cable management and standing mats.

Frequently Bought with Standing Desk Storage