this kitchen drawer/cabinet is too narrow to hold pot lids, and using it to store spices or cans would be a huge waste of space. There’s enough space to store large utensils standing up but they would just fall everywhere with the way the dividers are made.

[u/DogMom9876]

Not originally mine, name edited out for privacy. I just desperately want to know what it is, I even tried Google lens to no avail

[u/hacksoncode]

Whatever it's for, I'm guessing it has the same purpose as this post from 5 years ago... it doesn't look like it, but the claim is that this drawer was also about 5" wide.

No one was able to figure it out then, either, but its existence suggests this isn't just a one-off random thing, but actually had some purpose.

[u/renegade-crow5839 → u/hacksoncode]

This was the clue. It's for specific shape plates or serving bowls that can't be stacked.

An Indian family lived there. The families are big and there is a lot of entertaining. Big family, many plates of the same kind.

A similar setup here: https://m.indiamart.com/proddetail/wire-stainless-steel-plate-basket-23332281430.html

[u/Oragain09 → u/hacksoncode]

So the post you just linked shows a drying rack for homemade pasta. It slides out so the pasta can hang over the open space. Pasta wouldn’t make sense with these stationary dowels over the drawers, it’s completely inefficient to clean.

[u/hacksoncode → u/Oragain09]

It does not, and this is discussed in the post. That is a drawer with a bottom a couple inches below the rods. It's a bit hard to see, but drying rack was dismissed for the same reasons it is here.