Después de cenar, mi abuela guardó el escurridor, el pelador y el batidor en el cajón de abajo.

Because después de is a fixed pattern: después de + noun or después de + infinitive.

Here, cenar is an infinitive, so de is required:

• después de cenar = after having dinner / after dinner

Compare:

• después de la cena = after dinner (using a noun phrase)
• después de comer = after eating
• después del trabajo = after work

So después cenar is ungrammatical because de cannot be left out here.

In Spanish, after many prepositions, a verb stays in the infinitive rather than changing form.

So:

• después de cenar
• antes de salir
• sin decir nada

English often uses -ing in these situations:

• after eating
• before leaving
• without saying anything

Spanish uses the infinitive instead:

• después de cenar
• antes de salir
• sin decir nada

Guardó is the pretérito indefinido (preterite) of guardar for él/ella/usted.

In this sentence:

• mi abuela guardó = my grandmother put away / stored

This tense is used for a completed action in the past. It sounds like one finished event:

• After dinner, she put those things away.

The forms are:

• yo guardé
• tú guardaste
• él/ella/usted guardó
• nosotros guardamos
• vosotros guardasteis
• ellos/ellas/ustedes guardaron

The accent in guardó matters, because it shows stress and helps distinguish it from guardo:

• guardo = I put away / I keep
• guardó = he/she put away / kept

Yes, Spanish could leave it out:

• Después de cenar, guardó el escurridor, el pelador y el batidor en el cajón de abajo.

That would still be grammatical, because the verb form guardó already tells you the subject is he/she/usted.

However, Spanish often includes the subject when:

• it introduces a new person
• it adds clarity
• it gives emphasis
• it sounds more natural in context

So mi abuela guardó... is perfectly normal and clear.

Spanish often repeats the article in lists, especially when listing individual objects clearly.

So this is very natural:

• el escurridor, el pelador y el batidor

You may sometimes see the article only once in other contexts, but repeating it is common and often sounds more precise.

It helps show that these are three separate utensils, not one grouped expression.

They are all nouns formed from verbs and often refer to tools or objects used for an action.

• escurridor comes from escurrir = to drain
• pelador comes from pelar = to peel
• batidor comes from batir = to whisk / beat

This -dor ending is common in Spanish for instruments or agents:

• abridor = opener
• secador = dryer / hairdryer
• aspirador = vacuum cleaner

So a learner can often guess that -dor words are connected to doing an action.

Not in the computer/money sense. Here guardar means something like:

• to put away
• to store
• to put back in its place

That is a very common everyday use in Spanish, especially with household objects:

• Guardar la ropa
• Guardar los platos
• Guardar los juguetes

So in this sentence, it means your grandmother put away those kitchen tools.

De abajo means the one below / the lower one / the bottom one.

So:

• el cajón de abajo = the bottom drawer / the lower drawer

This structure is very common in Spanish:

• la habitación de arriba = the room upstairs / the room above
• el piso de abajo = the flat downstairs
• la balda de arriba = the shelf above

Using de abajo identifies which drawer it is.

If you said just:

• en el cajón abajo that would sound unnatural here.

Yes. Some alternatives are possible, for example:

• el cajón inferior = the lower drawer
• el cajón de abajo = the drawer below / the bottom drawer

But el cajón de abajo sounds very natural and everyday in spoken Spanish.

Inferior is correct, but it can sound slightly more formal or descriptive than what many people would say in ordinary conversation.

Because Spanish normally does not use the article with a noun that already has a possessive determiner.

So:

• mi abuela = my grandmother
• mi casa = my house
• su coche = his/her car

Not:

• la mi abuela in standard modern Spanish

However, with family members in general statements, Spanish often uses the article when there is no possessive:

• La abuela guardó los utensilios.
• Mi abuela guardó los utensilios.

Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things in context.

Yes. Spanish word order is flexible, especially with time phrases.

These are all possible, depending on style and emphasis:

• Después de cenar, mi abuela guardó el escurridor, el pelador y el batidor en el cajón de abajo.
• Mi abuela guardó, después de cenar, el escurridor, el pelador y el batidor en el cajón de abajo.
• Mi abuela guardó el escurridor, el pelador y el batidor en el cajón de abajo después de cenar.

The original version is very natural because it sets the time first:

• Después de cenar...

That is a common way to structure a sentence.

The stress falls on the last syllable in both words because of the written accent:

• guardó → guar-DÓ
• cajón → ca-JÓN

A few pronunciation notes for Spain Spanish:

• gu in guardar has a hard g sound, like in go
• j in cajón is the strong throaty Spanish sound
• the written accent tells you where the stress goes

Without the accent:

• guardo would be stressed differently: GUAR-do

So the accents are important for both pronunciation and meaning.

Yes, it works well in Spain Spanish.

A few notes:

• cajón is completely standard in Spain.
• guardar in the sense of put away is very common in Spain.
• The utensil words are understandable, though exact kitchen vocabulary can vary somewhat by region or by what exact object you mean.

So the whole sentence sounds natural for Spanish from Spain.

Yes. Tras cenar is grammatical and means the same thing:

• Tras cenar, mi abuela guardó...

But después de cenar is usually more neutral and common for learners to hear and use.

So:

• después de cenar = very common, straightforward
• tras cenar = also correct, a bit more compact in style

It can, but it is not necessary. Después de cenar already gives the sequence clearly.

The sentence simply states:

1. dinner happened
2. then the grandmother put the utensils away

Spanish often leaves the sequence implied by the time expression, without adding extra linking words.

You could say:

• Después de cenar, mi abuela guardó...

and that already sounds complete and natural.