We don’t have a dedicated mudroom, and our garage door — the primary entry — opens directly into the kitchen. During our kitchen remodel we squeezed mudroom function into the layout by installing tall cabinets with doors next to the garage entry — they look like pretty lockers and hide all the clutter. If you have a small space but need mudroom storage, cabinetry with doors is a great option. After living with these “mudroom lockers” for more than two years, we realized a few simple tweaks would make them much more useful.
(Yes, those are Sherry’s shoes, jeans, fleece, and a similar purse shown.)
Our Mudroom Cabinetry Set-Up
To orient you: the garage door is our main entrance, and the two tall cabinets beside it serve as our mini mudroom. Each cabinet runs floor to ceiling and has two doors, so each of the four of us has a side. The kids’ side has hooks for jackets and backpacks and a bin underneath for shoes. It gets messy sometimes, but it’s extremely functional — much better than our old routine of dumping shoes into a dusty basket in the middle of the kitchen and trekking to the coat closet for everything else. Tip: keeping a basket of socks in the mudroom makes getting out the door much faster because no one has to run upstairs for socks.
Above the kids’ lockers we store winter accessories in labeled bins — scarves, hats, and gloves — and only bring them down when they’re in season. Most of the year they stay tucked away, keeping the space tidy.
Identifying Our Organization Issue
Our side of the lockers used the same setup for two years: hooks, a shelf, and shoe baskets. Over time it stopped working well for us. Our coats are longer now and would bunch or wrinkle where they hit the shelf below. The shoe bins were too small or awkward — one bin could only hold about three of my shoes, which wasn’t helpful, and Sherry’s smaller shoes got so crowded it was hard to grab a pair without pulling the whole basket out. The kids’ shoes could also slide out with a slight tip. What worked for the kids didn’t suit the adults.
The solution seemed obvious — move the shelves — but the original shelves were placed at the highest and lowest pre-drilled holes in the cabinet, so we hadn’t adjusted them during the renovation. We were tired back then and left it as-is. A couple years later it felt like a simple weekend fix.
Adding More Shelving Storage
We marked the new shelf location with blue painter’s tape, making sure everything was level and vertically aligned with the holes above. Painter’s tape protects the cabinet finish and helps prevent veneer from splintering when you drill. You can buy shelf pin templates or jigs, but we used a simple ruler and tape to mark our measurements.
To match the existing shelf pin holes, I tried various drill bit sizes in one of the factory holes until I found the right diameter. Then I marked the depth with tape on the drill bit so I wouldn’t drill through the cabinet side. Once the mark met the surface, I stopped drilling — the new holes matched the original ones in size and depth.
We bought a small pack of shelf pegs from the hardware store since the cabinet didn’t have extras. The store didn’t carry the exact click-lock style that came with our cabinets, but inexpensive pegs with a sturdy platform worked fine.
We added two new holes on each side near the bottom and another pair up top so the top shelf and the hooks could be raised. Raising the hooks kept coats from dragging on the shelf below and created space for two shoe shelves at the bottom. We brought an extra shelf down from the attic (you could also cut one from plywood) and installed it. The change made a big difference:
Tip: we keep charcoal odor-absorbing bags in the cabinet to keep shoes and the cubby smelling fresh; just air them in the sun monthly.
Maximizing Mudroom Function
Adding the extra lower shelf let us ditch the shoe bins and store more shoes neatly. Sherry can now keep seven pairs of go-to shoes in the mudroom, and I can stow my three commonly worn pairs. We also found dead space above the top shelf that became useful once we raised it: a small catchall for keys and wallet, a mail holder for gift cards, the alarm pad, the dog leash, and a cedar panel to keep the cubby fresh. The kids’ side has a cedar panel too.
This small update reminded us that living with a solution for a while can reveal better tweaks. It’s fine to leave things for later after a big project; sometimes you need time to notice what would actually work best. When you finally make those changes, the payoff can be surprisingly satisfying — even our dog Burger looked impressed.
We also tape our favorite photos from our custom page-a-day calendar inside the cabinet doors. Each year we make a calendar with 365 photos and share copies with family; at our house we tape favorites up and then swap them out when the new calendar arrives. It’s a small daily ritual that helps us feel connected.
Sometimes the best improvements come from small, thoughtful adjustments. If you’re tackling a similar cabinet or mudroom problem, try living with the space for a bit, then make measured changes — they can add up to a much more functional, organized entryway.
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