One shouldn't be this excited over shelves

Emily Sue, prepare to be amazed.

A few years ago, I saw on people's blogs the "Mud Rooms" they were making in their new homes and home renovations.  On a few different blogs, I saw some great vertical doorless locker-like storage units, one for each person in the family, with places to store everything that usually gets discarded in the afternoon trudge from car to kitchen table after school, work or sports practice: shoes, hats, bags, etc.

I'd picked out the ideal place for a Mud Room in our old house, but when we moved I was glad I hadn't gone to the bother and expense.  In our new house, I tossed the idea around in my mind for a full 12 months before I got to work.  The end result is AMAZING!

Remember "before"?  Shoe shelves with two boxes of hats on top.  This is also before the shoes, bags and hats started overflowing and also before the grass and dirt and leaves made the whole deal look pretty ordinary.

And now, things look more like this:

That's what's got me all excited this week.

Each person has one vertical "locker".  My basic requirement for the width was that they had to fit two pairs of men's shoes side-by-side.  Only five 45cm-wide lockers fit in the space so we don't have a spare one for general family stuff, but that stuff seems to fit into spots that otherwise wouldn't be used.

The things I particularly like are the places for everything (even my shopping bags and the umbrellas), the top four adjustable shelves so that each person can arrange it how they want (including a skinny shelf for Buzz's homework folder and library bag), the way that everyone now has their own hat box and space for shoes, and the space at the top for more storage - we're using it for picnic things at the moment.

I asked a cabinetmaker to make this for me.  He was able to make all the dimensions perfect for the space available (avoiding the roller door), and when at the eleventh hour I discovered that the garage floor slopes down towards outside, the man installing it said "No problem!" and cut the base so the shelves were perfectly level (taller at the left and shorter at the right.)  It wasn't cheap, but my Friday afternoons at work since Easter covered the total cost.

Aah, sigh.  My Mud Room.  Less mud, a whole lot more room!

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Interesting fact: during the measuring, quoting, check-measuring and installation, I worked with three cabinetmakers, and I noticed that only one of them had his full compliment of fingers and thumbs.  Is the loss of the left Peter Pointer finger a common hazard among cabinetmakers?  I will have to ask Alison.