I know a lovely family in Moraga—I like to call them a “super family.” They all participate in everything. Their son plays basketball and baseball with the Lafayette Moraga Youth Association, their daughter is a cheerleader on top of violin lessons and soccer, and the parents are both members of the East Bay Volleyball League and attend a Monday night book club. Their lives are jam-packed, and they apparently experience an almost daily struggle to get everyone organized and out the door on time.
The scramble to find cleats, shin guards, copies of The Secret Life of Bees, jackets, and shoes was an obvious stress point for the entire family until I offered a suggestion—a way to stay organized, declutter the house, and simplify the process of coming and going. Here’s how we did it.
The Locker Room Concept
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| Custom cabinetry can transform your garage. |
| Image from Valet Custom Closets & Cabinets. |
The basic idea was to create a mudroom/locker room in an area of the garage near the door, giving everyone a place to take off dirty shoes and sports gear before entering the house. But we took it one step further and designed individual lockers that met the needs of each family member. This wasn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.
We kept the bottom area of Dad’s locker open so he could fit both his golf clubs and his volleyball gear, with an upper shelf for his softball glove and smaller accessories. Our design for Mom was more balanced, with multiple shelves—one for volleyball, one for gardening, one for book club. We gave their daughter hooks for pompoms, with shelving at the bottom for music books and shin guards. For their son, we left enough space for a couple baseball bats in the middle, a glove up top, and a slide-out chrome basket for his basketball and baseballs at the bottom.
Making it Easy to Get out the Door (and Back in)
Since everyone has their own locker, they now know exactly where things are. This saves a lot of time. No more running frantically around the house looking for knee pads when they should have already been on the road.
We also installed some custom bench seating right next to their lockers, giving the whole family a place to sit and put on shoes. And the shoes themselves are now easy to find thanks to the shoe shelves we added right underneath the bench. The shelves are adjustable and can hold everything from running shoes for hitting up the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail to rain boots for the occasional wet afternoon all in one spot.
This setup also keeps everyone organized (and the house clean!) when they get back. They’ve instituted a “no shoes in the house” rule, so all footwear gets put back on those shoe shelves before anyone goes inside. And their beautiful new epoxy floor means any dirt collected in the garage can easily be washed away.
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| Epoxy floors allow for easy clean up when you’ve tracked in a little too much mud on your soccer cleats. |
| Image from Valet Custom Cabinets & Closets. |
We added a few finishing touches kept their days running smoothly: we left space above their shoe bench for a key rack and a bulletin board with a calendar for tracking practices and game days (really helpful for coordinating their driving schedule, since the kids aren’t old enough for their permits). We also designed a custom cabinet with roll-out shelving to store little extras they tend to need throughout the week, like hand sanitizer and tissues, and packaged snacks and extra bottled water for when they’re running late for practice.
Create an Organizational Gateway to Your Home
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| Individualized spaces and plenty of storage. |
| Image from Valet Custom Cabinets & Closets. |
Personalized lockers are a fantastic way for each member of the family to have space for all of their gear. A mudroom with custom cabinetry in your garage creates an organizational gateway to your home, simplifying the process of coming and going. And there are many such ways to create the perfect custom garage.
If your Moraga family lives a busy life and struggles to keep track of everything as you run around town, you might just benefit from a similar setup. Let us know what kind of activities you need to coordinate and we can help design a custom garage storage system suited to your particular needs. Call us anytime to get started.
Valet Custom Cabinets & Closets designs, manufactures and installs custom organizational solutions that enhance the functionality of your living space while complementing the décor of your home.
Our talented design team creates unique solutions tailored to your specific needs, style, and budget. We are independently owned and a direct manufacturer.
Our areas of specialty include Home Offices, Wall Beds, Media Centers, Closets, Pantries, Garage Cabinetry, and much more.
Exceptionally Designed & Styled * Expertly Crafted with 5-Star Execution
About Larry Fox, President
Larry is a graduate of the University of Southern California School Of Business. After receiving his degree he returned to the Bay Area and spent 18 years working in his family’s 100+ year old metals recycling business. Upon the sale of that business in 2000, Larry and his wife Audrey purchased Valet. Larry has become a leader in the industry and is a past president of the National Closet Group. Larry loves turning people’s dreams into reality, and remains as enthusiastic about the business today as he was when he first acquired it. View Larry's Houzz Page.
