Maximize Cabinet Space When Storing All Your Coffee Mugs With One Simple Adjustment

Got a large collection of mugs for your hot morning beverages? If so, you know just how tricky it is to organize this drinkware neatly. Many coffee mug owners choose to tuck them away in a kitchen cabinet. This is a smart storage option that allows you to hide the mugs out of sight and off of your countertops. However, you'll want to make sure that you're making the most out of that cabinet space if you choose to place your mugs there. Thankfully, you can maximize cabinet space when storing all of your coffee mugs with one simple adjustment. All you have to do is slide your shelves out and move them up or down to accommodate the height of your mugs.

You might find that some of your mugs are short (such as the wildly popular chubby mugs) and some are taller. Consider moving your shelves to create a shorter section for those short mugs. This storage hack will allow you to utilize every inch of cabinet space, and after shortening one section, you'll be able to create a larger storage section for your taller mugs. You can also then store tall reusable water bottles and any other tall kitchen items there as well. After moving the shelving to create more space, you may even find that you have enough room to add additional shelves to your cabinets.

Typically, removing and rearranging kitchen cabinet shelving is an easy, straightforward process. For most cabinets, you'll need to start out by locating the four plastic clips on either end of the shelf you want to move. Next, press the top half of those clips inward to release the shelf. You can then remove the shelf by pulling it straight out. At this point, you'll need to remove the plastic clips and place them a few notches up or down, depending on where you plan to move your shelf to. If the peg at the end of a clip breaks off inside of the hole it's installed in, you can remove it by pushing a nail inside and using pliers to pull it out.

To slide your shelf back into place inside of the clips, push it into your cabinet right above the clips. Use your hand to slam the shelf in place. You should hear a snapping sound that confirms it popped into the opening in the middle of the clip. After rearranging your shelving using those steps, you can place your drinkware into your cabinet however you desire and enjoy your upgraded coffee mug storage.

Depending on the kitchen cabinet style and types of shelves you have, you may need to either take a different approach to this hack or skip it all together. If you have sliding shelves or drawers that are attached to your cabinets via a track, for example, this hack isn't all that practical. Sure, you can remove the drawer from the track, but there's only one track for each drawer. With traditional cabinet shelves, there are multiple notches so that you can adjust your shelves as needed. This makes the sliding shelf cabinet type incompatible with the mug storage hack.

Wire shelves are another popular shelf type found within kitchen cabinets. This design typically works well with this hack. Just lift the shelves upward to remove the attached prongs from the holes. You can then slide the shelf into higher or lower holes by the prongs to adjust the height. Just make sure the shelves have snapped into place before storing your mugs on them — the last thing you want is a bunch of shattered drinkware.