diff --git a/internal/constants/constants.go b/internal/constants/constants.go
index 8114699..daa1dd8 100644
--- a/internal/constants/constants.go
+++ b/internal/constants/constants.go
@@ -3,9 +3,8 @@ package constants
 import "errors"
 
 func DefaultRWPaths() []string {
-	// Default RW_PATHS to mount
-	// If none defined, your system wont even boot probably
-	return []string{"/var", "/etc", "/srv"}
+	// Default RW_PATHS to mount if not overriden by the cos-layout.env file
+	return []string{"/etc", "/root", "/home", "/opt", "/srv", "/usr/local", "/var"}
 }
 
 var ErrAlreadyMounted = errors.New("already mounted")
diff --git a/pkg/mount/dag_steps.go b/pkg/mount/dag_steps.go
index a53599c..f650d65 100644
--- a/pkg/mount/dag_steps.go
+++ b/pkg/mount/dag_steps.go
@@ -120,9 +120,11 @@ func (s *State) LoadEnvLayoutDagStep(g *herd.Graph) error {
 				return err
 			}
 			// populate from env here
-			s.OverlayDirs = strings.Split(env["RW_PATHS"], " ")
-			// Append default RW_Paths
-			s.OverlayDirs = append(s.OverlayDirs, cnst.DefaultRWPaths()...)
+			s.OverlayDirs = internalUtils.CleanupSlice(strings.Split(env["RW_PATHS"], " "))
+			// Append default RW_Paths if list is empty, otherwise we won't boot properly
+			if len(s.OverlayDirs) == 0 {
+				s.OverlayDirs = cnst.DefaultRWPaths()
+			}
 
 			// Remove any duplicates
 			s.OverlayDirs = internalUtils.UniqueSlice(internalUtils.CleanupSlice(s.OverlayDirs))