I'm working on the same thing, just finishing kitchen but still needing a good plan for laundry/mud/pantry which is all part of the same flow, so I don't know how much help I can be. I did lurk on Laundry and decided it's not really a place that would give much layout help; this is definitely a better forum for layouts, and it's connected to the kitchen physically and functionally so it makes as much sense to ask here as anywhere.

Just have to ask... are you a Tarheel? I am not born but definitely bred and wed.

I hope you don't mind if I embed the aerial view to make it easier.

About your layout, it looks great, looks like an awesome space for laundry and mud purposes. Just a couple of things:

- How will laundry be delivered/sorted/processed in that space? Have you walked through how you want the kids to bring their clothes to you and pick them up when finished? Unless you have something built in, the clothes will potentially pile up in front of the garage entrance or the pocket doorway to the kitchen.
- I would also think carefully about the setup of the kids' locker area for the same reason. Being that close to the door, unless you have it carefully planned and specified to the kids how it is to be used and they are really good about following those kinds of boundaries, their stuff is likely to spill out off from that location into the doorway. (I am speaking only from experience of what my kids would do with their stuff. That would not be a good setup for us but it may work for you.) If that is the best location for it, I would look at lots of examples and walk it through to figure out how best to contain their stuff. It could be that that area is bigger than it appears in the drawing and it will be plenty of space.

This is only if it were my space, what I would do to make it function best:
- Move the W/D to the middle of the run
- Where the kids' space is, place a laundry sorting system (unless the garage door is in constant use)
- Where the tall cabinet in the laundry is, have a space for coats
- Under the window in the laundry room, place a bench with baskets/drawers underneath for shoes, one for each child; in the right corner (where the W/D are now), built-in shelves for more shoes, books, laundry supplies, etc.

I see what you are saying about the kid area! Thanks! I wonder if I put

Not sure what happened to my long post above but it's gone!! Thanks for the advice. I am struggling with where to put the dirty clothes..I thought about deleting a cabinet to the right of the W?D and using a wheeled cart for clothes. You're right about the clothes piling up...they do now where it's located.
I'm going to play with your ideas on paper for moving the W/D. I'm not sure I can..the space is a lot tighter than it appears on the drawing.

I think I am being wicked naive to think my kids will use the cubbies the way I intend, certainly not without consequences!'

Yes, I am a Tarheel!!! Actually born in TX but grew up in NC and went to school at Chapel Hill. How about you????

IÂm trying to work on this as well. IÂm going to have an open (no doors) 30" base cabinet for laundry baskets  one for each of the 4 family members. It will use a lot of space, but I think it will alleviate the laundry mess as this will be the familyÂs main entrance.

Another idea that worked well in our last home - the cabinets above the machines  we installed doors for shorter units  leaving the bottom section of the cabinet open  sort of like a microwave cabinet. This way, we can buy the large detergents from CostCo and easily dispense them. Does this make sense?

Oh! IÂm also going to use a pull-out broom closet. I think this will get a lot in a small space. Are you familiar with these? I can post a picture if you are not.

My main struggle is trying to decide how much space on the wall opposite the machines to give to the kidÂs cubbies. This wall will also be my pantry. IÂm in S Cali, so not much mud, hats, mittens, etc  but there are still backpacks, sports, and musical instruments to plan for.

I originally planned for my cubby area to be near a doorway and was so glad that I ended up moving it. The WORST place for the cubbies is right next to where you are trying to get in and out. It's like everything gets jammed into a 3x3' space when you are trying to get in the car. Shoes are getting put on, backpacks grabbed and everyone is standing in the same 3 feet! We had this experience at our temporary housing and I quickly realized what a mistake it was for us to be near the door. I moved the cubbies to an area where there will be plenty of walkway and room for "staging".

One comment about that long counter--you may love to fold in your laundry room and it would be a wonderful use of space then, but if you decide not use all that counter space, there is someone here on the laundry room forum that put built in cabinets (not the pedestal kind you buy), but actual drawers/cubbies UNDER their washer and dryer and put their laundry baskets under the w/d. It looked like a great use of space. Or you can put open shelving for laundry baskets behind the garage entry door (where the sink is). That way when you open the door, you immediately hide your dirty laundry :)

I too think that a bench under the window with shoe cubbies and towers on either side for coat cubbies, is a better place for the kids area. Then move the w/d more toward the middle of that run.

We are most definitely UNC alumnae and fans, especially DH!

That's strange about your long post. I wonder if somehow just before you posted you accidentally highlighted and hit a button.

I was playing with your layout but would like to know before going much further, because I find myself going in so many different directions.

- Are all walls, windows, doorways and plumbing set or can any of it be moved?
- Can the two rooms be one?
- What are the measurements of W/D and length of walls?
- What else will the space be used for besides drop zone, file drawers, sorting laundry for washing and for folding (two separate areas, kids' storage, coats and shoes?
- How much do you want/need to close things off behind cabinet doors? Open shelving might work better in a tight space but the problem is figuring out how you will contain what you store there. It can look very nice with baskets, but reality may be different (as you say, the kids don't always follow our expectations for our spaces!). But open shelves may also provide more flexibility.

At the very least, if you could switch the drop zone/file area and kids' area, it might make it flow better, even if everything else needs to stay in place. But I think if any of those elements could be moved, you have a lot of flexibility to make it an awesome, functional space.

I've been trying to send this all day and have been interrupted in one way or another. I'll give more thoughts if you can answer some of those questions, though it's not from expertise or experience, but just having thought through it for my own space.

Thanks for the awesome advice ladies. I have been away from the forums..we were out of town dealing with family illness. ANyway, on a brighter note..back to the reno!

Jeri: I am not familiar with the designated broom closet thingy. I would love to see it. I am having a closet set up for that in my kitchen area, too.

FirstHouse: Any idea who it was that put the cubbies underneath? I'd love to see pictures. I can somewhat visualize since my current W/D is up on a pedestal but curious how useful they would be if I had to stand on my head to see in them. YKWIM? I am getting nervous abt the 3x3 space. I guess I never thought abt that! I am so thrilled to be getting it changed, I am blinded to the downsides...

Jsweenc: Thank you for your thoughts...Where are u in NC? We r in CHarlotte...been here abt 5 years after being out in the midwest for most of our married life.DH is a USC alum/fan so we have the running.."real" Carolina discussion a lot! Of course, there really isn't any discussion since *we* know the answer!
Anyway, you are very kind to play with my layout. That wall between the two rooms already exists. We had just planned to cut a hole in it for the door. The front part (where the powder room will go) is my current laundry room and the back part (cubbies) is a storage room that backs up to the laundry room. We are stealing that space from the garage if you will.
The back wall is approx 10 ft wide. W/D are standard front loaders at 27" but GC said allow 30" for each one. Not a lot of space. It looks a lot bigger on paper!!
We are moving our entrance to the house to back area from a door that is currently on the other side of the commode wall in the drawing. I am putting a coat closet there.So I will have additional storage for coats besides the ONE they are to put in the cubbie.(yeah, right...I'll need to do an inservice with the kids on that!)
I am not married to closing everything off in cabinets. I am leaning toward wanting to close my laundry area off from the powder room with a pocket door though. I'd like to think my LR will be neat and clean but it really never is.I suffer from CHAOS which is an acronym for "Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome" because my house is always a mess.I feel like that back area will suffer the most even with additional storage.
I thought about switching the kid's zone to the file drawer area but worried about the mess. I also have that window right in the middle.
Both of those windows currently exist and moving them would require a lot of additional expense.
I toyed with the idea of putting the powder room on the window side but figured it would make it dark down the hallway. That would free up cubbie space on the other side.

I'd LOVE to hear what you guys think about all of this....My GC emailed me yesterday and wants to finalize things next week!!!!! Yikes....I'm getting a little panicky...

This looks like a great space -- very nice! I think the pocket door is a terrific idea; when you have guests they will use the powder room (unless there is another on the 1st floor), and you won't have to worry about the state of the laundry room.

Which way does the garage door swing open -- into the laundry room or into the garage? If it swings toward the garage, then I'd actually like the cubbies where they are and a bench across from them, and the sink under the window with the W/D moved down. I want my kids and all their friends to take off their shoes as soon as they come in the door, so I like the bench by the door. If the door swings open into the LR, then the bench there won't work. (Is there room for the door be fixed to swing open into the garage?)

One of my friends has open shelves/big cubbies in her LR which were built to hold laundry baskets. She has 3: darks, lights, delicates/cold wash. Her kids have to sort their laundry into those or it doesn't get washed.

The door swings into the laundry room. I questioned that with my GC and he said it really needs to open inward because it inside our garage. He said you don't want to have to "reach out" to close the door once you are inside.
Actually, I think he was thinking about my 3 children and the fact they would probably throw the door open against the back wall!!

I have given some thought to the basket idea, too. It would certainly save me some money in cabinet costs since the doors are the most expensive thing....

I hadn't thought about the sink under the window and move the W/D down. I'd have to look at the space between the door opening and how much clearance I would have with one of the W/D doors open....

Thx for the ideas....

SandBox5 - I started a thread about pull-out broom closets, so click on that if you want to read more about them. This picture is from These pull-out broom closets take only 6 inches of cabinet space yet hold so many broom closet items. Plus  they have the "cool" factor going for them. :-)

Oh, you are a FlyLady fan! : ) I used to but fell off. Big time. We are in Durham, but I was in Charlotte all last week with the kids at my mom's (southeast, backs up to Raintree golf course) while our floors were being done. We have a nephew at USC but his parents are light blue!

Good question, chicagoans! I was assuming the door opened into the space, but it's not obvious in the pic, and now that you mention it, ours opens into the garage.

It was clairedeluna who has the cubbies under her w/d. Pretty neat.

[Sorry, I started working on this response a long time ago. Then baby fell and knocked her sippy cup into two of her teeth so we had to make sure they weren't so loose that they were going to fall out. (DH is a dentist, so at least we didn't have to go anywhere, just call and tell him to come on home.) I think she will be fine, but there's nothing we can do but wait and see.]

Anyway, I do have thoughts for you and I'm sorry I can't post them tonight. In fact, our GC is coming tomorrow to get started on our laundry/mud/pantry area, so I've had to be thinking about that. However, this photo I had saved made me think of your space. Here is the URL sorry no active links.

http://jfheartclinic.com/wxcUser/0009/Undersink-Curtain-Laundry-Room-GTL0207-de.jpg

I could see doing something like that, or keeping the sink where it is, moving W/D down as discussed before, just enough to put a bench under window, and turning that tall cabinet into a tall cubby (into which each child WILL hand the one coat, given excellent instruction by mom!). Shoes could go in baskets or shelves under bench. Then your drop zone could be beside the door as you walk in, or you could keep the drop zone where it is, using some of the cabinet space there to make up for the loss between the sink and W/D and have just hooks for coats by the door.

One other quick thought: at first I thought powder room swap was a great idea, but in looking at it, I can't see any functional difference, especially if you are putting kid zone in there. It has the same proximity to whatever is through the left doorway (kitchen?), except perhaps line of sight. If that hides it enough, then I would vote for throwing a bunch of lighting up there and doing it that way.

Sorry it's all jumbled! Hope it helps some. I'll keep tuning in and answer when I can.

Here is a link that might be useful: Luna Laundry System

First time I've been on a site like this. Great ideas. I may have missed this as an option, but it seems that the W/D,laundry sink,folding counter with dirty laundry bins underneath should be in the room adjacent to the rest of the house. You could put a swing door (like the old ones you would see between a kitchen and dining room) in the open doorway. This could stay open when just the family was home and closed when you have company.

The adult staging area could be behind the door that opens from the garage(instead of the kids cubbies). The remainder of the current laundry room area could be bench, cubbies,closet, etc. in the shape of an L. You wouldn't have people blocking the doorway, grabbing coats, boots, backpacks,etc., as mentioned earlier. Plus, your clean laundry would stay clean until it's put away(not being IN the mudroom).

Can't wait to see your final design. I'm looking forward to our first mudroom! We're in the planning stages right now.