They're already kind of in the habit of using the laundry room. We have hooks in there but they're overloaded, and most things usually end up in the living room where they sit to take shoes off. We also have shoe storage in the "Harry potter closet" in the living room. But that's getting reconfigured too. So I'll be thrilled if the shoes don't live in there. It smells like feet. 8-p

Anyway, here's our packed to the gills laundry room as it currently stands. A lot of it will be going, either donated to the preschool or in recycling. I was going to take down the modular storage and repurpose an IKEA 5x5 expedit shelf as storage, and cubbies, but at 15", I think it's too deep. We will either find or build something that's 10-12" deep instead. If the door goes, I am envisioning putting a couple of hooks immediately to the right for aprons and *my* purse, and to keep the path to the powder room clear

We NEVER close the laundry room door, but we do have a curtain that hides the clutter from guests using the powder room. So that's why I was thinking of taking the door down and putting mudroom style cubbies along the right. Not ideal, as it would only allow a bit more than 2' walkway, but it's mostly me going past, and it's as much as I have now, and it's not great but it's OK.

I would leave the bathroom hall open and consider stacking a washer and dryer in your laundry room to gain storage. I might like a pocket door between the bath hallway and the laundry room. You could close it for company and use the door to block noise from the laundry room.

Can you steal 8-12" from the dining room wall that's next to the laundry walkway for the cubbies and shelves? (Bump into the dining area from the laundry). If not, you could consider doing between the studs shelves for pantry storage along that long wall. You can fit a lot of canned and boxed goods in shelves between the studs, one can deep.

I wouldn't make the hall narrower--I don't know if that would pass safety code, and carrying laundry baskets would be more difficult.

Not what you are asking, but that space behind the stools looks TIGHT! Is there any way to shrink the depth of the pantry? In a former kitchen we had a 48" pantry section that was 15"-16" deep to accommodate an electrical panel on the other side of the wall. That thing held a ton and we didn't lose anything because of the shallower depth.

What are the dimensions of that laundry/bathroom/mudroom area? Is it posted somewhere else? I would leave some breathing room to the right of the entry for sure.

@clueless, there is actually 42" between the counter and the pantry wall. And we're doing bypass doors, specifically so I don't have to move people sitting there to open the pantry.

The hall alongside the bathroom is 40". There are an additional 6" between the wall and appliances once you get past the bathroom. So with a 10" deep shelf, it would still leave plenty of room to pass. It's not a through way, just in and out for primarily me. However, we do plan to live here forever, so storage here will be modular or freestanding so we can change it easily as our requirements change. Like finally having both girls grown out of Girl Scouts so I can retire from my post as "assistant troop leader in charge of pretty much everything creative" and get rid of troop craft supplies.

This is the only really usable storage we have on the ground floor other than kitchen cabinets and the bathroom vanity. We do have a closet under the stairs, but the configuration of the walls in there makes it unbelievably bad. That's a project for another time. Not using it is not an option

@karenseb: I don't like front loaders so can't stack

@laughable: this is arts and crafts and cleaning supplies and rain boots and cake decorating and indoor tool storage. Pantry will be in the kitchen.

Why don't the walls from the exterior line up on that wall? Why can't you use a barn door do add a little style to the entrance of the mud room? It looks like you have space for that. I think that space planning in the mud room would be very useful with the amount of stuff you have to store.

I wasn't really ready to plan the laundry room just yet. Organizationally, it's going to be huge and were about to start our kitchen. The reason the walls don't line up is because this plan was really about the kitchen, and I just sort of threw the laundry room on there so I would have the complete ground floor, with the peripheral rooms being more placeholders than anything else.

The question I was really looking for some help with *at this point* is whether to keep space for hooks next to the back door, or to reclaim that space for the pantry and keep *all* the storage in the laundry room.

Also, our home is not in a style suitable to barn door, and it would require moving the back door over a few inches to allow it to open completely . Also, we've lived here 7 years and I can't remember closing that door a single time. It's most useful as back of the door storage for hanging the broom and my aprons

Thanks to everyone for all the input so far.

I posted these on a different thread, http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4352415/layout-help-please,

but my hallway is 39"ish wide with the shelf for hats, gloves 7" at its deepest. Both entry doors open away from the hall. I think an in-swing (sp?) door would make it feel tighter. Sorry the photos are huge. I would step back the pantry in order to make the entry feel more spacious.

Clueless, that's gorgeous. I used to live in a tiny post-war ranch in Arvada, just outside Denver, and we pulled up old carpet and painstakingly cleaned all the sticky residue off the wood floors. I miss them. In Houston now, and on a slab, so 2 1/4" oak is just a dream. On the other hand, most winter days don't require more than a light jacket, so we don't get anything like your coat pileup.

Thanks townlakecakes! Although I've revealed/refinished a few wood floors in my day, I can't take any credit for these, but I sure do enjoy them.

I just wanted to show you what a same size hall looks like, we even have a bathroom half way down.

If you'd like to keep a door on the hall for the occasions you want to close off any chaos, one thing you could do would be to split a solid wood door down the middle so that you only "lose" a half door's width on your storage wall. I hate wending my way around things, so you can take the following FWIW. I think that mama goose had a really good point about narrow hallways and laundry baskets. You might only have 12" cubbies, but in my house we have a lot of spillover and those 12" would fast turn into 15". I personally would want my laundry workspace easy to get to since it's a place I use more than I like. If you are going to put in cubbies, I'd put them further down the hall or hang baskets from the wall for small items. Hooks are my friend :)

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Or something like these with built in art work frames :)

cluelessincolorado, thank you for the pic of the Historic House. I'd seen pictures of the kitchen, but I'd never seen other pics of the house. I love every room, the porch, and the yard!