Mine is unfashionably (who knew) combined as well. It's one of the most-used and most loved rooms (by me anyway) in the house. My issue is that it's only about 8 x 13 and I had lived in the house part-time for a year when I reconfigured it. We walk through to garage so it serves as side entry. There's a 7 foot open hanging space for coats & jackets adjacent to the door, storage for ironing board and place to hang things that air dry. Along the unbroken wall I've got a d-shape sink (not large enough in retrospect), 1 drawer bank, a wine fridge and washer/dryer all under a 13-foot stretch of unbroken counter. Above I have a 13-foot row of Ikea upper cabinets for overflow dish storage and other things. That counter is major -- everything goes on there. In retrospect I could have done without the wine fridge and had another bank of drawers. We really need a secondary closet downstairs. I find I need to change clothes in there when I go out to the garden, or if I'm around in house sweats and need to run an errand it's handier to change down there than run upstairs, come down, forget something, run back up YKWIM. I have an indoor/outdoor carpet in there that gets vaccuumed super well. When there's ironing, an old sheet helps with the floor issue. Fortunately, I used porcelain tiles in the whole back hallway area. Those are bulletproof so the floors are not an issue even with mud. I find the combo room super handy. I just would love to have it 3 times bigger with a huge bank of drawers so that the summer stuff could be stored during winter and the reverse. Plus I'd love to have a wall with really good light and storage for the sewing machine, mending accessories etc. Without seasons there would be much less pressure on that room in re storage. As for making the rooms separate, I'm one of those people who wants fewer and more efficiently configured spaces. I don't want to run from room to room. One the best spaces I ever had was in a rental house. The owners was an artist who had winterized the attached garage and converted it to a studio. It had big tables, bookshelves, storage plus a separate outdoor entrance. It was big open space and just great. So I'd be very happy with a multi-purpose laundry/mud/sewing/utility/closet/project room as big as the garage. Ha.

Mom of seven here. We farm which means everyone has two full wardrobes of everything: Farm and Town. I have some quick ideas for you, no time to be diplomatic sorry. You need to purge. Dozens of hats are not necessary for six people. Choose two each: one light weight beanie and one really warm toque. Ditto mittens/gloves: one lighter weight for dashing to the grocery store, one heavy pair for skiing etc. Each person's stuff will fit in one basket. No one needs more than one pair of Crocs or flip flops. Those can go on a shoe rack by the door. Put a towel hook over the closet door, that's where everyone can store their towel. Colour coding avoids fights: Payton can't say that Blake stole her towel if hers is yellow and his is green. Bathing suits can be stored where they change. Check out the rental area at your local ski hill. Recreate that storage situation with one set of boots and skis for each. You mentioned that this kind of equipment is stored outside but: I see ski boots! Where you have a hanging rod, instead install a pullout clothes drying rack. Put one over the laundry sink too. The white organizer looks disfunctional in that it seems stuff can tumble out easily and it's too hard to see what's at the bottom of each bin. A basket or drawer on a bench is best in my experience, those cube organizers are ok too but then they have to pull a drawer out and hold it while they search. Instead I would put a deep bench or two under the hooks and set baskets on it. A coffee table actually works well for this. Put boot trays in front of it to catch drips. The hooks are too high for anyone under twelve to reach independently. Lower them for the kids. Add shelves above them. Having said that, I don't see any toddler stuff here. Time for peeps to get responsible.

Most of the time it will be just 2-3 adults with visits from kids and grandkids. Gear will be winter jackets and boots to flip-flops as we experience all 4 seasons. This will be the only real pantry in the house where extra or large pots/pans are planned to be kept, costco-sized food packs, small appliances, toilet paper, small fridge, etc. Laundry room needs to have air drying solution for clothes as well as a wash basin and even some sort of ironing area. Am I asking too much for the amount of space that I have? lol. :-)

We have a washer and dryer nook similar to yours, but ours is in the powder room. When we bought the house, there were bifold closet doors hiding the washer/dryer, which looked great. However, the doors were solid, not louvered, which was against code for our gas dryer, so we removed the doors. We could have put in louvered doors, but a subsequent remodeling project added ductwork so that the bifold doors no longer would have clearance to open enough.  Long story short, I am considering using metal miniblinds or some sort of shade or curtains made of fire-resistant fabric instead. Something like this: