Yeah, a pocket door tucked into that thick doorway space would work nicely! And I agree with keeping the mudroom/laundry area "open" so that light from the window can reach entire area. I suspect you'll find that the washer/dryer don't make enough noise to bother you most of the time. Washers/dryers aren't nearly as noisy as they used to be...unless you're doing something like drying tennis shoes. LOL! They're much better balanced than they used to be and many have "anti-vibration technology" so they don't dance around. Fact is, the vent fan over my cook top makes a whole lot more noise than my washer/dryer. A pocket door that would be totally hidden in a wall you already have anyway should be perfect. Can't wait to see pics when you start building.

I am not a guru but I can give you my opinion. Melanie on the regrets - while trying to minimalize them they still will happen! Flip side is you will likely also have some grrr that ends up turning out different but BETTER than you imagine. IMO stealing the foot makes it much more functional so I would do it in a heartbeat but I am not the expert. It also opens it up and will 'feel' better. I think that's a good spot for a broom closet and charging station and should easily stay tidy. It is about 5' wide yes? That is a nice size space. Measure what you have you want to store in there and then look for pics of what you are thinking. Utility sink in the garage - really in the winter there isn't much dirt and when it's exposed it's frozen too so I'd think the utility sink would get more use in the spring summer fall when it's thawed so I'd keep it on the table too. My opinion - your money. Ha! As far as 'enough room' - it sounds like your kids are younger based solely upon still being in the 'add more' season of life. :) I can tell you only to think seasons, think sports, cleats, basketball shoes, church shoes, boots, hiking shoes, tennis shoes, flops, bats, ball caps, backpacks, lunch boxes, water bottles (if you have girls think even MORE shoes and then purses - ack)........ I will say for my 2 the space we have is more than adequate and it's quite roomy (I just double checked and it's actually 6.5' on a side so each person has 3' plus). That said we also have a closet near that I put off season stuff in and dog food. Winter coats and snow pants and boots are not in the locker area all year. I put them in the closet over spring/summer/fall. As long as you have a spot for that I think you are fine. Off season can closets can always be in the basement as well. There are always sweatshirts hanging and ball caps. Besides that there is always a stray nerf gun, goggles, flash lights and what have you hanging out there. I don't mind it there - it's out of the way and not underfoot! Old house it used to be in their rooms and all over. We had no designated space for outdoor wear anyplace besides bedrooms. If I am feeling brave I will snap a real life pic of it in action. It is easy to pick up and look presentable when needed but typically M-F it's a dumping spot. I like an open bench vs doors because we do use it to sit down to put stuff on and take stuff off regularly. And when our parents come and use that entry they love to be able to sit down to put on and remove shoes. It's comfortable and useful. With your window placement in the bathroom and the exterior door you will find it a nice light filled space. Our exterior door there is 3/4 glass and I love how it lights the hall. It is never a dark space.

In the laundry room in my apartment building's basement, there's a Formica table just for folding clothes. I find that I will fold the clothes as I take them out because there's a table right there to do it on. When I was growing up, we didn't have that in the laundry room--we brought the clothes into the living room (or dining room) and folded them onto the sofa (or dining table--but it was usually busy with other stuff). When we first moved into this apartment, I would bring the clothes upstairs to fold so I could be with my husband instead of downstairs on my own, and fold them onto the couch. But in those "folding onto the couch" situations, the clothes would often not GET folded. Now I take advantage of the infrastructure available to me, and it adds so much order to my life. What I WISH I had is an ironing board and iron right there, next to the dryer, so I could take a kitchen towel out and say, "Ooh, I should touch up this wrinkled edge, and be able to do it right away (OK, I'd have to plug in the iron at that point, but by the time I'd taken three other T-shirts out of the dryer, it would be ready for me to iron the towel, and the handkerchief, and the crinkled up edges of the sheets, etc.). I had a friend whose apartment had a little dressing room / sitting room off the room he used for his bedroom, and he left his ironing board and iron up all the time. If his shirt needed pressing, it was NO time at all to do so. Me, I have to get my ironing board out of the closet in the other room, and get the iron out of where IT is stored separately, so I never use it. I keep trying to find a way to store them together easily, and so far it's not working out. The place I could put them, I don't have a good way to hook up to power and the set-up space is not very good. So I have to take them in the other room, one way or another, and that's just too much for three handkerchiefs, or a single shirt. I'm kind of jealous of your future laundry room!

Which is "the long wall with the door" -- the one at the top or on the right? if that's not a door on the right, what's 3 feet? The minimum for a decent powder room is maybe 4 feet wide by 6 feet long (that's using a slim sink on the side wall). So if you put that in the lower left, you have six feet above it for laundry, or you could stack washer and dryer, allowing for a closet or other cabinetry in between. There's probably room for more storage, but it depends on what else is going on in the space in terms of traffic, windows, etc. Not quite enough here to make things concrete.