I agree, the space is too small to try to store off-season coats, etc. Try to keep them elsewhere until you've proven they'll fit. Otherwise, you'll simply set yourself up for failure. It's a kind of deep space, and the stuff that's in the "deep" area will be hard to access. That *might* let you stash out=of-season stuff there, but again, I'd suggest you wait to see. I agree w/ Frankie that the responsitionability of the Command hooks is really useful. But I also find that they aren't that sturdy for heavy coats. I'm a fan of pegboard for places like this--fill the wall with it, up and down. Then you can put some strong pegs anywhere you want, and move them around. You can have lots of hooks of various sizes, and you can put bins, even small shelves, etc. I find, actually, that shoes store better higher up. Otherwise, you're bending over,a nd bending over. I stored my shoes at about hip level, back when I had a "mudroom cabinet," and I found it was really useful. It's counterintuitive, but follow me: You kick off your shoes, and you need to then put them somewhere, which means you need to bend over and pick them up. Then you move to the storage space, and bend over and put them in the floor storage. (bending twice) Now you go to put them on. you bend over to pick them up, then you bend over again to put them on. Store them at hip level or just below, and you have them out of the prime storage space (hip to chest), but you aren't bending over twice. Backpacks (esp. heavy ones) went on the floor--that saved us having to lift them up. Swing them off your shoulder, and put them down. Consider stapling fabric shoe pockets to the left wall for shoes; or, consider not having this be a shoes-storage place. Just outdoors stuff only (boots, etc.). Shoes should go somewhere else. Are you a shoes-off household? If not, then this should be the place where only the shoes you wear outdoors go. If you are, then consider having shoes go somewhere else anyway, just to save space there. As for sitting down--don't do a permanent bench. Get a Kik-Step stool to shove in under the coats. Then you can hook it out with your feet, and sit down to put shoes on if necessary. I don't think you have enough room for a bench, anyway. For the side of the washer, consider getting magnetic organizers to hold small stuff. There are magnetic storage bins sold for laundry organizing that could hold little-kid shoes, umbrellas, hats, mittens. and for office supplies Even school lockers. or hooks to hold stuff like umbrellas, mittens, hats. If you got a strong enough hook, you could even hang shoes or boots off them,a ctually. Here is a link that might be useful: Kik-Step stool--the world's greatest invention

Liana stacked is fine if you're not vertically challenged. Make sure you can reach the upper knobs of the dryer on top. I am always struggling to do so. For that reason and because I'm no fan of bending down low to get clothes out of the washing machine, and then reaching up to load them into the dryer. Additionally, I'm not a fan of when they're stacked how the washing machine door opens one way, and the dryer door the other way.

Electric water heater, yes? I don't see how bypass doors are going to work with this situation. You will need three doors (32" doors) and a cased opening. This opening does not appear to be a typical 2x4 framed opening. You need the depth of a traditional casing in order to mount the track to the header. The track(s) will be a lot wider than bifold tracks because each door slides in its own track. IOW's, you will need three tracks mounted side by side to the header. I have bypass doors on three closets in my house. I so dislike them. I don't love bifold doors either but bypass doors are much, much worse.

I love this. You have a built in laundry folding station/fix-it project tabletop (store tools) AND ‘standing catch all‘ when you have too much stuff in your arms (read: up from basement/in from garage). Organize with shelves/drawers/sliding panel of pegboard (on wall side). Tons of led lights under shelves/in drawers/on work surface means you can see what you’re looking for. Trim the front with durable knee-bump friendly beadboard. bonus if you incorperate ’sink-front flip-open hinges’ for pens/pencils/screwdriver on front. I’m jealous.