You make an excellent point it’s like you’ve met me. While I like the neat tidy look of the drawers, they’ll probably lead to a less neat and tidy room. There might be hope for my husband and daughter, but 40 years of experience should have been enough for me to realize there is no chance I’ll actually put my shoes in any sort of drawer. I like the idea of a shallow basket or boot tray better, with a shallow drawer above for gloves and scarves (and in the summer sunscreens and hats).

Now the question is whether to put the open space directly on the floor, or a raised platform to allow for baseboard/trim detail in front. My inclination is to put the trim on the closet and washer/dryer space but have the cubbies directly on the floor.

I look at all these neat and tidy mudrooms and wonder where I went wrong and both my adult children did as well. We all 3 keep VERY tidy houses - even shoes taken off are nearly stacked on the stairway, not kicking around on the floor.

But the entry with athletic bags/coats/boots/shoes? Total failure! They drop them next to the door. I bought shelves for my DD's boys, boot trays - you name it - all ended up in a heap on the floor. Book bags come inside and are dumped near wherever homework is done. When they were little, this was the kitchen island and DD and I succeeded in moving those to next to the front door as the kitchen just didn't have room for them. There they stayed when homework moved to their rooms.

I'd love to know how people have trained their children to use these costly and elaborate mud rooms. When I had young ones, I was usually carrying in groceries of something and could not linger to be sure they put things where they belonged in the "mudroom" portion of our back porch. Their rooms were always neat and tidy, beds made, clothes picked up, my house tidy. But I was a mudroom failure and my children are as well.

What if you asked your cabinet maker if they could do pull out trays in the bottom that you could line with a mat or boot tray? You can just kick your shoes off on to the tray but still have the benefit of hyper organization when needed, like when guests are over.

Do a raised floor, for the closet too, to keep dust bunnies out. Do you live where there’s snow? Make each cubby wide enough for a boot tray, and put a wire shelf in the boot tray to keep boots and shoes off the wet.

Keep the bench shallow, only a foot or so, so that it doesn’t become a complete dumping ground and so that the shoes underneath are easily accessible.

Anglophilia - that sounds like my childhood. We drove my mom batty - she got endless organizers for the mudroom and we dumped our shoes and backpacks in the hallway; endless desks for our rooms, and we insisted on spreading out to do homework in the center of the kitchen or family room. This might more accurately be called a mud hall rather than mud room. These cabinets will line the wide hallway that joins the garage (through which we'll generally enter) to the rest of the house. I'm hoping to channel our impulse to just drop things inside the door so that when we do, it's in the "mud hall" area.

Right now the most successful system we have for shoes is an open basket by the door. I think I'm going to go with option 3, a 6" drawer directly under the bench and an open cubby below it into which a big open basket will fit.

bpath - we have occasional but not regular snow. We actually have an outer portion of the mud hall that's part of the garage, and all snow or actually mud covered shoes (and my daughter's riding boot, which are covered with who-knows-what from the stable) will be left there on a much more utilitarian bench and boot tray. There will also be a utility sink there to wash off boots as needed, and vinyl floors that can take a fair amount of abuse (and be easily replaced, should it ever come to that)..

My husband prefers no raised floor for the cubbies - he thinks we'll have equal dust bunny risk either way, and our experience with our current house is that raised baskets get used less than those on the floor. I'm inclined to go ahead and elevate the closet and the washer and dryer, though, to help keep the closet tidy, and to incorporate some sort of pan under the washer/dryer to protect the floors from leaks and such. Will it look odd to do so?

devonfield - I thought about doing pull-out shelves. I think we'll use baskets more, but it really could go either way and I'm still torn. We did some pull-out shelves in our current house that have never worked well, and I think maybe that biased me against them? If we did them I think they'd have to be more like the pull-outs in pantry cabinets, with sides a few inches high to keep things contained.

If you do a closed option for shoes (drawers, cabinet doors, whatever), consider ventilation, cedar potpourri, baking soda, charcoal, or other means of dealing with shoe odor. It could very well be that I have too many shoes in one closed space (three 15"x15" boxes for 6+ pairs of kidlets' shoes), but this wasn't something that I previously considered.... :-/

If you have a good kitchen designer do yourself a favor and have her/him draw this up for you on their program. It will be much easier to see the positive and negatives and he can quickly make minor changes with you sitting right there at his desk to see what works and doesn’t work. Your kd will draw this so that things like space for window trim are accounted for. does It work better without soffit, etc?

in my experience (my last house) no one will use their own cubby. They will put things down in the cubbies but stuff will land where it lands. so why have a divided space? Your space will look nicer and more open if its a wide open 7 ft space vs 3 crowded divided cubbies. Few people actually sit here to put their shoes on and take them off.

I had the big drawers under my divided cubbies. Nobody used them. When I made the effort to put them in there myself I ended up with dirt in the drawers from dirty sneakers (athletic boys) that was hard to clean out of the corners.

find a place to put those shoes that is actually easy to use so that those kids might actually use it, is easy to remove the receptacle (I like the boot tray idea) so that it can be easily cleaned. the fact is kids will probably wear their shoes up to their room or shed them in the mudroom wherever they land. The never ending battle and they do stink.

the charging station sounds good. I had one too. Nobody used it. I think you have a lot of great ideas and an awesome space to work with! Good luck.

Having seen and designed dozens and dozens of mud room arrangements, I can tell you that no kid is ever going to use the appointed cubby. All of the drawers will become "the junk drawer." The more elaborate the scheme, the more cluttered and confusing the space becomes. And when the kids start playing sports? Ugh. All the photos that show pristine mudrooms appear to be from homes where each family member owns one exquisite accessory that is artfully displayed. Sounds like you already know that is not your life ;-)

(At least not yet--I do have some empty-nest clients who keep lovely mudrooms! Something to look forward to.)

I'd concentrate on the laundry aspect of this space. Keep the "boot" space minimal--just open under the bench, no trim. If the space is really for boots and not just shoes, you need to know the heights of said boots, and the riding boots are going to need a hose-off, as you know.

Is this your primary laundry? Where are baskets of dirty clothes going to be? And what about laundry supplies? It looks like you're thinking about raising the machines onto a plinth? I'd caution against that unless you know it will be rock-solid. Those machines are finicky and need a very stable base. The idea of a pan under the machines is a good one--in theory. What about a floor drain in the space itself? The pans are problematic, and in some cases completely superfluous. Tile or stone would be a better choice than vinyl, if you can swing it.

You're getting good advice above. Good luck!

No kitchen designer. We worked with an interior designer earlier in the process who did 3D mockups of the kitchen/bathroom/laundry room for us, but she vanished on us (that's a whole 'nother story), so we're on our own for this one. My cabinet maker is awesome and does fully custom cabinets and gives great advice, but he works in hand drawings, not 3D mockups. So now it's me and graph paper.

I agree that big shoe drawers are out. I'm going with low sided, washable bins. I also liked the boot tray idea, but we do better with containers with enough of a side that you can toss things in, rather than have to line them up. Other than my daughter's riding books, we have more shoes than boots, so I'm not too worried about height.

We currently use our mudroom space for charging, so I think we'll actually use that, and it would help a lot if it were divided by person - right now its just a mess of devices and cords.

Ironically, my daughter is, as she likes to point out, the most organized and tidy person in the house. She'll love having her own cubby to keep her things in, neat and tidy. My husband and I are less reliable about this sort of thing. My daughter's shoes will probably be in her assigned bin, and my will be by the couch or under the dining table, or wherever else I took them off.

This isn't our main laundry area. Our main laundry room is upstairs with the bedroom. This is just a smaller stacked pair for kitchen linens (we use cloth napkins daily) and use by guests, as it's just down the hall from the guest bedroom.

My daughter's shoes will probably be in her assigned bin, and my will be by the couch or under the dining table, or wherever else I took them off.

Sounds a little like my house, lol.

My daughter (only girl and the oldest) is super organized. Very fond of putting things back where they belong. Her room is always spotless. It's heavenly.

My oldest son is the same way. Everything-in-its-place kind of guy.

Things get a little more hectic with #3, since he's very competitive (gotta be the first one in the house, first to have his shoes off, and first to fly through the kitchen and do round offs through the family room). He does everything at 90 miles per hour, so he needs more reminders to put his belongings back where they go.

Numbers 4-6 are pretty good about putting things back, and then wanting praise/acknowledgment when they do it. :-D Hope it sticks!

I honestly have more trouble with myself and my husband. Shoes laying sloppily by every exterior door, because it's more convenient to slip them on as I'm leaving, and slip them off right as I come in. I'm honestly considering shoe niches (you know, like how old houses had waist- or chest-high telephone wall niches, lol) that look like oversized mouse holes, next to every single exterior door, and keep it stocked with 2 pairs of cheap flip flops.

And as for a pan of some sort under the laundry stack, this portion of the mud room will actually have hardwood - it's in our entire main level. It's far from ideal with the laundry pair there, but the decision to add the laundry came pretty late in the process, so we're looking for whatever we can do to protect the floors.

Depending on the machines, it may be unnecessary to have a pan. My new compact washer has a built in sump and leak detection. The problem with the pan is that the drain itself can get dried out so it’s a maintenance issue. I’d like to hear from someone who knows more about that though. Clever idea to have the second set there!

@scottie mom - what brand do you have? The only one I've found with that feature is Bosch, and the fact they only have a condensing dryer concerns me. We have the ability to vent a dryer, as this is an outside wall, so I'm torn between Samsung or Blomberg (both of which have vented dryers but lower overall ratings), Bosch (good reviews, good leak protection, but only a condensing dryer), and the new, less expensive Mieles with a heat pump dryer (which are slightly more expensive but seems to be very well reviewed).

I've got the Miele. I think the new "low-frills" models sound like a great idea as a secondary pair in your house. You'll love the hot water wash for those kitchen linens! The HP dryer is pretty amazing. Far superior to a condenser, IMO--especially if you live somewhere with humidity issues. In fact, you can see a picture of how I built mine in here!

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5591224/bathroom-remodel-ready-to-reveal-laundry-too#n=52

About the base of the WD stack, I debated the exact same thing as you! I opted to put them out and proud on the floor with no base at all. I did the stacking kit with a little drawer, and a pullout alongside that holds cleaning supply. You can see why I was drawn to your dilemma ;-)

Very happy with this configuration, and with these machines (though I admit I went with the "all-frills" models.) Honestly, even if it's "easy" to vent to the outside, it's still a duct to run and a duct to maintain. The Miele catches lint in three stages of filters, and they're quite easy to clean. And having had them for a full year now, I can report that there is no added heat or humidity in that room when running them. It's pretty remarkable (and no, I don't get paid by Miele!)

I think you've sold me on the Miele. Now I just have to sell my husband. All the others have significant drawbacks, though, and Miele really does seem to be the goldilocks option.

I love the idea of the stacking kit with the built-in drawer, but do you find it adds enough height to make them more difficult for a shorter person to use? While my husband and I are tall, our daughter obviously isn't (well, she's tall for seven, but that's still pretty short :-), and my niece will likely live with us for awhile next year when she graduates from college, and she's also pretty short.

Your space is beautiful, by the way.

Thank you :-)

OK I am 6' tall and the controls on the dryer are right about eye-level (your drawing is excellent, btw. That's what made me think "don't put the platform below!") In the Miele literature, they give exact dimensions of everything, with and without the stacking kit. Other than the knob, there's nothing that you'd need to reach. It's actually quite nice to have the dryer compartment up higher--it's those filters than need some attention, and they are about at elbow height for me. Leave enough room for one of those tiny folding plastic stools and your daughter will be fine. Then before you know it, she'll be your height!

Your DH may wince at the price of the stacking drawer, but let me tell you--it feels expensive, like the machines themselves, and it gives you a place to unload the laundry. There's nothing junky about it, and the machines look nice too. The entry-level option became available after I'd bought these. I probably would have gone for the bells and whistles anyway, but I am glad they brought something more accessible to the US market. These things are pretty standard-issue in Europe, where venting is tricky and energy is expensive.

There's an obscenely long thread about the machines in the Laundry forum. And very helpful people who will answer most any question!

You can tell your DH I was your enabler and he'll thank me later ;-)

We try to utilize the space below the bench with drawers.

Two Creeks Mudroom · More Info

We moved into our new build last year with no mudroom done because I wasn't sure how we would use the space. Several months later we got it finished and I'm so happy with what we did. Under the bench we actually put boot trays and the kids line up their boots there, and yes they do line them up there. Each of the three kids has a pull out bin for their shoes and they do put them away. The pull out bin for their shoes is not solid so then any dirt falls below which sounds gross but is easy to clean, when I remember to. They also each have two hooks for hanging bags on. Overhead there is open shelving where I'm currently hording girl guide cookies but where bins could go if I ever get my act together. See pic :)