I like a laundry room that I can close off from the rest of the house. I wouldn't care for a combo room (laundry/mud/powder) I don't think but clutter really bothers me ;). With dirty, sweaty boys I do a lot of laundry and there is almost always a laundry basket with clothes to be put away in there. . . I prefer to shut the door on it rather than have to walk by it to use the restroom or hang up my coat/purse, but that is just me. That is also the reason I didn't want lockers in my hallway - I have a separate mudroom in the back hall with a door I can close in case of company. I didn't want the first view in from my garage to be of backpacks and lunch boxes ;). Instead, everyone has to take a couple of extra steps to hang up their stuff, which is no different than they do now, and I get a view from my garage entrance of my breakfast table and french doors to the outside . . . I know this wouldn't work for everyone (there were plenty of people who wanted me to change my mudroom to something you would walk through to enter the house) but I know myself well enough to know that that would drive me nuts ;). I also know this doesn't work for everyone, so think of how you live and your comfort level with clutter because both laundry rooms and mud rooms seem to attract it, at least in my house!

What kind of look are you going for? I have a farm house and I was able to find an old church pew and will have hooks mounted on the wall above (hopefully by weeks end), there is lots of room for shoes underneath. You could always use a basket to corral the shoes under a bench. Just a thought.

Angela, are you available as a "child trainer" for hire? Good for you - almost NO ONE actually does this - they just "dump" stuff. I always had somewhere my children could dump - the screened in porch in the winter when it wasn't in use, in the garage near the door into the basement. When I rent a vacation house in the summer, I look for this, too, as we need somewhere for all the life jackets/sailing stuff and the tennis bags, to say nothing of foul weather gear. With 5 people in a house, it's a necessity.

What about a pocket door? You wouldn’t have to close it very often, but when you want to hide something, or block the laundry sound a bit, you could. Remove the closet doors, and have cabinets that match the kitchen installed above, and a countertop (removable, maybe) on top of the machines.