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

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.

Since this is your main entrance, don't clutter it up with coat hooks on the wall or open shoe shelves. A single hat rack might be worthwhile -- you can find them in any office supply store catalogue. A low cabinet with doors on the front for shoes -- one that could be used as a bench -- would be worthwhile, otherwise get in the habit of putting everything else in a cabinet or closet behind a closed door or the clutter will soon begin to irritate you and bad habits your family begins could be difficult to change and you'll be the one perpetually picking up and straightening it up.

I much prefer the closet off the bath and easy access from the closet to the laundry. Ours is a walk though closet approx 15' x 7' 6". Doors opposite each other giving DH a space of a bit more than 5' x 7'6" and I have about 7' x 7' 6" on my end, so basically two decent sized, but not overly large walk in closets sharing a 3' walk through between the bath and my office (but steps from laundry). DH slept in this morning. I showered and got ready for the day, put up laundry, and dried a load of towels and put them up all without disturbing DH. During the day, I most frequently access the closet and master bath from my office. Very convenient.