We inherited a small pantry with bifold doors, and it works great. We have elfa shelving floor to ceiling and total flexibility because of the open space inside. In fact, in the upcoming remodel, we're converting the laundry room to a huge pantry room, with spare fridge and freezer, extra prep space, and wall-to-wall pantry space. I was going to put cabinets along that wall, but decided it made more sense to put 2 sets of double doors and elfa inside, just like our current pantry only much bigger. 10' of floor-to-ceiling pantry/storage shelving that I can close off ... can't wait!!!! One advantage of an open closet rather than cabinets is easy access to floor space. I use 40-lb buckets of grains, and can slide them in and out easily, directly on the floor. No lifting. :-)

We had to re-do our laundry closet configuration last year to be able to get side by side machines into the same space. We used to have stacked front loader with dryer on top. Ours is located in the master bathroom. We had bi-fold doors prior which made for nice ease of use and clean lines/look when closed. We tended to keep the bi-folds open a fair bit however to allow more air flow to the washer to prevent mold or mildew. It made for an unkept look with the doors open in our opinion, but was better than mildew. Anyhow, in an effort to keep the space workable if and when repair time comes, we choose not to do bi-folds because the bi-folds would have to be removed and rehung for machine or plumbing servicing. We have friends who could not get their bi-folds to ever hang properly after being taken down and we thought why not hang drapes or curtains instead of sliding doors or bi-folds in our situation? We did put up a nice rod and have drapes instead of doors until we come up with a better idea. I like the look of closed doors better, but really, the air flow to the washer is great in our case now when I have the drapes closed. It was a give and take in our case. I hope you come up with a good plan for your laundry closet. Best of luck.

I've tried some of the closets mentioned above for various closets around my home, i found that Modular Closet systems were far superior. (quite surprising actually, considering their cheaper price point then EasyClosets, CC and Ikea..) They're manufactured here in the US so that's good. They're made of hardwood with a really solid melamine surface. It's basically a fully customized closet storage system for the price of a store-bought shelving unit, plus they offer free design service which is really helpful especially if your like me and not a good DIYer. Assembly is quick and install is easy, I had my nephews help me with that. Little piece of advice: Once you got a good closet system to organize your stuff, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it!! Good Luck! Here are some useful links: if you know exactly what you need and want full control on closet layout https://www.modularclosets.com/pages/design-your-own-closet if you want to leave the work for a designer to create a custom closet for you https://design.modularclosets.com/free-design Friendly warning: always CALL THEM to touch base to make sure they understand your needs and requirements. Just because they're proffesionals DONT ASSUME they can read your mind. You can just ggogle modular closet phone number or something, it shld come up.

Has anyone installed the pivot and slide doors in their W/D area? I stopped by a custom cabinet maker yesterday and she said they can do it, but the widest cabinet door they make is 24", so for my stacking W/D I'd need a pair of doors. But that won't work. My contractor's plan was to put the hookups on the side wall so they can be easily reached. Also, it takes 4" on each side to accommodate the pivot and slide doors (they build a little partition using 3/4" plywood). So that means I'm losing 8" just to accommodate the doors, which would eat into the pantry space next to the W/D. This company makes hardware that can accommodate a 30" wide door. Has anyone used them or someone like them? https://www.rockler.com/kv8091-slides-full-overlay-pocket-door-system-pocket-door-slides Any hope that I can keep the dream of pivot and slide doors on the W/D? lol ;)