BevAnn,
re: height (challenged) and cupboards (high)
can you put a folding stepstool in that 12" gap?
if you need the storage, there is a lot that can live up in those cupboards--out of season gear, guest bedding, bulk buys of laundry detergent, etc.
other ideas for that gap:
small suspension rods between washer and wall, or cupboard and wall, with 6 plastic hangers. Shirts can be hung-wet-immediately, saving ironing and energy. Next time you enter the house they'll be dry. Just scoop them up as you walk in, and hang them directly in the appropriate closet.
train-style luggage rack, often found in hotels and Ikea:) for either coats or laundry that can be hung to dry. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80047895
these are great for not only drying socks but winter gloves and mittens and hats, not to mention bras, which are destroyed quickly by the dryer:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/new-at-ikea-pressa-portable-hanging-dryer-good-finds-112276. I call mine the Sockopus because it well, it looks like a sock octopus.
pot lid rack, hung on wall, to catch mail/papers. Ikea has them.
small baskets stacked and secured together (cable ties?), facing outward as cubbies
two sturdy hooks hung under the cupboards, one at either end, can hold a long wooden dowel or curtain rod. Clothes that should not be put in the dryer can go here.
S-hooks from rails and rods can be a godsend.
Keys MUST be hung up immediately as you walk in, with either an attractive solution, or, ours: 3M sticky hooks hung on the door itself.
Are you optimizing your garage walls? Your garage can hold coat hooks all in a row, as well as host an attractive paper recycling bin so no flyers or envelopes etc. enter the house at all. My brother uses high school lockers, the tall ones, for hockey and sports equipment. Perhaps in the garage they could corral a lot of things before they enter the house.
As for the laundry room, well, face it. There will be no laundry folding going on in here. It is too impractical a set-up. If a laundry basket lives on the dryer, dry clothes can be dumped in there and carried around the house, no dumping armloads anywhere.
(BTW, just IMHO, a 15-year-old boy can do his own laundry unless he is disabled. I was doing mine at about age 8. If not now, then when? and when you inform him of the new sherrif in town (the 2011 you), show him how to do it. Then let him stink until he can't stand himself anymore or a friend comments. He'll figure it out quickly enough)
And finally, for general inspiration and beauty: the fabulous Martha has a photo gallery of entryways: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/organizing-the-mudroom
