Candace Olson did a basement where she camouflaged a work bench area with vertical blinds. You may be able to find information on that episode on the HGTV website. I am not a fan of vertical blinds but I thought it was very successful.

Ikea also makes a panel track on which suspended flat panels of fabric can slide back and forth. The durability of this would depend both on the fabric and the user. I used these in a client's bedroom and I think she messed up one of the panels immediately by grabbing it instead of using the wand to push them open anc closed. However, that particular panel was a sheer one,,,the others held up pretty well.

How deep of a space are you willing to allow behind any divider? 30" will easily permit access to the water heater. Can anything be fixed or do you want to open the space entirely. You don't need to access the softner or water heater as often as the laundry.

Consider by-pass doors. Four, 36" doors would fully cover the opening. Dependant on the arrangement of the appliances, the open doors (you could even have each door on a separate track and have 9' open at once) could rest in front of the ones not being accessed.

Doors would give a more finished appearance than verticals IMO.

Yeah the depth is an issue. Its almost 3' deep in the w/d area. It drops back a little by the wh and ws. Then to the left of those I have 7 feet of wall space. I had thought to make that a closet and cover the whole span (20 feet or so) with sliding doors...just afraid it will not look right. Is hard to divide the area since everything is sort of on top each other.

Is a bypass door a slider? Is that a tripple track? I thought of having a long track and essentialy two 6' sliders (made up of 2 36" doors each. It would be nice though to have access to the w/d and sink all at once.

I thought it might just get to be too many doors. Perhaps a combo of sliders by the ws/wh and verticals over the sink/w/d. I actually have a bunch of cheapie vertical in my sunroom...I should likely bring a set down and see what it would look like.

The episode where Candace Olson used the vertical blinds was called Patricia's Family Hobby Room

What about an accordion door? I put one between my laundry room and work shop, about a six foot opening. Works great.

thought of that but it gets pricey even for a cheapie one.