I just bought a house with a new furnace, but he furnace and water heater are in the laundry room completely exposed without any closet. The laundry room is visible from the kitchen and the hallway to the bedrooms, and I have small boys who might be tempted to fiddle with knobs...

The space is quite limited in the laundry room -- so building a closet or putting up a wall would be tough - unless I close up the entry from the hallway leaving only one door to the laundry room and a longer walk from bedroom to kitchen.

My option are using some type of soft wall - like panel curtains on a track type of thing. A freestanding screen - still not good with kids - or physically relocating to the attic or crawlspace - cutting whole in ceiling i guess?

Has anyone tried this? I am going to call an HVAC guy to take a look.