Command Center How To
How to organize the perfect command center for your busy family
There were papers everywhere! Not just any papers – papers I wanted to keep from my kids, bills, important paperwork to keep track of. There were future planned recipes and to do lists lining my table or counter top. There just had to be a better way to store all these important things AND have a visible table and counters! I set off to work digging for organization ideas and discovered other people, moms mostly, were creating something visually beautiful called a command center.
What is a command center? Simply put, a place to organize your whole life! One dedicated spot in the house, home to all important information – bills, to do lists, upcoming appointments, kids chores. We even have a spot for keys and sunglasses!
Why have a command center? I feel like this should be pretty self explanatory – possibly moreso if you are the harried caretaker of overactive littles. Organization clears my mind. It assures me that I haven’t forgotten anything. I’ve written it all down. No appointments to miss as long as we check the calendar. No lost car keys as long as they get hung right up. No scattered bills or sunglasses when I need them. I know exactly where to look.
How do I know what to include or what I need? This will take some thinking and will be different for each family. You must think of your needs and what must be kept track of. For our family, I wanted somewhere to store chore cards, bills, recipes for the week, and our religious studies. I knew I had a pile of sunglasses I rotate through when driving and didn’t want to go searching for them when I grabbed my keys off the hanger. Think about the needs of your family and then begin digging around on Pinterest for containers and layouts!
I will share some of my favorite command center pins and where I drew inspiration from in a separate post. Are you ready?!
I was excited when I was finally able to put this all together! This wall was originally brown. We’ve done quite a few makeovers in our house – currently working on the kitchen! Check out how this wall looked when we moved in:
I forgot to take a proper before picture of the wall. The one above is of my cute 2 year old with the wall in the background. Now let’s move on to some in process photos! Time to transform this dark color to something light and airy!
We removed the glued blocks and patched holes. We had a surprise when removing the baseboard. Our house was built in 1967 and seeing glimpses of its history just fascinates me! We could see several different paint colors AND wallpaper!
Finally the paint was on, dried, and ready for me to figure out a layout. I had previously decided on our needs – the things I needed off my counter, the chore cards that helped the kids, a place to stash meal plans, grocery lists, and recipes, somewhere for pens, markers, sunglasses and keys. Somewhere for bills to keep track of and not wander their way through the house. And finally, I wanted somewhere nearby to put our religious study helps. Here’s what I came up with!
Finally having all of this done made me feel so much calmer. Of course, it wouldn’t have felt balanced without a few personal touches. Behold the gold L for our last night, some lovely greenery in the top right, and I just fell in love with the truck painting the second I saw it at Hobby Lobby. I love the contrast of the dark chalkboard background with the softer colors around it. This is quite possibly one of my favorite walls in the whole house!