With two little tykes running around, my husband and I need a designated space for scheduling activities and communicating each of our daily agendas and tasks. We use a shared google calendar but, my husband isn’t reliant on his phone or computer as I am so, a physical command center would give him an easier way to stay on top of things.
We already created a chalkboard wall in our kitchen with this same goal in mind but, it’s missing a few components before it can truly function like we need it to.
I follow three simple steps or phases when planning a new project:
- Search for Inspiration: helps me to narrow down my preferences; Pinterest & Houzz are good places to start, but also try your favorite magazines/shows like HGTV.com, Good Housekeeping or even your favorite blogs. Do NOT limit yourself just yet…that’s to say, don’t look at something and think, “I like this but it won’t work in my kitchen”. You never know what options you’ll have access to down the road so, consider anything and everything in this stage.
- Organize your Design Plan: start making some final decisions and narrow down your inspiration to include concepts or designs that you know are feasible for YOU. Decide where and how your preferences will fit into your home. Pick a room or location, take measurements, then layout a plan for how you’re going to start to incorporate your preferences into the space. Tip: Buy a pad of graph paper and sketch out your ideas and make notes
- Initiate your Plan: you may have a budget that allows you to buy all of your products and supplies at once and complete your plan in one day or weekend OR you may need to make purchases gradually and build up to completion after a period of time. Don’t feel rushed. Do some budget planning by researching costs and figure out what you’re comfortable with tackling and just take baby steps.
So, since we’re in the Inspiration Phase, here are some of the command centers that I’m drawn to:
This mini office from Simple As That Blog seems like it takes up a reasonable amount of space but, it also gives you convenient and functional space to organize your life. I could really see this working with regards to keeping the kids (and their things) organized too…
I also liked this Wall Command Center from Love Create Celebrate because it doesn’t take up a lot of valuable landscape (i.e. I don’t need a table) but it gives me useful organization for all of the important things.
Another setup that I really like is this one from The Homes I have Made that combines all the essentials in one space but, again, doesn’t occupy a lot of space.
I found a lot of others (and posted them on Pinterest) but these gave me some good ideas to get started with planning.
Here’s what I want to include in my command center (along with a little mockup of what I’m brainstorming right now):
- Calendar or Schedule: The month calendars tend to be too little of space and one week doesn’t give us a way to look that far ahead so, a two week DIY calendar would work great.
- Storage Baskets: one for incoming/unopened mail and one for opened mail to be filed away (bills are moved into the office where they are marked “to be paid”)
- Clipboard: a great way to organize shopping lists- we can just pull it off and take it with us
