Organizing Life with a Family Command Center

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Office Depot, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #inspirestudents (Full Disclosure)

I am sure you have seen your share of Family Command Centers and family organization systems. Last year around this same time, I decided that it was a must for our family, especially with the growing sensory needs we were facing with our son and managing schedules between two homes. For the last year, we have been using our family command center on a daily basis and I can attest to the fact that it has been instrumental in keeping our family organized! Even with a switch from public school to homeschool, our command center has remained a must.

Anyone that knows me knows that I like to say “I pretend to be organized” but I am far from type-A. In fact, I have to try really hard to be organized. Creating a family command center was one step I needed to take to take some of the frustrations out of staying organized. There isn’t a day that goes by, that we don’t use at least one part of our command center.

When the boys were in school, it was great for organizing daily homework materials, charting after-school activities, and even for setting weekly goals for each child. Now that we homeschool, we have updated our command center just a little by adding some of our favorite items from Office Depot, such as our favorite PaperMate Felt Pins for project work, mechanical pencils for each child, and super fun Expo Neon Window Markers for our boards.

Setting Up Our Command Center

When I was setting up our command center I debated for a long time about where I wanted it to be. I knew I wanted it to be in a high traffic area so that it wouldn’t just get forgotten and collect dust. That is why I settled on our main hallway headed towards the kitchen. I knew that every day we would pass the station and would be forced to remember to pay attention to it. I wasn’t wrong.

Designing a Functional Family Command Center:

For our Command Center, we used inexpensive frames of varying sizes ( 16×20 for the calendar, 8×12 document frames for the larger charts, and 5×7 for the smaller charts and lists). 

QUICK SET-UP TIP: Make Construction Paper Frames to play around with the layout, design and ideas BEFORE hanging anything on the wall or moving around big heavy frames. Your walls will thank you for this step.

Once you get a good idea of a layout with your frames on the floor, you can measure the space you plan to use and hang your frames. If you want to use decorative items to spruce up the space, be sure to leave space for those and plan for them ahead of time.

Command Center Elements:

Before we ever began, I knew I needed to figure out what elements (charts) we wanted in our center. I knew we needed some visual schedules for our son with sensory needs and I knew we wanted to include chore charts and a place to hold homework/daily materials. Each family is unique and has different needs, so your command center might look a tad different and that is okay!

What is in our Family Command Center?

Centralized Family Calendar (We actually purchased a large calendar from the store and framed it)
Individual Charts for Each Child
Family Expectations (Ways to Help the Family)
Chore Chart
Cleaning Schedule for the House

This Week List
Today List

Writing Tools Supply Caddy
Key Hook
Bins to Keep Daily Materials

 

The “Write” Tools for Your Command Center

As I mentioned before, we recently made a trip to Office Depot because of their special prices on Select Newell Rubbermaid Brands (which happen to be our favorite). We love Expo window markers and dry erase markers, Papermate felt-tip pens, and of course scented Mr. Sketch markers.

Currently Office Depot has weekly savings (Aug 31-Sept 6) on the following products: Sharpie Clearview Highlighter 3PK: $4, PaperMate Clearpoint 2PK’s: $3, Select Expo Chisel & Ultra Fine 4PK’s: $2. Also you can save $5 Off your purchase of $20 or more on select Newell Rubbermaid Brands (PaperMate, Expo Neon Window Markers, Sharpie, Uni-Ball, & Mr. Sketch)

Do you have a command center at home or in the classroom? I would love to see it! Tag me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and use the hashtags #InspireStudents #TeachersChangeLives #pmedia. 

 

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