The Command Center
I had seen the idea for a family command center on Pinterest before and thought it was a good idea. Then when I realized that I had a great big wall in my kitchen that would work PERFECTLY for just such a thing, I got excited!
In our previous homes, it has fallen to the refrigerator to be the catch all outpost for calendars, fliers, dinner plans, chore charts, family home evening assignments and everything else. And I hated it. The fridge was such a mess of mismatched magnets and paperwork. It looked cluttered and unattractive. Not that fridges are particularly attractive on their own either, but you get the idea. I longed for a clean surface like you see in the home design magazines. None of those display their fridges all wall-papered in paperwork. My interest in a nice, pretty fridge probably also was born from the fact that one of the first things we did after moving in was to update the kitchen appliances from their original 1986 models to some lovely stainless-steal beauties. Yay! (Thank you, Sears!) I didn't want my American-sized, steal monolith of food storage to be debeautified (is that a word?).
So, after looking through a number of ideas on Pinterest, I started formulated my own version. First, I decided what kinds of items I would post in my command center - the things we would use the most, as well as the ones I thought would add a little family personality. I ended up with a cork board for pinning up Jake's monthly work schedules, the boys' school schedules and my own family calendar, our family motto, a monogram and family portrait, the boys helper assignments (especially for Saturday chores), a place to write down items we need from the store (for anyone to add to, so I don't miss anything), and something to help answer the universal, daily question... "what's for dinner?" I would like to add a family home evening assignment board eventually, but I will have to come up with something new. My old fridge magnet version won't work on the wall.
Next, I chose a color scheme, yellow, blue and brown, mixed and matched some of our old picture frames (we had a black framed cork board already, as well as some brushed silver and white frames and things), and then started piecing together my puzzle. Once I liked the arrangement of frames and scrapbook papers, I whipped up some things on the computer, printed them off and cut them to fit the frames. It took me a couple of days to get it just how I wanted it, but once I was satisfied, it was time for the most exciting part - hanging it all!
I used yet another trick from the internet for hanging the frames. I used a large piece of paper and set all the frames on it in their arrangement. Then I traced the frames with pencil and marked as best as I could where each of their hangers was so that I'd know where to drive in the nails. Then I masking taped the paper to the assigned wall and started hammering nails. It took probably a minute to have all the nails in place. Then I simply pulled the paper straight off the wall and hung the frames. Add some dry-erase markers and viola! No sweat!
Now I have an extremely functional command center which we've been using and enjoying. No more "what's for dinner?" from every single member of the family. No more "what are my chores again?" from the boys. I have Jake's and my calendars at a glance. It's awesome! I think that I will eventually add a wall hanging magazine/file rack beside our kitchen desk before school starts so that the boys will also have an easily accessible place to put their school junk everyday. I LOVE organization!
In our previous homes, it has fallen to the refrigerator to be the catch all outpost for calendars, fliers, dinner plans, chore charts, family home evening assignments and everything else. And I hated it. The fridge was such a mess of mismatched magnets and paperwork. It looked cluttered and unattractive. Not that fridges are particularly attractive on their own either, but you get the idea. I longed for a clean surface like you see in the home design magazines. None of those display their fridges all wall-papered in paperwork. My interest in a nice, pretty fridge probably also was born from the fact that one of the first things we did after moving in was to update the kitchen appliances from their original 1986 models to some lovely stainless-steal beauties. Yay! (Thank you, Sears!) I didn't want my American-sized, steal monolith of food storage to be debeautified (is that a word?).
So, after looking through a number of ideas on Pinterest, I started formulated my own version. First, I decided what kinds of items I would post in my command center - the things we would use the most, as well as the ones I thought would add a little family personality. I ended up with a cork board for pinning up Jake's monthly work schedules, the boys' school schedules and my own family calendar, our family motto, a monogram and family portrait, the boys helper assignments (especially for Saturday chores), a place to write down items we need from the store (for anyone to add to, so I don't miss anything), and something to help answer the universal, daily question... "what's for dinner?" I would like to add a family home evening assignment board eventually, but I will have to come up with something new. My old fridge magnet version won't work on the wall.
Next, I chose a color scheme, yellow, blue and brown, mixed and matched some of our old picture frames (we had a black framed cork board already, as well as some brushed silver and white frames and things), and then started piecing together my puzzle. Once I liked the arrangement of frames and scrapbook papers, I whipped up some things on the computer, printed them off and cut them to fit the frames. It took me a couple of days to get it just how I wanted it, but once I was satisfied, it was time for the most exciting part - hanging it all!
I used yet another trick from the internet for hanging the frames. I used a large piece of paper and set all the frames on it in their arrangement. Then I traced the frames with pencil and marked as best as I could where each of their hangers was so that I'd know where to drive in the nails. Then I masking taped the paper to the assigned wall and started hammering nails. It took probably a minute to have all the nails in place. Then I simply pulled the paper straight off the wall and hung the frames. Add some dry-erase markers and viola! No sweat!
Now I have an extremely functional command center which we've been using and enjoying. No more "what's for dinner?" from every single member of the family. No more "what are my chores again?" from the boys. I have Jake's and my calendars at a glance. It's awesome! I think that I will eventually add a wall hanging magazine/file rack beside our kitchen desk before school starts so that the boys will also have an easily accessible place to put their school junk everyday. I LOVE organization!
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