Design Your Own Kitchen Command Center
At my house the kitchen is the main hub. It seems like everything we do revolves around that room. Physically it is in the middle and is home to the entry from the garage which is the door we use most often. With two young children, a dad and a pregnant mom there is always someone in need of a drink, a snack, or a meal. I am in and out of that room all day long! Because of the high traffic in this room it is also one of the messiest. The counter tops catch mail as we walk in the door, the floors hold shoes that are discarded from tiny feet as they come home, and there are always toys left behind. It was feeling pretty chaotic, and when you spend so much time in a room that chaos affects the way you feel. I knew it was time to get things really in order and use our kitchen as an effective hub for our household.
To help with the paper clutter I hung some mail sorters by our garage door. Anything that needs to be filed or mailed out gets put here. It is right above our recycling bin, so it is the perfect place to sort mail as we come in the door. I love to fill my home with pictures and words that make me smile, so you will see lots of that too.
I received compensation and samples for this post. All opinions are my own.聽
Next I wanted to have a place to keep notes about our schedules, to-do lists, and general life together! With a husband in school full time sometimes communication and important dates and times get lost in the shuffle! For this part of my process I turned to Zazzle.
Zazzle is a聽marketplace where you can custom design nearly anything-from phone cases to watches. They have so much cute stuff and I knew I would find exactly what I was looking for. I started by looking for a calendar that would work on my refrigerator. They have so many to choose from. I wanted a dry erase option because it would be the best choice for my needs. I can just wipe it down and map out our plans at the beginning of each month. I customized it with our last name at the top, you can add text or colors to most of their products.
Fun tip I learned long ago- the dollar store at back to school time is the best time to grab magnetic baskets to hold markers, magnets, etc. for your refrigerator or magnet boards!
I also wanted a generic to-do list. I am pretty good at forgetting things these days, I have to write everything down. I keep notes on this baby for everything from things I need to do, to simple reminders like “wash scrubs for next week”. My husband jots stuff down on it too. No matter what style list you are looking for Zazzle has it. I even found this Weekly Meal Planner, it is perfect to keep right in my kitchen so I can remember what I have planed for the week as well as add little notes of things I need from the grocery store. Do you always need milk? Go ahead and have it added to your list permanently! This is a fun product to customize!
To hang the list to my refrigerator I used a clip board and 3M command strips. I love the clip board because I can easily change out the physical list when I need to. I absolutely love the way my kitchen functions now, I feel so much better about staying on top of everything that is happening in our busy lives!
You can find the note pads and calendar I used here, here, and here. Plus, Zazzle has everything else you could possibly imagine!
Love this! i’ll definitely use some of these tips
I love this. Single mom need all the help she can
I love your Command Center! I so need to get organized! The meal planner is going to help me a lot & my kids will like being able to see what coming up for dinner!
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Your lists look great! I tend to keep a lot of them on my phone but when they’re on paper…they aren’t this organized!
So organized! I can’t think of a thing I would add, you seem to have it all ! I am so disorganized – I’m going to start following your ideas – my new resolution!!!!
Oh I love what you did! My New Years resolution is to get organized! Our kitchen is our HUB too! I really need to do something like this where I can plan out our meals, schedules, grocery needs so I dont forget something when I go!
Oh wow, I love all that you have added. I think a meal planner would definitely be a must!
Great idea and very practical. I have always liked to have a physical calendar with appointments and dates written down on it. So many rely on phones and such but really, is everyone on the same page orr does it always fall on one person?
I think I would also add one that has brthdays and important dates (I do have one) with nices nephews and in laws it is easy to forget!
Great ideas – the meal planner is really helpful. I tend to write my menus/lists on the back of scrap paper and promptly lose it. We have a pile of mail that should have been stopped at the door.
This is a fantastic way to stay organized, I am going to have to make room for this. Love it!
Oh, this is such a great idea. I definitely need a command center in my kitchen. it is a mad house in my home.
I love your meal planner as I’m so guilty of not making one! Must Have! 馃檪
I love that meal planner for the week. It was so cute.
I wish my kitchen was this organized! I definitely need a kitchen command center because the kitchen seems to be the family meeting place.
We have a lot of these tools but they are by my desk since my stainless steel fridge isn’t the kind that is magnetic 馃檨 I love the colorful charts you use to stay organized!
these are such awesome ideas! I really love the mail sorters, I need to do this.
What a great system! Our kitchen is also the main hub. I would love to keep my kitchen as organized as this. My counter is always full of school papers, mail and everything else that doesn’t seem to have a home. Thanks for sharing your idea. My resolution this year is to get more organized. This will help me get there.