A (Much Needed) Family Command Center

The boys are starting kindergarten in a couple of weeks.  I can hardly believe it!  They have been in pre-school and junior-kindergarten for the past two years.  I cannot express how appreciative I am of all the teachers and administrators at their school.  I have one little guy that is reading at a first grade level and the other little guy is quite the detailed artist and has awesome fine motor skills.  Both kids know their alphabets, can write words and numbers and do simple math.  I honestly can't remember what my milestones were upon entering kindergarten (I do remember learning to write with a pencil with one of those rubber triangles on it) but I am so proud of all their accomplishments and can't even thank the teachers enough!
That being said, the boys have been in the same class for the past two years and my hope was that they would get separated upon entering elementary school.  I had called their elementary school back in the spring and confirmed that they do, indeed, separate all twins, as a policy.  I was so relieved!
My boys are two, completely different kids.  They have different personalities, different interests and are on different learning curves. Their pediatrician often refers to them as siblings, not twins - they just happen to have the same birth date.  But when they are together, there is a constant need to compete with each other.  I am hoping that by being separated, they get the individual attention they need and won't worry about how the other is faring.

With the start of elementary school comes a whole bunch of new stresses for me.  Two classes, four teachers (teacher + helper), two sets of friends, two lunches, two after school snacks...you get the picture.  So I had to organize myself in a way that would not only keep me sane but also let my husband know what the heck was going on.  And in comes the family command center!

I've kept up with all our activities (tennis, piano, birthday parties, Chinese School) fairly well using Google Calendar online (I sync my activities and the boys' activities with my husband's activities) and getting reminders on my phone.  Now that we have to introduce school stuff into the mix, I figured it was time to put it all in one, centralized place. And you know, with my love of Pinterest, I was getting all kinds of great ideas from other people's family command centers.

While browsing all the different ideas for command centers, I thought about what my needs were:

•  A calendar with activities
•  Mail slot for incoming and outgoing mail
• Individual folders for each child with class information
• Dry erase board for messages and menu planning
• Cork board for notes and business cards (doctors, pharmacy, Papa John's delivery!!!)
• Some place to put coupons (you can never have too many Bed Bath and Beyond coupons), gift cards or take out menus
• Holder for dry erase markers and eraser

I knew the command center would be in our butler's pantry and that gave me some limited space -so I had to draw a layout of what could potentially fit in that area.
And here is the finished product:

I originally had two Pottery Barn Kids magnetic chalkboards on this wall (one on top of the other) holding things with magnets and writing things with chalk (which is not the greatest).  So I took those down and replaced it with:

• Dry erase board with cork border - from Target (what a great find!)
• Two magnetic slot folders from the Container Store
• One long slot holder for mail - the left label says 'Out' and the right label says 'In.'  This, too, is magnetic so I have a magnetic letter opener on there as well as two strong magnets (also from the Container Store) that holds our car keys.
• The pink pencil holder that is currently holding the dry erase markers and eraser is actually a locker pencil holder from the Container Store - it fits four markers and the eraser PERFECTLY!
• I got the letter stickers from the Container Store - I do have the Silhouette but it was so much easier to purchase the pack of letters ($5) and stick them on there quickly - I'm an instant gratification type of person!

As for the calendar, I now print out a copy of the Google calendar each month to list out all our activities.  It's not easy to print out the Google calendar and be able to view all the activities in each day (unless you have a magnifying glass at the ready) so I just use my SnagIt software to get a screen capture of the calendar and the activities and enlarge it in Word and print it out. It's the 'Agenda' option in Google Calendar, if you're wondering.

SnagIt Screen Capture

The two magnetic chalk boards that were originally on this wall are now on the opposite wall from the command center and also help with command center activities.  I moved the shopping list onto those boards so I have more dry erase real estate to work with.  I also pinned the calendar to the cork board, also to give me more dry erase space.

What's not showing is another long slot holder (like the one I'm using for mail) that I put under the phone (between the cabinet and the counter) that is holding my Bed Bath and Beyond coupons, gift cards and other coupons.
I have also added a small, cubic, magnetic holder (on the mail slot) that is holding post-it notes and a pen to write down spontaneous notes and slap it in the command center or pin it to the cork board - we are ready for anything!

By putting together this family command center, I was able to clear up a lot of counter space in the butler's pantry and in the kitchen - because mail isn't littered all over the place. It feels great. 

HOWEVER, school has not started so the real test will come in the next month when the boys start school and I start getting school papers and announcements! But for now, I'm pretty happy with the turnout.

Happy Organizing!