Creating My Command Center

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was this girl. She prided herself on being able to remember almost anything she was shown or told to remember. Her mom often would look at her and say things like “Remember this number.” or “Hey remember (insert thing here)” and then I…um I mean she…would just remember whatever it was.

Then this crazy thing happened. That girl grew up. She finished college, got married, started working and providing for herself and eventually had children. All of the sudden she was lucky if she could remember what day of the week it was let alone a phone number or an appointment she or anyone else in her household was supposed to be at.

Ok, so yeah, that story is all about me. And I will be honest, it is really frustrating and annoying that now I don’t have the mental wherewithal to remember all the things I used to be able to remember.

When we made the decision to move to Fort Worth for Dusty to start classes I started being more diligent with writing down daily, weekly, and monthly plans and schedules. Then I started classes, spent some time working to build an income with a multi-level marketing company, left that company and started other jobs, homeschooled our kid, and well..you get the picture. Life was busy. It became imperative that I be on top of my scheduling and planning game.

So I invested in a daily planner. I truly loved the ability to decorate and personalize the calendar, both weekly and monthly, while being sure that I was keeping all of us on top of things. The problem is I knew what was going on but the rest of the household was clueless until I told them what was happening. This would sometimes mean that Dusty would schedule an activity or make plans for a time that I already had something scheduled and then there would be arguments and disagreements and frustration and overall not good things.

Then I learned about the importance of having a command center at home. A designated place for a family calendar, a place to put the mail to ensure it doesn’t get lost or forgotten, a place to take notes and jot down important reminders. A place to contain the chaos.

So now that is what I ensure I have no matter where we move to. When we moved back to New Mexico one of the first things I started to contemplate was where our family command center would be set up. And I will be honest when I say I am pretty much in love with our set up. Let me show you:

Calendars

This is my life savor! I try to have at least 2 months always visible. I love these that I found when Toy R’ Us was going out of business that are dry-erase. The are vinyl that stick to the wall and are adjustable and reusable. I can just wipe things down from one month to the next and keep things on track. This is where Dusty and I can both know what we have coming up.

Mail Pouch

This is a MUST! I am really really bad about what to do with mail. Let’s be honest, most of what comes in the mail these days are bills, political ads, or junk so I’m not always excited to even look in the mail. However, there are still things that need to be looked after. This is where I will put the important paperwork and since it is smaller I don’t have room for the junk and things that are just going to take up space. That encourages me to take the stuff we don’t need straight to the trash.

A Desk

This little vanity is somewhat special to me. This was the vanity that sat in my grandmother’s bedroom that she used to do her hair and her make-up. When my mom asked me if I wanted it I took some time to really consider what I would do with it. Using it here as a place to do my planning and keep track of daily activities is just perfect. It’s small and doesn’t take up too much space. I am still trying to decide what to do with the mirror on it however. I don’t really need to have a mirror there so I am considering covering the mirror with either chalkboard or dry erase vinyl for another little layer for notes and such.

Charging Station

One of the other things I have incorporated into my command center is what I call my charging station. this is where I can charge up my own personal devices such as my computer or my phone but I also have the kids put their electronic devices here at night to charge up. This ensures a couple of things. 1) This ensures their devices actually make it on to the chargers at the end of the day. 2) It ensures that they are not using their electronics after lights out happens. This seems to be more of an issue with the 10 year old than with the other 2 but its best to start creating this habit now before it becomes too big of a fight.

So that is what my command center looks like. It’s not anything super fancy but it gets the job done for what we need it to do. Do you have a command center in your home? If so what does it look like? How do you use it? I would love to know how you keep your household running smoothly! Leave me a comment bellow!