Inside: If you’re feeling disorganized, creating a DIY home command center can help. Customize your command center to suit the needs of your home and family.
Tired of scrambling to find your keys before you leave the house? Wishing you had an easy way to keep track of everyone’s schedules in your family?
There’s an easy solution to that problem: the family home command center.
By creating a home command center, you’ll give your family an easy system to stay organized, share each other’s schedules, and keep the thing you need before you leave the house in one simple place.
Creating a Home Command Center that Works for Your Family
The biggest key to success when creating a family command center is making it work for your family. It needs to be something everyone will use – not just you.
The whole family has to be on board in order for it to truly help you stay organized and make life easier.
By involving them in the process of designing and creating your command center and setting clear expectations from the start, you’ll have much better luck making your command center stick.
What is a home command center?
Now, you might be asking yourself, “What is a command center in a home?”
It’s a fair question. Maybe you haven’t heard of a command center before.
But believe me – you’ll be glad you did.
A command center is a central place for you and your family to get organized, stay connected, and cut down on the chaos around your house. It’s a place for you to keep your keys, glasses, and other go-to items.
It’s a spot where your family can share each other’s schedules, notes, and reminders. Some people use theirs to share the weekly dinner menu. Others incorporate chargers, making it a go-to spot for phones and tablets.
There’s no ‘right’ way to make a home command center. That’s the beauty of it. They are completely customizable.
By making your own DIY command center, you can incorporate all of your personal command center must-haves and create a truly functional tool that makes your life easier.
Create a command center layout.
The first step in making a family command center is to determine your layout.
As you learned earlier, there’s no ‘right’ way to make your command center. It’s all up to you and the things you and your family will find useful.
So think about it! Look around on Pinterest for inspiration. Show your family some ideas and see how they react.
Ask questions. Would they rather use a chalkboard or a whiteboard for reminders and notes? Is the weekly dinner menu a helpful addition? Do you need a spot to store your mail?
Once you understand what components you’d like your command center to have, you can figure out your family command center layout.
Decide the purpose of the command center.
One of the first things you need to do is determine the purpose of your command center. Is it meant to be a convenient spot to put things when you return home and grab stuff before you go?
If so, your command center should come equipped with hooks for car keys and purses, a place to store an umbrella for rainy days, a phone charger, and a grab-and-go snack for busy mornings.
On the other hand, if it’s supposed to be a spot for the family to stay connected, you’ll make some different design choices.
A whiteboard, markers, and a family calendar would be critical – and a bulletin board for some fun family photos could make a nice addition!
And if you want it to be both? You can do that, too!
Figure out how much space you need.
The next step in creating a home command center is figuring out how much space you need.
Most family command centers are wall-mounted to take up as little space as possible while offering a ton of value.
To understand how much space you’ll take up on a wall, you can use a table or your floor and map out where – and how large – you want each piece of it to be.
Decide where to place your home command center.
Now that you know how much room you need to assemble your home command center, you need to find a spot where you can make it happen.
Near the front door is a popular spot. For a more out-of-the-way approach, put your home command center in the hall leading to your garage.
Or, you may want your family command center in a central location, like the living room or the kitchen. That’s OK too!
At the end of the day, your command center needs to work for YOU – so put it wherever you’re going to actually use it.
Command Center 101: Basic Supplies for a DIY Command Center
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Shopping for the different pieces of your command center can be the most fun part of the process! Depending on what your family command center will include, you might be looking for:
Baskets
Baskets are an easy catch-all to add to your command center. Use them to hold keys, sunglasses, wallets, lip balm, and other things you usually grab on your way out.
Calendar
If you’re trying to keep track of everyone’s schedule in your house, a calendar can be a great way to do it. Get everyone to write down their appointments, rehearsals, and other can’t-miss events to avoid conflicts.
There are many different types of calendar options. This is the white board calendar that we use in our home and it works great!
Whether you use a planner or not, having a central calendar that all family members can see helps keep everyone on the same page.
Dry Erase Board
Most families want their command center to include a way to share reminders and notes. A dry erase board makes it easy to add – and remove – those messages.
We use the notes area on our white board calendar, but you can also get a small white board for messages to keep everyone in the loop!
Hooks
If you don’t have a ton of surface area on your command center, hooks can be a great way to maximize space. Use them to store car keys, umbrellas, coats and jackets, hats, purses, and more.
This hook option also includes a small shelf and an area to hold your mail.
Tips for a DIY Command Center that Works for You!
Creating a home command center that works for you is key. Not sure how to make that happen? These tips will help ensure you set yourself – and your command center – up for success.
Talk to your family about what they need.
It’s important to set up a command center that works for everyone in your home. Discuss your plans before you begin with your family and get their input.
What would they like to see in your command center? What would they ignore and never use?
Put your home command center in a high traffic area.
A command center that’s tucked away upstairs and down the hall isn’t going to do anyone any good.
By keeping your home command center in a high-traffic spot that’s easy to access, you make it easy for yourself and your family to use it.
Keep your command center organized.
A disorganized command center isn’t helpful for anyone. Stress the importance of keeping your family command center clean and orderly, and make sure the system you establish is easy for everyone to follow.
Your mornings can be a little less crazy with an effective command center that helps you to communicate as well as keep your schedules straight.
A DIY home command center is a great way to get organized and cut down on the chaos at home!
If you feel like your counters are always cluttered with mail, you’re tired of answering “what’s for dinner?”, or you can’t ever seem to find your keys on the way out the door? A DIY command center is for you.
And if you’ve got a busy family and need an easy way to keep tabs on everyone? A family command center can help you do that too.
Creating a home command center that works for YOU and your family will help you keep your household organized!
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