Command Centre

I have been slowly putting together what some people call a command centre.   A place to centralise some of the information, paperwork, to-dos, nick nacks and bags to organise the family.  My husband since its inception has picked on me mercilessly – “Huston, do we have permission for lift-off?” etcetera, etcetera.

Most people put this in a high traffic area like the entrance or kitchen but I have chosen to put mine in the garage.  This is the area we enter and exit the home from so it made sense to have this ‘stuff’organised in this location.  It is also the only real place where I had the space to put such a centre and it not look too out-of-place.

I have mucked around for about a year with a whole host of things here – an old shoe organiser, a large magnetic board, hooks but they all didn’t fulfil the job until I sat down and really decided what I wanted to organise in this space and how best to do it.

What I decided I needed to have centralised here was:

A list of weekly events

Outgoing mail

Incoming and outgoing school notes

Important notes and things to remember

Bags

Hats, sunnies and sunscreen

‘Outdoor’ shoes like gumboots and sand shoes

The Command Centre started with the purchase of the Tjunsig hat rack at Ikea.  The little hooks underneath are perfect for hanging our bags so they are in easy reach when leaving the house.  The rack section on top I have been using to place things I need to remember to take when I go out or I hang the baby’s blankets here to grab when we head out for a walk.

I picked up the cork/white board from Kmart for $10.  I spray painted the frame white  and glued on some label holders and hooks so we had a place to hang various keys of importance.  The whiteboard is the perfect size to outline the events of the week and to make note of things to remember .  The corkboard is used to keep incoming and outgoing correspondence. I keep the pins, pens and eraser for this board in a couple of  Bygel containers from Ikea hanging on the front rail of the hat stand.

I had  purchased an Asker suspension rail and matching hooks from Ikea for a project in the kids’ room but had not needed it so I used this to hold some aqua coloured peg baskets I picked up for a dollar at Target.  I have used these to store our sunnies and sunscreen in easy reach when heading outdoors.

Also hanging in the centre is the magnetic board for other important notes.  I made this board from a pizza tray.  It was super easy.  You can read how I made this here.  I love the  paper I have used to complete this tray and the blue in the print matches my peg baskets nicely.

As luck would have it, we are improving the storage in our walk-in-robe so we no longer needed the shoe rack in there.  Rather than taking it to the dump, it has found a place here for all the shoes that I dare not let come inside.  You know the ones – the dirty, the wet and the stinky ones! By adding a couple of baskets to the shelves I have a place for our hats and for some of Master O’s toys that are reserved for when we are heading out.  I will write about these soon.

So far this is working well for us.  It is perfectly positioned so it is the last thing I see as I reverse out of the garage so there is nothing I will forget.  It is also the first thing I see as I enter the garage so I don’t forget to unpack the car and put everything back in its place.