Getting Organized: Create An Organized Family Command Center

Hey guys!
Well, I’m back with yet another organizing post!  I’m on a roll with this whole organizing thing.  Let’s pray I can stay this motivated because I have several more areas of the house that need some serious organizing!
I wanted to share with you today a little “command center” of sorts that I created for my family.

We are fortunate enough to have a little office area in our breakfast nook.  It is so convenient.  It is literally right in the heart of the house.  It’s right next to the kitchen and family room where we literally spend all our time.  It’s a great little space!
But, because it is right at the center of everything – it is also the first place that gets the most cluttered and unorganized!  We would throw our mail here, random papers would find their way here, keys, hats, wallets, you name it.  And IT DROVE ME NUTS!  I couldn’t stand that this area had such great potential and we kept it so cluttered.  So I organized it!

I’m ashamed, but here are some before shots:

 

Junk, junk, junk!  Sour patch kids (my hubs has a thing for candy), business cards, scissors, notes, appointment cards, label maker, magazines, mail stuff….AAAAHHHHH!!!!! 

It all started because I had to empty out the bottom 2 drawers from our office nook because I have a curious little toddler who likes to open them and pull everything out.  I figured it probably wasn’t a good idea that she get ahold of the sharp letter opener, or the expensive custom address stamp thing-a-ma-bob (that’s just to name a few of the potentially harmful doo-dads in those drawers).
Do you see those mail holders we had?  Super cute, right?  I mean….they’re “His” and “Hers” (cue the “aawwwwwws”).  But they were WIDE OPEN and as you can see….someone – not mentioning any names (*ahem* SCOTT *ahem*) – wasn’t that great at keeping their little mailbox nice and tidy.  In his defense, I just just cleaned mine out the day before so mine didn’t always look this tidy either. 
I knew I had to do something.  I needed a functional space where I could keep a calendar, house our mail (and all our mailing accessories – stamps, letter opener, address stamp, etc), keep a notepad, and have a cute little pen holder.

And here’s what I came up with……

SO MUCH BETTER, right?  Love!

I found some nice, sturdy gray magazine files at Target.  I thought these would be great for our mail because they are nice and tall and would hide even those big, bulky envelopes that Scott sometimes gets in the mail.  And we get a lot of magazines, so magazine files made sense! 
I framed a calendar that I printed out from Seaside Creative.  I also DIYed that little wooden tray with some spray paint and vinyl (more on that later) and the box that holds our mailing supplies.  

 


Hhmmm….I decided after looking at these pictures that I’m not a big fan of the green contact paper anymore.  I need to take that down, stat!  I also need to come up with something to hang from the random black bar on the wall (it’s from IKEA and used to hold little tin buckets but I wasn’t feeling the tin buckets anymore so I took them down and haven’t replaced them).
So what do you think?  What spaces have you been organizing?  Do you just love the fresh start that a new year brings as much as I do?
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