Command Center & Home Message Board Hall Of Fame

Every home needs a home message board, or family command center, of some type, where messages can be shared between family members, and information the whole family needs to know can be conveyed.


The busier the household the more important this is because people are coming and going and there still needs to be communication.

Yes, with smart phones a lot of the little notes like, "gone to the store," don't need to be shared anymore since you can just call or text, but even now there are still papers from school or church with dates or needed information, phone messages where a child has answered the phone and needs to tell a person has called, etc.

There is no right or wrong way to do this, but it is important that there is a designated area where these communications can occur.

I started by calling this a message center, but many who discuss home organization have begun to call it a "command center" and I think the name makes sense. It's the place like the central command, in a military operation, where everyone gathers to learn information and see what needs to be accomplished.

There is a lot of flexibility, as shown below, in how to make this command center. You choose what information you believe needs to be conveyed, how, and where.

After seeing these real life ideas I hope you'll feel inspired to make your own command center, and it's easy to do.

First, choose a spot to place the information. A central location that everyone normally looks is important. That's why many people either place these centers in an entryway or the kitchen, two spaces in your home most family members congregate.

Second, choose what types of information you want to share in these areas. The sky's the limit, but ideas include:

• Family calendar


• Sports schedules


• Chore charts for kids, or cleaning schedules for the family


• Menu plan for the week


• Place to write notes or to do lists


• Place to collect school papers, permission slips, etc.

Below are some real life examples from readers who've created these areas in their home to give you ideas for setting up your own.

Do you have such an area in your own home? I'd love to see it, as well as hearing your tips keeping up with these areas of your home since you've got to stay vigilant so they don't get cluttered up.

You can share your photos and tips here and I'll add the best ones to the page.

Family Calendar + Chore Charts + Weekly Menu Area

The photo above was provided by a reader, Laura, who said, "This little nook is right by our back door. We have a home office so no need for paperwork here. Just a family calendar, weekly menu, chore charts and back packs."

Thanks so much for sharing this picture Laura. The area looks lovely.

Many family and home message centers do have a calendar in them, which makes a lot of sense since this is one of the main ways a household communicates and gets on the same page about what is happening.

I like the idea of also posting the weekly menu as well. It helps the kids (and everyone) know what to expect. Here's a printable weekly meal planner template if you'd like to fill one of these out each week to post in this area of your home.

In addition, you can use a menu board to help you display what's for dinner each night in your home.

If you'd like more ideas for these menu boards check out my article!

Another Example Of An Entire Wall Of Information:

This picture was provided by a reader, Umm, who said: "I have a full on management wall."

Family Message Center For Calendar, Chores, & Paperwork

Kim shared this picture, above, of her family message center, where she's put up several things to help her family communicate and keep up with what's going on in the household.

First, you can see her family's calendar on the left.

Underneath that is her kids' chore chart. Brilliant to keep this with the rest of the stuff, I think.

Finally, she's got a place to collect mail and other paperwork on the right in the wall mounted inboxes (you can see similar products below).

Looks great!

Wall Inbox {Referral Links}

Here's another example of a family message center, which a reader, Hayley, sent in. She sent both a photo showing the whole thing, and also a couple of detail photos since there are several components.

Hayley calls this her family workstation, and she's got a chore chart, to do lists, a place to organize and save papers, and even cubbies to hold items for her kids for school.


You can see more details in the next set of photos below, to see the chore chart and some of the other checklists and to do lists a bit more close up.



If you'd like to add some type of chore chart to your command center, you can check out this article with ideas for kids chore charts here.

Home Management Center Using A Whiteboard

The photo above is from a reader, Erin, who said, "Here's our home management center complete with rules/consequences, chores for the day, appointments, mommas goals, etc :)"

School Information On Whiteboard & Wall

In addition, here's a photo from another reader, Tracy.


Tracy said, "This is how I keep my daughters school info organized and it keeps me up to date too. Thought I would share in case any one needs an idea."

A white board, or a chalkboard, are both great ideas to share quick messages with your family since you can easily erase and write new information quickly as needed.

You may still need something to share paperwork, but often times a note will do the trick, so this can work really well! Great job Tracy!

You can get whiteboards here:

White Board {Referral Links}

Your Refrigerator: A Built In Message Center

Above is a photo sent in by a reader, Rebecca. She said, "We use the refrigerator. On it you will see:

• Honey do list;


• Medication list for my sons antibiotics, Motrin, and Tylenol;


• Grocery list; and


• Game schedule.

Everything all in one."

If you don't want to actually write on the refrigerator itself, like Rebecca does, you can still use the refrigerator for your command center.

After all, it makes sense, in that it's a relatively blank space (at least if you've done the clear off the front of your refrigerator decluttering mission that's in a central location of your home that just about everyone in your home stands in front of every single day.

Here's another photo sent in by a reader, Seena. She said, "I really was in need of a command center for weekly menus, activities for the week, present month calendar and personal sections for three of us. I didn't want to spend too much on it so I gathered what I already had and picked up a few things from the Dollar Tree. I think this will work . ☺"



In addition, here's another photo from a reader, Jade, who said, "This is my command center with my daily do its. This way there is no excuse for hubby to not see!"

Family Message Center Corkboard: Must Be Decluttered Consistently

by Bec

Bec from 2012 - The Year of Challenges shared her before and after pictures of her family message center corkboard.

She took the opportunity that this challenge presented and went ahead and decluttered the board.

A family bulletin board can be such a good way to keep track of schedules, calendars, messages, and other pieces of paper that your family needs to keep and reference.

Then, everyone in the house knows where to both put information and where to look for it, whether you're there to help them or not.

However, as you can see from Bec's before and after pictures if you're going to use this system you've got to keep on top of it.

If you keep adding papers without removing anything, ever, you'll soon get a cluttered space where you can't actually find the information you need.

Therefore, I would suggest doing a cursory glance at the board or message center every time you tack something new onto it, and pulling off anything that is old and no longer needed. After all, who cares about last month's calendar?

Also, when you deal with your paperwork weekly, or deal with updating your family calendar go ahead and look at this message center more carefully and remove old papers.

Doing it regularly will only take a few moments and make it much easier for you most of the time.

Here's another example below, sent in by a reader, Holly, who also uses cork bulletin boards for her family's command center.

Holly says, "I have 5 kiddos & work full-time. I have this in our hallway which helps at least keep track of papers, school stuff, and sports schedules.

It is a bulletin board on top, magnetic whiteboard on bottom with magnet "pocket" put there. The hook below is for backpack, lunch box, and a few highly used coats/sweatshirts.

It's the only way I've found not to lose permission slips, spelling list, sports picture forms, etc."

It looks great Holly!

You can get cork bulletin boards here:

Corkboards {Referral Links}

Family Command Center In Dining Room To Talk About It During Dinner

Nancy shared the photo above of her command center. She stated, "This is in the corner of our dining room so that we talk during dinner or breakfast about all that is coming and going.

We keep photo scrap books there too for when we empty backpacks right away of old school work. Keep some, toss some, frame some in the davinci frames."

Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!

Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.

The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!

Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.

Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.

In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.

If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!

Get This Paper & Filing Decluttering Checklist + 32 Other Decluttering Checklists For Your Home

Right now you're decluttering your papers and files, and there's a lot of types and varieties of these around your home.

Get your 2 page paper and filing decluttering checklist, plus 32 other decluttering checklists, to help you declutter your entire home here.

I've done the hard work of breaking down these tasks into smaller more manageable steps for you, so you don't get overwhelmed or worry you're forgetting a task, and you can go at the pace you want, whether that's fast or slow.

In addition, you can tackle these decluttering tasks in whatever order you want when you use these checklists!

Are You Inspired To Get Organized Now?

I hope seeing these examples has given you some ideas for creating a family message board or command center of some type in your own home.

If you have a good system (or create one after seeing this) I'd love to see it. You can share your pictures here and I'll add the best ones to the site.

There are even more ideas for storage and organizing on the site in the {A-Z} Storage Solutions & Ideas round up page. Go check it out if you'd like to see even more ideas.

In addition, if these ideas have inspired you to organize even more make sure to join the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge. Each week we work on a different room or area of our home so that slowly, over the course of the year, your whole home becomes organized! If that sounds good to you I'd love it if you participated with us.

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