These days, spring cleaning and organizing are high on many people’s to-do lists.  If you’re emerging from winter looking for ways to organize and simplify your family’s life, try creating a Home Command Centre.

I’m diving into all the details of how to set up a Home Command Centre and sharing inspiration pictures to create your own.  I promise, no matter your space, budget or style, there’s a Home Command Centre for you!

What’s A Home Command Centre?

A Home Command Centre is the information hub that keeps track of everyone and everything in one central location in your home.  It’s basically your secret weapon to organize the chaos of daily life that, amazingly, continues to exist even during a global pandemic (online meetings, classes and gatherings, oh my!).

Why Have A Home Command Centre?

In a nutshell, a Home Command Centre makes life easier!  How?

1.   It keeps track of all that’s happening in your family’s life and keeps everyone informed, improving communication and reducing scheduling conflicts;

2.   It reduces paper clutter and misplaced papers by providing designated landing places for everything until you have time to read, act, file or toss it; and

3.   It stores everything you regularly need in one central location, saving you time and    simplifying your life.

Now that we know HOW a Home Command Centre helps you, let’s get into the details of setting one up.

Where To Put A Home Command Centre?

A Home Command Centre should be located in a space all family members pass through daily.  Kitchens are common locations, but hallways, entryways and mudrooms are great spots too.

What’s In A Home Command Centre?

An effective Home Command Centre is customized to your family’s specific needs.  Most commonly, one includes a family calendar, a place for incoming mail, bills and other papers, and a place for notes and messages.

Weekly menus, grocery lists, to-do lists, chore lists and inboxes for each family member can also be included.  Whatever you include, the key is everything has a designated spot.

My Home Command Centre

When creating my Home Command Centre, I was motivated by the ease of use and minimizing visual clutter. Factors specific to my family included:

1.   An inbox for my daughter that was easy to reach and use;

2.   A simple filing system as a landing place for mail and papers until we can fully address them; and

3.   Minimal visual clutter.

Based on this, I created a Home Command Centre in my kitchen that has 3 zones.

Zone 1 – Desk and Magnetic Chalkboard: The desk is home to paper, pens, pencils, envelopes, stamps, cheques, paperclips, binder clips, post-it notes, tabs, tape, scissors, stapler, etc.  Everything we need to take notes, make notes, mark notes, sign papers, and pay bills.

On top of the desk is our inbox.  Incoming mail to be looked at goes in the front slot.  My daughter places all school and activity papers that need to be seen by us in the second slot.

Above the inbox is a shelf with our filing box.  This is for short-term filing with categories for Read, Act, File, Receipts, Taxes, and individual files for myself, my husband and my daughter.

It’s not always convenient to get things to our long term-filing in the basement.  Having this file box prevents piles of paper from accumulating in the kitchen or being misplaced.

For more on creating a lasting household paper management system, click here.

Finally, a magnetic chalkboard hangs above the desk.  It’s home to our family calendar, notes for one another and reminders for upcoming events/deadlines.  It’s also used to display some of our daughter’s latest artwork.

Zone 2 – Cupboard #1: This cupboard is directly beside the desk area.  I keep our Home Management Binder and meal planning/recipe binders here.

My Home Management Binder is such an essential component of my Home Command Centre that I wrote a separate post just about it.  You can find out what one is, why I think one is so important, and get 38 free printables to create your own by clicking here.

I hang our recycling schedule on the cupboard door along with a full-year calendar to record events not in the current month.  All this information is easily accessible but doesn’t create visual clutter because it is tucked away in the cupboard.

Zone 3 – Cupboard #2: This cupboard is three steps away from cupboard #1 and is where I keep our weekly meal plan, running grocery list and freezer inventory.  Again, the information is easily accessible without creating visual clutter.

Our Centre is a little more spread out than others, but it works for us.  It keeps us organized, minimizes visual clutter and keeps us all on the same page.

Inspiration For Your Home Command Centre

I’ve rounded up 12 more Home Command Centres below.  They include options that take up whole walls or just some space on the side of a fridge, DIY options or pre-made systems and options created from dollar store finds.  There really is something for everyone!

As you think about your own, consider what type of information comes into your home? What kinds of information and supplies does everyone need access to? What is the best way to display and store it all for your family?

Home Command Centres for Larger Spaces

If you have a larger space to work with, the following Home Command Centres may work for you.

Home Command Centres On A Budget

Here are some Home Command Centre’s that prove you can create a great one on a budget.

Home Command Centres for Smaller Spaces

These Home Command Centres prove you don’t need a lot of space to create a fun and functional one.

Conclusion

Life is hectic!  A Home Command Centre is your secret weapon to tame the chaos of daily life.  Whatever your space, style or budget, I promise you can create a Home Command Centre that will keep your household running smoothly!

What’s your favourite part of a Home Command Centre?  Let me know in the comments below. And if you liked this post, please share it!

Happy Organizing!