Anyone have a sort of Command Centre?

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

With a dd due at Nursery in a few months and a second baby on the way, I feel I need to become more organised. DH and I both work ft (shifts for me, too) so at the moment I simply stick my rota on the fridge and text the Childminder the days and times she will he having dd.

Im envisaging years ahead of letters from school, friends addresses and phone numbers, doctor and dentist appointments and all the extra gubbins on top of managng two kids.

Anyone have a bit of a command centre - places for letters, calendar etc somewhere in their home?

What is essential? How did you introduce it? We dont have masses of space but plenty of bare walls.

In our house it's called 'The kitchen wall'

There is a 5-column family calendar, and a magnet board - get some really good magnets, not the decorative ones that can barely hold their own weight. And at least a couple that are a magnetic clip that can hold a thicker letter etc.

Our 'Inbox' is actually my arm of the chair, since DH is in the house and sees the post when it arrives, and I read it when I'm in from work and slumped after tea.

I can't believe all these paper choices. Google Calendar is brilliant, particularly as the PTA and Scouts also use it. You can enter the telephone numbers and any other notes in the appointment, and then if either parent is ill, the other knows exactly whom to contact. No crossings out necessary - you just change the date field. (Although I do have some concerns about Google knowing everything I am up to...)

My children are teenagers now, and have access to it, so in theory could know what's going on! You can make the contents private if you don't want other family members to see.

I also have a file with clear pouch pockets into which I slip any necessary paperwork, and a card index for receipts for ticking off/keeping for refunds.

A duck egg bkue calendar could be just what im envisogining ?muses?

Thank you for sharing your organisational set ups - and for not making me feel toooooo anal.

I do love Pinterest so will get pinning

We use a magnetic white board. Communications between me and childminder go on that board. At the bottom I have a general section which has anything extra. On the fridge we have a calendar which has the finalized schedule. Each week I go through everything with DH on Sunday and the childminder on Monday morning.

My kids are 18months and 3 next week. It is hectic but you get used to it.

We have the family calendar in the kitchen, a strong magnetic clip on the side of the fridge for school and activity paperwork for each child.
I also have a letter holder thing on one end of a kitchen worktop which has the address book, pens, stamps, new post that needs dealing with in.

Things which we need to keep go upstairs to be filed in the study, everything else goes in the shredder or recycling.

It doesn't need to take up loads of room - my advice is to keep whatever you do simple, otherwise it will take more time to organise than it will save you

We have calendar with sections for each family member and one for birthdays. All appointments are written as soon as I get wind of them, not left on the appointment card or google. Letters for appointments, including school trips are kept in the back envelope. Permission slips are signed immediately and put back in school bag.

Other paperwork in various folders and always gets too full too quickly. Am thinking of photographing them and storing online.

Dcs each have a cubby hole by the door for bags and shoes. They each had a cubby hole for school stuff downstairs until they became independent.

When anything runs out we put it on a shopping list, to do lists are in my diary where I put tasks done as well.

I just watched Blended (new Drew Barrymore film) last night and she is super dooper organised in that amd it got me thinking about what I can do!

you want to use icalendar on your phones and share it

thats all

A diary in the kitchen. If it isn't in the diary, it isn't happening.
Loads of letters from school/car tax renewal notices/bills due/shopping list held on the fridge with magnets.
Once event is over/bill paid/shopping received the paperwork gets binned/filed as appropriate.
Family filing cabinet in my (home) office, full of bills going back several years; totally unnecessary apart from the insurance policies but will take several days to remove and shred all non-essentials.

Large whiteboard in kitchen, next to dining table. Left hand side divided into days of the week, right hand side blank.

Sunday evening, we all talk through the week ahead. Everything that anyone else needs to know about (for lifts, babysitting etc) goes on the appropriate day on the left hand side. The right hand side is for stuff like a shopping list and reminders about anything major coming up in more than seven days' time.

DH and I do both also use electronic calendar apps, but in both cases, they are synched with our work calendars and that is way too much information for sharing. The board is a nice visual dumping ground that everyone can see, every time we sit down for a meal.

marking place as I need to read through this thread for tips.

We moved a month ago, baby#7 is due in 3 weeks and I have PGP & PSD so life is quiet difficult right now, but i want to be more organised mentally and practically by the time the kids go back to school in Sept.

thanks for starting thread Hacked, when are you due?

Due October with no.2. Seems small fry in comparison with seven!!

I'd love a command center. I also want one of those head-microphone things that exercise class teachers yell into.

Haha thatd be brilliant! Amd start speaking army style:
Dinner at seventeen hundred hours
Lights out at twenty one hundred hour
Stat

Am liking the look of this for the layout. Thinking above a thin bench or shoe rack with named hooks for bags and coats.

I would like something like this. I would keep a nice leather desk diary and all the must not lose things in it..

Ooh thats pretty.

Slim too so you could just tuck it in a corner.

Does everyone use their best handwriting for whiteboards? It could ruin the look of the room otherwise ...

We have the Organised Mum Family Planner which has tear off shopping and to do lists each week, boxes to scribble in for each member of the family each day and a pocket at the back for bills.

Also got a blackboard in the kitchen for day to day reminders. You can paint a square of wall or a cupboard door with blackboard paint.

Huge blackboard in the kitchen that has a section for each DC, one for shopping and a miscellaneous one I write relevant stuff in eg Happy Birthday DS2 or the pancake rhyme for pancake day.
It has a magnetic strip above it that has clips and magnetic pockets, the fridge is at the side and that has clips with coupons, postcards, invitations and the little DC's magnet letters spill over onto that.
The calendar is on the blackboard and I copy relevant details on each child's blackboard section, DH checks the calendar for his stuff.
Above the magnet bit I have frames for pictures the DC do at school.

my command centre is my phone and the icloud diary - we all input onto it.
touch paper once, input onto diary, then bin is the rule.

Google calendar here. I can access it via my laptop or iPhone. I add appointments straight away and send an invite to DH when it's something we do together.

All contacts go straight into Google contacts so I can access them at any time on my phone.

I chuck all the paperwork in a drawer in a cabinet and go through it on a regular. Anything that is time dependent goes in the bring forward folder.

I think we have a dispersed command centre (more attack-proof, surely!):

A google calendar that DP and I share (this is also my work diary). We put all the kids appointments in this too.

A fridge door with magnets for things we keep needing (babysitters' no.s, school dinner menus, money-off vouchers)

In the kitchen, a shallow green Ikea storage box (from their toy storage range) that works as a sort-of in-tray - letters get put there and sorted every week or so, unless more urgent. Crap Miscellaneous oddments also get put there

In the play room, the same green in-trays, one each for each kid where their drawings and homework and other crap small treasures get put until they overflow.

A 'things that happen every year' list stuck to a kitchen cupboard (birthdays, MOT date, insurance dates)

I do a Monday - Weds menu plan on a Monday, and put that on the fridge.

Some mnemonics - the child whose name begins with R always has things put on the right (clean laundry on the right of the basket, and righthand of the green in-trays) and Whites go in the Right hand dirty linen basket.

And yes, like other people said, my brain, which is very good at remembering who is doing what when and what needs to happen before that can happen.

An Apple Mac in the kitchen, and both of us have iPhones, along with 2 iPads.

Everything goes on the calendar, which syncs to phones and iPads. Shopping list is done on 'reminders' on the 'puter, which again syncs to phones, so we go round Sainsburys ticking off on the phone.

All contacts are synced too.

We are almost completely paperless.