Family Organization Center
Here at the Diedreck household we have a one-year-old, a four-year-old, a working father and a stay-at-home mother—and a lot of weekly/monthly activities to keep track of. Whether it’s Daddy’s weekly photography class, Caleb’s preschool days and swimming lessons, Claire’s play dates or massages for Mommy (ha, just kidding)… we need to have a one-stop-shop for all our information. I had heard from a few friends that they had a “family organization center” in their home—right near an outside door for all the family members to check each day. So, I looked up some photos online (thank you, Google) and came up with a center idea that would work well for our family. I knew we needed a calendar, some good fun quotes, a place for mail, a cork board for all those papers we get from preschool—and most importantly, a place where anyone could write down things they needed from the grocery store. Needless to say, this has been in place for almost 6 months—and it works great! Here it is when we first set it up, before adding all of our appointments:
A closeup of the whiteboard which includes a place to put our incoming/outgoing mail:
A great reminder of the Family Rules as we walk out the door each day:
Here it is after I added some appointments to the dry erase calendar:
A close up of our family organization center in full use. Having coupons here helps ensure that I’ll actually remember to take them with me when I go to the grocery store. I added a label to the mail area just in case it wasn’t clear what it’s there for:
What would you put in your family organization center?
About Allison Diedreck
Allison is a stay-at-home Mom to Caleb and Claire. With both kids now mobile and needing attention for what feels like 25 hours a day, she has her hands full, but loves (almost) every minute of it. Allison went to school for English and Journalism and has worked at numerous newspapers, including The Stranger, The Seattle Times, Robinson Newspaper Group and Messenger Post Newspapers. She also did a four-year stint with Paychex, Inc. before deciding to become a stay-at-home Mom in October 2009. She has discovered the joys of 1-2-3 discipline and early bedtimes. Besides reading and writing, Allison loves to travel and cook. She is constantly listening to music and typically has a cup of coffee in hand. Originally from, well, many places, Allison dreams of living at a beach with the jet-ski as her mode of transportation.