How to Keep Your Family Organized (She: Jen)

Hi there, I’m Jen and I blog at Organized Design. I’m so excited to be posting here on this great blog!

I’m an interior designer, which is what I’ve wanted to be ever since I was five when I redecorated Barbie’s dream house. Equally as important to me is organizing. Today’s tip is about creating an organized and good looking “family center”. (This is the place where the calendar is kept, and the school, soccer, and dance schedules are located. Maybe where you can keep your keys. A place for the mail, papers for family members, and so on.)

For a more contemporary look, this sideboard from West Elm is great.

A traditional look, this sideboard from Ballard Design would be perfect.

Now that the furniture is picked, next comes the accessories that make it your “family center”.

Binders: By having a binder for each person in the family, you can store all the necessary and important papers for each person separately.

Shoe boxes: These can easily slide into one of the sides of the sideboard, and can be hidden when the door is shut. You can have one for each person. Also, for maybe library books that need to be returned or school/work papers they need to take.

Image

Framed and covered bulletin board: To make a drab bulletin board not such an eye sore, you can cover it in pretty fabric, frame and hang it above the sideboard. You can place a calendar and schedules, or you can even grid the whole board and make each section for each person in the family.

These bulletins boards are pretty by themselves, but adding a fun fabric brings more life.

Hanging Organizers: These are great to hang inside the door of the sideboard or on the side. They have a million and one purposes. Pens, mail, keys, stamps, odds and ends, and so on.

This is just a jumping off point of some pretty things that will work in your “family center”. Here is an idea board below of how to execute it.

I hope this helps get you started on a path to create a functional family space.

~ Jen