taking command

I think most families with children at school know what it’s like to drown in paperwork. Newsletters, permission notes, information notes, book club. We seemed to accumulate the stuff at the rate of knots, and most often, it ended up being stuck on top of the growing pile of similar papers on the microwave inside out walk-in pantry. Why there? Because it was semi-out of sight, and I could easily scoop the pile from the kitchen bench and plop it there. Also on top of the microwave was a box I put there to try and contain keys, wallets, and phones.

But it didn’t work. The piles of paper grew higher, and the box became a junk catchall. I got well and truly sick of it. I saw this fabulous little command centre on Pinterest, and knew this was the perfect solution for the black hole that lived above our microwave. Actually building something was out of the question, we had a newborn and Mr Dove was about to go back to work and I really really wanted something RIGHT NOW. (this may or may not have been in the midst of my day three baby blues meltdown that also saw a storage overhaul in the laundry and a new much larger washing machine). I did, however, have an idea of how to achieve a similar result, with minimal cash outlay and zero additions to the “honey do” list.

I had noticed this range of organisers at BigW a while back, and planned on using the black version, but when I went shopping, I decided I preferred the kraft. A magazine holder on it’s back is the perfect way to store notes and information – I added binder dividers I had spare in the office to seperate out spaces for current week notes for each child, and a fourth section for upcoming/miscellaneous paperwork. This section also holds an A5 exercise book that will hold my weekly/fortnightly menu plans once I get back in the swing of that. Then a pen box to hold a few pens, spare pencils for homework and a sharpie for last-minute labelling. Behind this is another pen box that I pop our spare change into. Then a CD storage box to hold wallets, phones and the iPad. I did have three 3M hooks mounted inside to hold our keys as well, but the box wasn’t quite deep enough, so I’ve now moved these to the wall immediately to the left, and plan to alter the box to convert it to a charging station as well as a storage box.

Step two of the makeover of this area will be a noticeboard like this (links to my pin as the pin goes nowhere except an image file. I will try and track down the original and update the link), or this, which will go on that same left hand wall. Step three will be to make a cute key rack like this cute vintage frame one.

I think all up it cost less that $25 for the whole set-up, and so far it seems to be working well – though the real test will be once school returns, especially with Butterfly due to start preschool as well after the holidays. I will go through the cubbyholes each Sunday night and turf/update each child’s weekly section, as well as doing an audit of the wallet box contents to ensure it doesn’t become a catchall for all the crap again!

This is project number two in my “totally pinspired” challenge to turn my pins into projects. We are aiming to complete a minimum of two pins a month. For all my Totally Pinspired projects, click here. You can find my Pinterest boards here, and my completed pins board here. If you’ve been totally pinspired as well, I’d love to see what you’ve been making!