A place for everything...

There's no secret I love to organize.  I even think my organized house could be MORE organized.  I am constantly trying to re-organize my laundry room, but it's hard because there is a lot of crap shoved in a small space.  It looks neat, though.  We have clearly out grown this house but are not in any position to try and sell and upgrade to a bigger one, so keeping organized is the key to my sanity! One place that I am satisfied with, is my "command central".  This is an area in the kitchen where I keep all of our day-to-day things organized and ready to go. Here is also where we keep all the kids shoes and accessories so we can get out of the house as smoothly (ha!) as possible.

On one corner, I have my newest addition to this area: the shoe bench!  I love this thing!  Each kid has their own shoe basket labeled with their names so they know where to put their shoes.  The small cubby above holds the older two's library books from school so they stay separate from our regular books.

On the other corner, I have my nine-cubby holder.  The top three baskets, one for each pea, hold the kids "accessories": sunglasses, hats, mittens...This keeps it neat and is easy for each of them to grab what they need.  The middle three hold my stuff: coupon binder and my "kid-free" purse, my tutoring and ptsa/preschool folder, and then my diaper bag.  The bottom three are carry over, the girls boots, slippers and I, so kindly, gave David a basket for his hats :) On the floor next to it is the shoe basket where everyone can take their shoes off and throw them in there.  There is another one by the front door, but we primarily use the garage to come in and out of.

This rack and the smaller on below is where I hang Abby's backpack and the kids coats, when its cooler out.

Here's is my command central.  I use the two cork boards to hang up important school papers: lunch schedule, spelling words, homework and the school calendar.  I also hang up David's schedule, since it is ever changing, my monthly meal plan and my laminated daily to-do list.  Next to the cork boards is my weekly white board so I can write down what's happening that week so I don't forget anything!  On the top of the bookcase is my file holder that I put important papers that need to be filed away in the file boxes in the closet.  This also holds things like pens, pencils, stamps, post its, etc...  Next to it is my yearly planner.  I do use a digital planner (cozi) but I just can seem to NOT use this one too.  This way, I can keep track of up-coming appts, school events, date-nights, and other things I can't forget!  Lastly is the two-sided brown basket where David and I each have a side to thrown our crap into: keys, ipod holder for running and all the nonsense David brings home from work daily.  This system works for us and it quite easy for the kids so access their things.  They know to put their stuff in its correct place so they can find it later.  I use a similar system for their toys in their bedrooms and in the living room.  Unfortunately we don't have a playroom...booooo :(...so keeping things organized in there is even more important!  Someday, we'll have a playroom and I already have 1000 ideas pinned and ready to go!
Good luck organizing your command central!!