Melle, let me try to get all your multitasking thoughts into my pea-brain before I tell you something that won't work.

One thing you might want to consider though.
Or a couple of things...
1. Get a pint of that chalkboard paint from the hardware store or Lowes/Home Depot, and paint the inside of your cabinet door with it. Put a strip of molding inside across the bottom for the chalk, out of the way of your cabinet contents.

2. Get a piece of flat metal and frame it with a picture frame, maybe paint it with the chalkboard paint. Use small magnets to hold your notes. This way, you can still write them on your little slips of paper, and stick them up and rearrange them easily. Using the small PostIt notes with some stickybacks, that works, but I find the sticky runs out before the note is ready to toss.

3. How big a bunch of mail do you get each day? Do you have a lot of catalogs arriving? I found a wire rack with two slots for the mail, and hooks across the bottom which are good for the dog leash, and three sets of keys. I have it mounted just inside the back door. I put outgoing mail in the top slot, and incoming mail in the bottom. This beats having the mail left on the countertop where it gets WET or mixed in with the recyclables.

4. For appointments, I like to clip small notes or the calling card given to me, to the front of the mail slots, using a clothes pin. I know that at Michaels or the Hallmark store, you can find a magnetic calendar....OR
make your own which you can paint as a universal calendar which can be magnetic if you also make it out of metal, then frame it to look pretty. I would try the narrow colored tape instead of painting the colored stripes to make the 7 days across and about 5 rows down. This is not rocket science, and you can make it what you like...even getting your kindergartners to help with it.

Glad to see you back with us. Good to know you are still hanging with us.

Funny you should ask...

Until this week I kept the calendar clipped onto the left side of the fridge, and the basket that holds our bills (paid and unpaid), checkbook, etc., hung on a nail on the side of the nearest cabinet. We are re-arranging the kitchen and I've been thinking about where to put the 'junk station'. Currently phonebooks, paper supplies, flashlights and candles are in drawers in a small free-standing chest, but that's on its way out.

I'd like to build a bank of drawers, maybe 42" high, including the countertop, to house everything except the calendar--I like having it on display, or at least where I can see it at a glance.

We have a large chalkboard for the grandsons, but it's in the playroom, mounted at their level, and I wouldn't trust that my 'plans' would be left alone.

I think your idea of a chalkboard in the hallway sounds great, or if you don't like the dust, use a dry erase board. You can mount it at a comfortable height for you.

To make 'to-do' lists, or menus for large gatherings, I use spiral notebooks. I started using them when my kids were in school, and we could get them at the beginning of the school year, sometimes 10 for $1.00. You can date the front, and refer back for the next party to be planned, or to remind you what was for dinner Friday, two weeks ago. :)

I'm outside watching my boys play -- loving wi-fi :-)

1 -- YES to chalkboard paint!!! After I posted, I went online chalkboarding (even though I had listed "find chalkboard" as the last thing on my list, to do this evening -- apparently I totally forgot b/c it was the first thing on my mind). Anyway, I came across the paint (I knew about it before but forgot about it) and I called DH. He is on board to help me make some chalkboards out of scrap stuff we have. It will be the least expensive option AND we will get exactly the right sizes ;-)

2 -- Framing metal for magnets: what a cool idea! I even have an old, large frame in the garage. It needs everything (sanding, new finish, something to go inside it) and I have never felt inspired; the mirror that used to be in it broke when we moved to this house. I'll have to see what DH thinks of the idea, but maybe that would be a good use for the frame I've had for...eight years now LOL! I especially love this idea b/c things are ALWAYS falling off the fridge...so annoying AND so ugly :-(

3 -- I saw something like that in the BBB ad a few weeks ago. I thought it was a great idea but I wasn't sure if DH would actually use it and I didn't know where we'd put it.

What about hanging wall pockets for mail? I could sew something like that...has anyone used hanging wall pockets for mail?

4 -- chalkboard dust is not a major issue for me b/c I like to wipe off the board w/a wet cloth rather than erase.

5 -- large gatherings -- I do NOT do large gatherings very often b/c it's overwhelming and stressful. Love the notebook idea though! I hope I can remember it for next time :-)

Melle I use a wall pocket for our mail and stamps. Picture is small of it. The pink thing next to the deer cabinet.

I keep my To Do List on the power panel in the laundry room. Paper pad has magnetic strip on it. Tied a pen to a screw. Out of sight to visitors but in a place I pass through many times a day. Calendar could go there but now I use my small pocket one I keep my work hours in as I am constantly looking at it.

Chris

Here is a link that might be useful: Wall pocket

Chris thanks for the photo! I will keep an eye out for some nice wall pocket fabric. I think I could hang it right by the front door to be a pretty and functional decoration :-)

Melle I think a fabric one would be good. Fun to make too. Even quilted place mats might work.

Good question. I don't have a central location either and am interested in the answers you'll get.

I'm glad I asked, too :-) The folks on Small Homes forum ROCK!

I remember when the Small Homes forum was also the "slow responses, small membership" (LOL) forum! I'm so glad that's not the case any more. Everyone has such practical advice for utilizing space... Sorry if this sounds patronizing, I'm just not the most creative when it comes to utilizing the (lack of) spac. I've lived here 8 years and only YESTERDAY did it occur to me that the hallway could be the spot for all the practical-but-not public message/appointments etc. that don't have a good home in our home.

It sounds like the hallway can be our message/appointments/to-do list/mail center after all. Which is PERFECT b/c I've never painted the hall and only have one photo hanging up. Now I have incentive to actually turn it into something more than just a passage to the rest of the house!

There is room for to-do list chalkboard, framed magnetic board, and a custom wall pocket for mail. I'll probably even put up some low hooks for the kiddos, too. They will get some use out of the hallway as well :-) I'm not yet sure what I'll do about a calendar -- I love the idea of a re-usable one but we are usually given a calendar every year so, for now, I'll just keep it in the cabinet (why do I hide the calendar, mainly b/c there's no appropriate wall space).

DH expressed concern about framing a piece of metal for magnets/notes. He thought it was an AWESOME idea but, for some reason, he's worried about the safety? It would be out of reach of the toddler...can anyone think of other safety concerns that framed metal might have where other hanging things wouldn't?

I really like the idea of the chalkboard behind a cabinet door, but I'm afraid I wouldn't look at it if it weren't out in the open. I tried putting my to-do list on the inside of a cabinet door and kept forgetting to look.

The hall has very good possibilities. For me, the laundry area is a hall (with doors on each end) and I think I could handle the clutter on that wall.

I can't think of any reason that a framed piece of metal would be any more of a danger than a mirror or big picture, less so even because there would be no broken glass if it fell.

You should be able to get thin, light-weight metal. But you could attach it to the wall with screws (into a stud), then mount the frame on top. That way the weight of the magnets and notes wouldn't matter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Source for metal sheets/any size

melle_sacto, didn't realize the link I sent was set on stainless steel--at the top of the page are links for other metals--just make sure you get something that attracts a magnet. Also, I think I've heard of magnetic paint--you might try googling that, if your DH still isn't happy with the idea of steel.

My central calendar is my dayplanner. It's "central location" is my purse, but I'll pull it out and leave it on the kitchen counter on weekends or home and I'm working with it...but it goes in my purse no matter what.

I have a small spot at my counter near back doo where I keep pencil can and misc office-supply stuff...pending bill pile, etc. It's not a lot of stuff either.

Is this a calendar used by you...for you & keep you going with family things, or does your husband refer to it, add to it, and/or have any responsibilities to keep it up?

I tried a central calendar when I was married...at H's request...but his input to the calendar ended up minimal and not worth the effort to make it public and useful for the masses. My calendar was all me & my responsibilities. It was harder to manage more than me when I was the only one doing the work on it.

I'm a big dayplanner user, and by adding pockets & tabs, the lists, info, my stuff is always there, and nowhere else.

As for the mail, I go thru right away. Catalogs & mags get put in the living room where I would sit to read them. Bills go in my pending bill stack (in the kitchen office/dayplanner corner), junk is just out right there on the spot, and anything to keep or address later is inserted into my dayplanner or put in the files.

That's how I do it. I do not have a home office anymore...just the dayplanner and few necessary supplies in the kitchen corner. My laptop can go in whatever room I want. My file cabs/archives are parked in the library. That's all I do.

I painted the inside of several kitchen cabs with chalkboard paint for lists and to-do things. It was fun for a couple months...but a chalkboard cabinet is not a portable paper list I can throw in my purse/dayplanner and run out the door. I was finding myself re-writing lists because I had to transfer them to paper to take to the store.

Easier for me to list quick in the dayplanner and go...and...the lists are always with me in my purse no matter where I am. Good for impromptu shopping when I'm at a particular store and KNOW I had a list going already for things already.
Gayle

The "list" chalkboard would be for tasks I want to accomplish on a daily or weekly basis. Yes I guess I'm that disorganized. I have a LOT of things that go on in my mind and if I don't focus by making an in-plain-sight list then I end up getting very few of them completed. I'll just start a bunch of things and lose steam b/c I don't finish.

A day planner is a great idea...I even have an old one. I just never used it :-( I think what happens is, like Marti8a, I just forget to look at things that are out of sight. That's why the hall is appealing, it's not completely avoidable. And the magnetic board, well, that's just going to be a nice alternative to the fridge. I can't seem to train myself and DH to stop putting things on the fridge, so better to go w/an idea that will work WITH our habits.

mama_goose thanks for the link!

Gayle, you have some great solutions to keeping current.
I have my Blackberry and since they updated the software, it has a memo pad. I use that a lot now. It also has a calendar and an alarmclock. Best alarm I've ever had...if I keep the battery charged. These days, I do not have many appointments and such, except doctors, but I do use the Yahoo calendar for keeping up with birthdays, anniversaries, you know those annual events which do not change.

And Melle, I've noticed that this forum is really lively and friendly too. You were probably here a long time before I showed up, which has been less than a year. I was always on the gardening side. Thankfully, I found the Smaller Homes folks who are all very supportive and imaginative.

And yes indeed, I do think there is a magnetic paint too. I do not know how effective it is. But how about trying some really heavy duty aluminum foil over a heavy poster board...in a frame after you test it? I know they make some sheet metal which has rolled edges, which would make it safer for little fingers. But even if it was NOT rolled on the edge, a backing to the frame would keep tiny hands safe. Depending upon the wall surface (plaster/sheetrock/wood) you might be able to screw it to the wall and prevent ANY contact with the metal. There are some children's toys which are magnetic, so they can move letters and numbers around on them. Are they metal? Or are they attracted to metallic paint?

Working with habits you already have is a great way to switch over to a different way of doing things. Not as much chance of failure, is there?

bump! :-)

Just wanted to let you know that we finally started the process!

First item on the list is to sew a hanging pocket mail organizer. I hope I can finish it this week, and I'll post a photo of it when I'm done.

Oh Good Can't wait to see it.

We have a hallway from the kitchen to the garage. A pantry closet is on one side, the laundry room door the other side. Between the studs, we took out the sheetrock and framed the space with nice molding. Carefully measured and fit in pieces of ceiling tile, covered with neutral cloth material. Voila, a tack board. The cutout is approx 4 feet high. The family calendar is there, the telephone (with a small shelf under it hold pencils/note pads), the family telephone lists, and lots of space for appointment cards and business cards. It does not protrude out into the hallway, and nothing gets 'hit' as we walk by.

croftonmom that sounds like a great idea. Do you have a picture of this. I am kind of seeing some thing like the old ironing board cupboard they used to do. Wish I had one of those now!! Every one removed the ironing boards and made spice cupboards out of them. Not me I put the board back. LOL

That is an amazing idea to make a tack board! Definitely filing that one for later :-) I'm about halfway done w/my hanging mail organizer. Seems like whenever I sit down to sew my toddler wakes up from his nap >:-(

We're stumped on where to find a piece of sheet metal to put into a frame (I already have) for a magnetic board. DH saw pieces at Home De$pot for $20...seemed awfully pricey. Plus the size was wrong.