I'm thinking take the command/drop out of the kitchen and put it in the mud. Can't advise better without a scale drawing, flat on paper, showing both areas and all dimensions. Entry points etc.

I am not for junk collecting spaces in the kitchen. .......drop zone indeed : )

Drawers are more functional. 12" is enough for all the uses you've listed.

Is there a reason this isn’t being turned into a pantry? It would be wonderful for food, extra serving pieces, etc.

I need a to scale floor plan and honestly exactly what you need in a command center .

thanks for feedback-
I have a pantry area on other side of kitchen already.

I was having trouble posting my scale drawings here but will keep trying.

Thanks M Miller, good thoughts. thanks!

We currently use the chore chart and my littles use daly routine dry erase charts for school prep. We don't have hanging filers for homework/school papers but I want to solve that problem of having them just pile up everywhere so I thought this might work. I agree I want to spend wisely and this space needs to be versatile and have different uses over the years.

I'm still working on getting the floor plan attached. not tech savvy

In our last kitchen, we had custom built cabinetry with glassed in uppers/deep drawers below, and functionality was important. The centre section had an closed in upper area for basically what you are describing. It soon became a messy catch all, even though there were organizational elements. Consider if your family is going to keep up as planned.

Think about mud room possibilities, which I think will provide better and longer term usage due to ease and access. Have a wire basket drop off for each child, a bulletin board to tack up things like birthday invitations and their art, and a computer initiated monthly calendar which can be easily shared on line and printed re: game times, deadlines, concerts, school PD days, doctor appointments, and list goes on. We had 3 kids, 3 years apart and worked full time; make it as straightforward as you can!

I've currently got a 3-part kitchen command center. 1) Rolling cart that holds papers and child art supplies, with the top serving as a "drop zone"; 2) Pottery Barn wall organizer system; and 3) magnetic dry erase boardsmagnetic dry-erase boards. My drop zone is a permanent disaster. But the vertical items are all really useful. I've got hooks that keep my keys and shopping bags, slots for pens and checkbooks, a sunglass shelf, file slots that hold a useful amount of paper per child, but tell me pretty forcefully when it's time to edit, dry-erase boards that cycle between chore lists, shopping lists, and art display.

TLDR: Vertical storage only. You could do this as one or more shallow niches between studs, or just mounted on the wall. You don't take any space from the other room. Vertical storage 1) makes it easy to see everything; 2) tells you forcefully when it's time to edit; and 3) is really easy to reconfigure over time.

I attached the scaled drawing of the entire kitchen and mudroom area. Jan would you mind taking a look? and see my comments with that.

I have International students and all the things you need from the command center I put on their laptops or phones since that is where they live .I have no clue how old your kids are but most have laptops now.

my kids just turned 4, 8, 11

HERE are the plans again in case they got hidden in text.

NOTICE proposed command center is red X. It's actually 30" wide. The mudroom is lower level with stairs going up to kitchen. Mudroom design has not been worked on so this is TBD (needs help too).

Now leaning towards minimizing the command center to a very shallow recess in wall for only vertical command center/hanging filers/calendar, mail filer etc for more versatile use and taking out the cabinet, losing charging station and putting it elsewhere to gain a bit of storage in mudroom. Only issue is mudroom is slightly lower level so that creates a bit of separation for ease of access for other frequently accessed command center items kept there.

Anyone disagree on this?

Sounds great to me! My one worry is the command items that have to stay in the mudroom. What are they? Hard to say for certain whether this is convenient without knowing what kinds of things you will have to keep retrieving from the mudroom.

How many devices will be going in and out of the charging station? If it's just a few, what about putting an outlet & charging station in the open shelves that run perpendicular to the slider?

Thanks mcarroll16 for your feedback. I’m Not entirely sure yet- most organizational items can be hung on wall in
kitchen. thinking backpacks, purses, Keys, sunglasses, items for outside would all be in mudroom.
That’s a good idea to put a charging station near pantry area or top drawer between pantry cabinets.

Charging drawer. Magnetic blackboard, colored chalk. Baskets to hide clutter. Keep it simple.

Actually my idea was the shelves on the other side of the slider. Your idea for charging station in the pantry area is better than mine!

My dream is to have one of these in our side hallway!

https://matteroffractions.com/products/32-smart-display

wow- that is calendar is legit!

Right??? Trying to convince my husband how awesome that would be and it would sync with all of our icalendars!

looks like it will pay for itself before you know it !😉

@mcarroll16, would you be willing to post some photos of your command center/shelves/slots? I am currently going through the same exercise as Jen and your system sounds like it could work for me. Thank you!

Ha ha ha! Ok, here it is. It's clearly past time for me to clean things up. But here it is, almost completely unedited (just removed a few things with identifying info). We start a kitchen remodel in a few weeks. The wall system will move to an office area I just created in the family room. But the black dry erase boards will stay in the new kitchen. One for kitchen lists, one for kid stuff (they don't/won't use it, but I use it to keep track of their activities and homework), one for the week's latest art.

My "system" is a pretty good example of why Jan Moyer recommends keeping these somewhere else, like a mud room.

Thank you!!

thank you for sharing photos! Very helpful.

I saw the scale drawing. Put it in the MUDROOM.

The real answer to command/control ? I don't have it. All I know is one thing. Eighty percent of life is continual repetition. The same activities, the same bills, laundry, meals, linen changes on the bed, house cleaning, laundry, school days, weekend days

I do know one thing: This is fantasy island..................: ) WHY? BECAUSE IT IS NEARLY EMPTY.

All of these, large or small, start with the best intentions and a little or a lot of money. Matters not. They all disintegrate to more than one can manage. Victimized moms, via Pottery Barn, Pinterest images, cute doo dad crapola that includes, twine, pins, baskets, bins colored chalk etc.

Me? I'd buy a multi person ( 4/6/8 ) appointment book, No different than a hair salon uses a big three ring binder with a folder in it for each kid. ........and weed that binder weekly.

Bring in ZERO junk mail. Pizza coupons, take out menus? They are on your phone.! Pay bills online, toss the catalogues to recycle and zero entry in the house. Buy less junk. : ) Buy less everything, basically. It's the number one problem, and I see it nearly every day, in every home.

I''ll put it here for now, I'll pay it later file it later, tidy up later, empty the trash later, load the dishwasher later, empty the dishwasher later, ................get the wash from the dryer later. The worst word is basically."later". : )

Or get a really BIG calendar and use it. 48 inches x 36. If you need more? I can only sympathize.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1033855069/huge-activities-printed-wall-calendars-6?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_-paper_and_party_supplies&utm_custom1=k_Cj0KCQiAzMGNBhCyARIsANpUkzM1HTRP5pFKA2sfh9iS3jC1EbNe2oSjfEcSHrEYPkzB94dnq-2v__caAq04EALw_wcB_k&utm_content=go_12665398257_121762925993_511610210343_aud-1184785539978:pla-314261241107_c__1033855069_12768591&utm_custom2=12665398257&gclid=Cj0KCQiAzMGNBhCyARIsANpUkzM1HTRP5pFKA2sfh9iS3jC1EbNe2oSjfEcSHrEYPkzB94dnq-2v__caAq04EALw_wcB

I wanted to write a comment regarding your command center as far as school papers etc...

Where do your kids do homework? Where do the backpacks get opened? That should be the area where the school organization goes. The kids are not going to take papers from another room and bring them to a folder in the kitchen.

I would not necessarily try to make a small 30 inch area fulfill multiple needs for what sounds like a very busy household. Have a command center for general needs like mail drop, charging, calendar and another command zone for school stuff at the place where the kids do their work.

Our school zone was the dining room which was directly next to the kitchen, well lit from afternoon sun and a pleasant place to be with tropical plants and a pretty fish bowl. I emptied my hutch of typical linens and dishes and made the hutch the "command zone".

All office supplies, art supplies, papers, coloring books, playdoh, slime supplies, beads etc were stored in the hutch, completely hidden from view yet organized. Also, each child had an art portfolio where the more permanent keeper projects went plus an acid free archival box for school pictures, newspaper articles, report cards etc.

I had a large antique ceiling tile hanging on the wall to display current art project with magnets. The art projects would either go to recycling or right into the portfolios.

I guess my point is to use your imagination and make your house work for you. I liked having my kids all doing work together while I could be making dinner nearby so I made the dining room have another purpose. Don't try to smush a lot of uses into a space that may not work for the way you live.

That being said, I would have LOVED a mud room and hope you make it all work for you and your family. Enjoy it all because it goes by in a snap. :)

Jan, thank you for your honest feedback. I agree with you on all of it. I’m trying to find a middle ground so I have a bit of organization in the kitchen but I like the idea of keeping it simple.

Perhaps a big calendar on the wall for the whole family and a hanging binder on the wall there.

Great idea to keep mail in the mudroom and discard junk mail in recycling before it even gets into the main house!!

cleo- thank you. great insight as well. You are right on the backpack issue. The locations that they will be Doing schoolwork will evolve. It may end up being some simple hooks for backpacks that are placed in the dining room. Fabulous idea for a hutch/with art and office supply function. I am thrilled to gain on mudroom and I really I feel grateful that I have that option. Now we need to purge!

I am really loving it he feedback on this thread, so I am going to ask a related question, but I hope I am not running afoul of the forum etiquette here. Someone tell me if this is considered ”hijacking,” please.

Does anyone have a “staging area” in their mudroom? This would be, for example, for packages/returns that wait until you are headed to the right area of town, items coming in that need to be assigned a home, grocery bags that need to go back out to the car, etc. If so, what does this look like? Do you have a way to hide the mess if guests come over? We are not naturally neat people. Thanks!

The stage is the car. Go put it there. All that will happen is you make a bigger mess, when you still have to eventually or never or whatever...... do the task.

It goes in the car. Posit note on the dash TO DO!! Lose the later word. It's the origin of every mess you can name.

Don't make messes you have to hide. Turn later to now, as much as possible.

Items that need an "assigned home"??? What would that even be? Don't say decorative doo dad from the junk discount stores, I beg. That too is the bane of a ............crapped up home>

Ps up there above? You don't "keep mail" you deal with mail, Read, Pay, File, TOSS. If you must keep paid bills? scan and file digitally. Today. Not next week. That day.

This stuff drives me nuts.......

All that has happens is more complicated, ridiculous "systems" that fail , after you have spent money and time. Time that could have gone to getting rid of a task, or the thing, or the shoes, clutter, catalogues, pizza coupons, and god knows what else.

Yes,....you are right. I don't have a junk drawer . Because anything that would go in the drawer has a place. Office , tool box, sewing box, garage, basement desk, pick. Shoot me.

Dont get me started on Kiddie crafts...........

I would absolutely not put that in the kitchen. It will become as Jan says a total clutter magnet and will make your kitchen look perpetually messy.

I'm a fan of command centers, personally. I added one in our mudroom in our last house and will do the same in the next house. But it was in the MUDROOM. I would never want that clutter in my kitchen.

The best part of our command center was the TWO months of dry erase calendars. I put them up with the picture hanging command strips (velcro ones) so I could move them as the months changed and we could see activities 1 month in advance (a single calendar is useless IMO as what do you do at the end of the month? No one knows what's happening next.).

We also had small storage baskets on the wall under the calendars (1 per person) to hold keys, gloves, work badges, sunglasses, and now masks, which worked well. The chalkboard didn't get used. The cork board did a little but not much. I also put up a larger cork board where I pinned up DD's "art". I wanted to display it but didn't want it cluttering up the fridge. All of this was out of sight from guests unless they went to the PR.

Well, @JAN MOYER, I cannot keep the things in my car because we have a lot of car break ins in our neighborhood. Keeping anything in the car is a big no-no here because it just encourages thieves to keep coming. And as for the things that don't have a home yet, an example would be a gift. I just received a Soda Stream and a piece of art. I am excited about both, but have no idea where either will go just yet and don't have time to figure it out until the weekend. Any thoughts?

Well, after so many good responses, I decided to get rid of the "nook" command center in kitchen- I will use the space in the mudroom instead. (that will be another design discussion)

I will utilize the wall space in kitchen for a family calendar etc and be flexible about where the kids will be doing homework before I create a space for there papers.

THANKS SO ALL THOSE WHO GAVE FEEDBACK :)

Good decision!