You may remember I started the year with a series on decluttering. In a post about clearing out my office space I touched on the concept of a ‘command center’. This isn’t something from Star Trek but a central hub in the home to store all the essential paperwork, perhaps hang your keys, bags and a place to make notes.

I’ve just set one up in my house but I just refer to it as a blackboard and some baskets rather than anything quite so all-encompassing as an ‘organisation station’ or a ‘command centre’. I have absolutely no idea how to describe where this little set-up is. It’s outside my kitchen in a little corridor/ inner hallway leading to my downstairs loo, washing machine and office. Perhaps it’s a vestibule or maybe just a hallway?!
Wherever it may be, originally the blackboard was painted directly on the wall using chalkboard paint. I thought I was using low-tack masking tape. I wasn’t. When I peeled off my neatly applied tape I found I pulled off half of the paint underneath and gathered lots of very unimpressed looks from the husband. In the end I just bought a sheet of thin plywood, whacked a few coats of chalkboard paint on with a small roller and then James screwed it to the wall using regular screws and screw cups. The cup handle you see on the bottom of the board was glued on with a glue gun to hold the chalk, though for these photos the chalk appears to have gone walkabout. I bought a bulk of these several years ago and have used them as handles on my TV cabinet and bureau but there are loads of similar ones on eBay.

When we first moved into the house there was a very modern wall light here with a pull string. I struggled to find a replacement as it had to have some form of switch device directly on the lamp. After finding a putty coloured light on Garden Trading I masked off the inside and sprayed with several coats of black spray paint.

Moving on the right hand side, the baskets were found on Amazon for £11.99 each. They are originally for magazines and are very slimline so perfect for this little corridor. I’m using them to stash important post, file receipts and a revelation to me; a pen pot. I regularly used to scramble around trying to find something to write with. Now thanks to a glass herb jar I finally have a place to hold a pen and scissors.

Fancier organisation stations have hooks, clocks and goodness knows what else but in the Coleman Household this is all we need.

My top tip for anyone considering creating their own is to make sure you place it in a high traffic area where you flow through regularly. This one is situated just outside my kitchen in front of the coat cupboard so I pass through each time I come in to the house to hang up my jacket. There’s definitely a lot less post left on the dining room table now.

Anyone got their own command centre? Where do you store your post and scribe your shopping list?