How to Organize the Family Command Center with IKEA Items You'll Love

Learn how to setup an easy family command center using Ikea items you’ll love to organize with!

Home or Family command centers are becoming a staple in households these days. They not only look nifty, but they actually help you and your family get more organized. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to setup up a basic family command center, Ikea style!

This family command center Ikea hack works well for small spaces, but is still chalk-filled with storage space. If you want some extra command center ideas, there’s a list of ideas at the end of this post.

Also, I’ve included some free Grocery list and Weekly meal planning free printables, so you can use them in your home.

You also might be wondering why I used Ikea items. If you’ve ever read any of my other Ikea hacks, you’ll know I love working with Ikea pieces. They’re inexpensive, modern , well built and with a little creativity, can be transformed into amazing things for your home.

Ikea is also pretty accessible in many areas of the world which is another reason I love sharing Ikea hacks on this blog – because no matter where you live, you can make it too!

Before we begin, I’ll quickly go over the basics of a family command center – just in case you have NO idea what I’m talking about!

Let’s do this!

What is a command center for the home?

A command center for the home (or family command center) is a system for organizing your household. You pick a space in your home which will be used to organize everything in you and your families lives. Things like:

bills
events/activities in your calendar
receipts
chores
homework
incoming/outgoing mail
keys
grocery list and weekly meal plans

Where to put your family command center in the home?

Where you decide to put your command center in your home is complete personal preference. Some families like to have their command center in the kitchen, some like to have their command center in the entryway of their home to have quick access when coming and leaving the house.

We put ours in our front hallway. It’s an area we usually have to pass no matter were we go. That way it’s always accessible and not too far out of reach.

There is no hard and fast rules about where to put your command center, it can even be in a tiny corner or that wall space you never knew what to do with!

How to Make a Family Command Center

Below I’ll give you a brief overview of how I created our Ikea family command center. I’ll include plenty of our command center pictures to get a better idea of how I organized stuff.

Following that I will give you some additional family command center ideas you can use for your home command center

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see my disclaimer

IKEA Items

Ikea front opening Frames (no longer sold). Here’s a similar version of these frames
Ikea shoe cabinet Hemnes or STALL
LUNS Ikea chalkboard wall organizer
Ikea magnets

Decorative items

Here’s the the breakdown of how I organized our family command center DIY

Here some more pictures of each element closeup.

Meal Planning and Grocery List Organization

{P.S. If your curious about the the grocery list / weekly menu printables above, I’ve included them for FREE at the end of this post.}

I bought the above picture frames from Ikea a while back and they were absolutely perfect for a DIY dry erase lists. The front of the frame opens up, so you can slide papers in and out without having to take the frame off the wall.

The front part of the frame is made out of plexiglass, so using dry erase markers on it works perfectly. You can erase you lists each week and start fresh without having to print them out each time.

Unfortunately, these frames are no longer sold at IKEA. If you still want these, here are some similar frames that swing open at the front.

Command Center Wall Organizer Chalkboard

This all-in-one command center wall organizer chalkboard is an AMAZING Ikea find! I was super excited when I saw it in the store, and it was a steal at $15!

It has many uses, too.

It’s not only a chalkboard, but it’s also a magnetic so you can use magnets to hang any paper- items, like invitation, movie tickets, coupons etc.

This Ikea chalkbaord also makes a nifty wall organizer for mail, with a perfect mail box at the bottom. It can hold quite a few bills, letters, flyers, etc…This would work great as a wall organizer for the office.

You even get 2 hooks at the bottom which makes a perfect his and her wall organizer for keys. Imagine, never misplacing your keys again!

I am so impressed with this chalkbaord, it’s yet another super awesome wall organizer from Ikea – and cheap to boot.

Chalkboard Organization Ideas

I used chalkboard pens to divided up the Ikea chalkboard into 2 sections. One for upcoming events where I can hang invitations, etc. The other section is for weekly planning of important events.

You can use the chalkboard for other uses too, like writing down your weekly menu/grocery list as a wall organizer for the kitchen. Or even for keeping track of chores or a chore chart for the kids.

The sky is the limit with this chalkboard.

Ikea Shoe Cabinet turned Paper/Homework Organizer

This Ikea STALL cabinet is actually a shoe cabinet, but I used it as an entryway wall organizer.

I didn’t have a lot of room to put a bigger cabinet, so this was perfect! It might be small, but it holds a lot of stuff and can be used to organize just about anything (yes, even shoes if you’d like!).

I use this storage cabinet to store seasonal items like gloves/mittens in the winter, hats and sunglasses in the summer. One of the drawers is used to keep my kids’ homework folders, and other papers that get randomly left on kitchen counters and tables.

I used long file folders separators and placed them in the drawers to organize papers by category, so they don’t get all mixed up.

Personalizing and Decorating your Home Command Center

I am always looking for pens in my house, and usually takes me a while to track one down. To solve this struggle I decided to buy a whole bunch of pens from the Dollarstore and use a pretty mug to hold them.

Now, anytime anyone needs a pen they know where to go! On a side note, if you like that mug, you can make it too! Follow this tutorial and learn how to make this heart mug with Sharpie markers.

To go along with my new pen collection, I bought some post it notes because what’s a pen without some paper, right? I bought it from my local Dollarstore along with that family rules plaque.

More Essentials for your Family Command Center

If you want to add even more organization to your command center, here are some more ideas to inspire you!:

clock
clipboards
post it note dispenser
Monogram letter of your family name
pen/pencil holder
magnets
dry erase board
whiteboard calendar
hooks for keys
paper calendar
Chore chart
receipt drop box
Command center wall organizer
Mail / bills organizer
hooks for backpacks
Wall homework file baskets

Here are some extra command center pictures .

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Free Printables for Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping

As promised here are the free printables I used in this post. Simply click on the images below, save them as “.jpg” and print out on normal printing paper.