My husband and I had a revelation Friday night -- the entire Furber Family social calendar can no longer be housed in JP's head. We had scheduled all of the following:
A sleepover at our house with Jack's friend Conway
Andie's end of the season soccer party
Katie to attend a birthday party
JP had scheduled one of the events, I had scheduled the other, and the soccer party worked its way in somehow. All happened roughly at the same time, and required pickup, delivery or both.
We also have been tracking Jack's Outdoor Education permission slips all over the house -- they've traveled from the kitchen table, to the office, to Jack's room, to Jack's backpack and back to the kitchen table. Always when we need them, they're not in the first place we look, or the second, and usually not the third.
We need a new system that involves a calendar, a to do list for each kid, and a holding pen for all the papers that spend the week in limbo on our kitchen table (and roam around the house so they're not on the table when you need them).
We've decided to make a hard-working, no nonsense command central in our laundry room that includes:
A good old-fashioned Stendig calendar. This design was created in 1966 by Massimo Vignelli and is a classic. No pictures of cats or flowers to distract from our serious task of scheduling. 
A chalkboard for each of the Furber family members so we can keep track of our stuff. We bought these magnetic chalkboard tiles from Pottery Barn a few years ago and now have have the perfect use for them. 
They're extra useful because you can write notes on them with chalk, or you can stick things to them with magnets. First thing that's going up is Jack's Outdoor Education stuff.
Cannisters like these that stick to the chalkboards and hold things we always seem to need at the last minute: hair bands, barrettes, chapstick, lunch money.
A weather clock so we can keep track of the time and dress ourselves as we walk out the door. 
Once our Command Central is all installed our household should run like a well-oiled machine. Or at least we'll be able to find our Outdoor Education permission forms when we need them.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Has Anyone Seen My (fill in the blank)?
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2 comments:
So I write this to my daughter.
No, no, you are making a mistake, do not put this critical piece of family current events in the laundry room, that is the wrong spot..........a very wrong spot. Command Central needs to be in a convenient place for the family.........someplace where the family walks by it several times day............a location where family can scan it with ease. The perfect spot in your home is on the wall by the door to the garage. That is the primary entrance and exit for you guys, it will be easy to view and update.
Mom and I have our Pottery Barn Command system set up in a similar spot and it works great. Whenever we leave the house we check it and whenever we walk into the house we check it.
Command Central is a critical piece of your family organization. Putting it in the laundry room takes it out of sight and it will soon lose its effectiveness. It will take extra effort to update it, to read it, to use it. Putting in on the wall by the door to the garage removes all the extra effort.
Listen to your father for once. Dad
And she writes back that she once again refuses to listen to me.........ahhhhhhhhhhhh.......some things never change. She sez she has something else hanging on the wall and claims that form over fashion always loses or something like that. well, what kind of a house is she running for cripes sake. No kid is gonna set foot in a laundry room.....that is just getting too close to a thing called work. Kids don't even want to take their dirty laundry to the laundry room......sheesh !! So my wonderful daughter will now spend a few hundred bucks during a time of deep economic crisis for something that will prove to be useless simply because of where she has chosen to locate it. Ya know she could just send me the money and I would be happy to keep the family datebook for her, and advise her of weather conditions in the area. Being a volunteer National Weather Service Weather Spotter I am quite qualified for the job. No wonder I have gray hairs. Dad aka gramps
Oh Dad. Can you imagine my entire family crammed into the space by my back door on our way out every morning?
"Hey, move! You're standing on my foot!"
I think the laundry room will be a super spot -- right by the back door, but out of the way.
If it doesn't work, you can personally move it all and re-install in the location of your choice.
XXOO ZenMom
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