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When my family and I moved into our new home in March of 2020, I marveled at the amount of room we would now have, and had lots of lovely dreams about how I was going to organize everything. Two weeks later, COVID-19 happened, and that was that as far as getting organized at home was concerned. I still had a lot of ideas, but keeping my family safe and figuring out how to work and learn at home had to be made a priority over everything else.

When we learned that we would indeed be going back to school for in-person learning this summer, I was ready to jump back on the organization train!

For weeks, I had been looking through various ideas as to how I could best keep everything organized in terms of backpacks, lunch boxes, school papers, and various schedules. I knew we would need a place to hang and store these items, and that a blackboard or whiteboard would probably be helpful, too!

Vision and Space

The first step in any type of decorating is gathering ideas. I love looking through Pins on Pinterest, magazines (yes, I still do that!), and even seeing other people's homes for inspiration. Next, I take my space into account. You can have a collection of fabulous designs that are great for various spaces, but if they don't or won't work well in your own space, it's good to revise your plan or to keep looking for something that might make more sense within your space.

Lucky for me, I had a piece of blank wall space to work with for our organization station. I knew I wanted a Farmhouse style look for this space. While I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in terms of wall hooks to hold backpacks, I chose to buy hooks, and then asked my husband to fashion a piece of wood to house our hooks, and naturally tie in with the trim on the wall by our back door.

Next, I gathered other needed materials. I chose a framed whiteboard with a calendar, to help make keeping schedules straight a little easier for our family. I added a faux leather hanging envelope, and a wreath for a little added storage and charm.

The bench seat was already in our possession (Closetmaid storage bench, $69.99 on Amazon), but I do plan to either recover the seat and change out the bins, or have my hubs build a different bench altogether (but that's a DIY for another day!).

The piece of wood was measured to match the trim that was already on the wall, underneath the windowsill. It was sanded, installed, primed, painted, and then the hooks were added. I chose these farmhouse style hooks for our project. They came in a pack of 10 hooks for less than $12.00 on Amazon.

Getting there! I love progress photos!

All other project materials, I purchased at Hobby Lobby. If you're not jazzed about shopping in store, here are similar pieces which can be found on Amazon, and you can have them at your door in a day or two with Prime!

Framed Whiteboard by Kate and Laurel ($50.56)

Lambs Ear Mini Wreath by WildRidge Design ($26.00)

Hanging Envelope Wall Decor ($14.99)

Our finished project!

The icing on the cake for this project was hanging the hooks! My hand hubby really made this vision of mine work for our space. This project cost less than $125.00, using new items, and some items we already had, like the bench. My family now has a place to store and organize their backpacks and lunch boxes, a place to store jackets and shoes, and I have a place to keep the family calendar. Any important papers to be signed for school go into the wall envelope. Easy peasy for everyone in the family! The calendar is color-coded (each family member has their activities or event written in their assigned color), so we can keep everything straight! The calendar is already helping our 9-year-old stay better organized!

Making this area look like it was there to begin with, makes it all the more enjoyable! This space is right within our kitchen, leading into our pantry and mud room areas, which makes it the perfect place to drop & go for my kids.

This space was considered unusable before, and now it serves a much-needed purpose for our family.

I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!

Are you in need of an organization station for your family? 

Already have one? What would or does yours look like?

If you've been looking to add an area like this in your home, I hope you'll consider re-creating this project! Like it or love it? I'd be honored if you would Pin it &/or share it!

Happy DIYing!