Can you post a sketch or photo of the area?

Where will they enter/leave the house for school? These landing pads areas have to be really close to the entry to be useful (and used).

^^^^ THAT!

It wouldn't be set up in two places. It'll be one of EITHER spots as showed by my photos up thread. Great ideas, right now i already have their backpacks on a hook the kids can reach up (its hooked onto lower wall under coat rack) which is in our laundry/mud room.

I've been looking at pininterest to get ideas and look of a family command station. Saw one that is something i want to implement. It has a whiteboard calender with pencil holder and below it is another pinboard for papers/forms/permission slips to be pinned onto. Besides that is the folder holder for kids to put in their ongoing folder/assignments, etc into the slot and below that near the floor is a row of hooks for backpacks. Just something simple like that for now until my boys are bit older where i would need to implement more organization skills for their homework/ongoing assignments.

something like those photos im attaching. The main issue is im having trouble trying to figure out WHERE to put up those whiteboard/pinboards up?? The first location with 4 feet wide wall near eating in area of my kitchen is ideal cuz its the heart of action in my home. Boys tend to draw/write etc on my pennisula while i cook/prep. Or the second location near garage entrance but its way out of action, fairly narrow. it would literally be just the drop zone for their backpacks, and have to trek across kitchen, down the hallway to look at said calender? maybe im overthinking this!

Definitely have a "everything on this surface goes with" spot. For me, in our current house, it's our dryer. If you have backpacks like these, also get the kids in the habit of putting "reminder notes" whenever they have to take something with them (such as a project) that isn't in their backpack.

So, they'd put a note "Take project" on their backpack the night before so they wouldn't forget in the morning. (I still do this--my "spot" is the top of the dryer, and if there's anything I have to take with me it goes there, or, if it can't, a note goes there)

It really helps to teach them HOW to remember everything rather than remembering things for them.

Those Pinterest centers look nice, but the white board calendars are very limiting. You can only see one month at a time. I know that I need to see two to three months at a time. With a single month the last week of the month usually doesn't show all 7 days.

Here is what I have with my 4, and 4 feet of space:

4-prong hooks, each child has a spot for a backpack and a hat/scarf/coat/etc (essentially 2 hooks each). Above we have a shelf for charging items (more when they are older- phones will go here, tablets). We had an outlet up high for this. I did not see the need for folder areas- I take folders out of the backpack, sign, they go back in. Same for homework. I don't want it sitting around to be forgotten. They have a bench with enough room for 2 pair of schoes each under. Lunchboxes go in a specific spot int he kitchen, and are picked up by the child each morning to be placed in the backpack. I keep my family calendar (I have to have paper lol) in the kitchen where I usually am either cooking, and can easily reach it/still supervise whatever is going on. If your area isn't central, I don't know that you'd want the calendar there.

What I meant by: "I'm not a fan of having kids keep records in two places"
was that I don't think they should rewrite their homework assignments on the whiteboard AND in the notebook from school.

And from 18 years of backpacks x 2 kids--I am NOT a fan of hooks for backpacks. Backpacks are HEAVY. And I've had those straps, or the fabric around them, give way. I wouldn't want to continuously stress them like that.

Kids just want to drop their book bags down somewhere (one quick motion, instead of fiddling with threading the handle over the hook). Why fight that natural instinct? I suggested something like the crate on the floor so they or you can also toss in Thursday's gym sneakers and the lunch bag and not have them fly all around.
Also, with some sort of bin or crate to chuck their backpack in, then any "take with" stuff can just go in in the crate, under or over the backpack itself. No looking in another spot, no "remembering to write a note."
I've done this "everything goes on the backpack" with my kids and it was really powerful.

(I always poke myself on hooks, which is part of my aversion to them--though I'd probably also trip over the crates/bins)

Speaking of tripping: Don't put this in that hallway. Put it where there's more floor space. Partly also because (if I'm interpreting your pictures right) you can see that wall from farther away, so it will be able to serve as a visual reminder.

Regarding this: "for now until my boys are bit older where i would need to implement more organization skills for their homework/ongoing assignments."

Start implementing those organizational skills now. Now is the time to teach them to create a time period for filling out calendars, surveying the special projects, etc. Do it while things are really simple. And teach them to do it, and why.


And I completely agree with this: "the white board calendars are very limiting."

I agree that the "seeing one month at a time" is limiting, but I really object to whiteboard calendars. I like multi-month paper calendars. So you can write something two or three months away, right away, and not have to transfer it later. So you can sit down and write all the recurring stuff on every day.
To take care of hmorton's objection (and it's a sensible one), I'd hang the calendar on a hook in a bulletin board with a space above it, and when the month changes, I'd tear off the top calendar and pin it to the bulletin above the calendar. Then you can see two months at once.
(the only downside is that if you want to keep the calendar pages as a practical or sentimental record, it's loose pages now, but you could probably handle that easily too.)

as for how to make it: I'd probably use Martha Stewart's favorite tactic of cutting a huge piece of Homasote to use for a wall-size bulletin board and covering it with fabric. Then I could attach a blackboard, a small whiteboard, a calendar, whatever. And I could move things around easily if it turned out I needed to. Homasote doesn't necessarily hold a screw tremendously well (for heavier stuff), but if you had a carpenter-type person, they could make a wooden frame that would provide some of that support. And you can always drill through the Homasote into the wall behind it to use basic wall anchors or molly bolts (just with a longer screw).
I'd want to make a huge bulletin board the same color as the wall, so I'd try to find a coarse fabric roughly the same color as the wall. Or, a coarse neutral fabric, and then thin out the wall paint (get the same color in an acrylic) and paint the fabric to match. (there are lots of tutorials about painting upholstery fabric with regular paint)
Also, if the bulletin board goes way up, then I can have a place to pin drawings that come from school, etc. And even decor items like those names can go there.

(Permission slips don't get pinned to the board--they get signed and put right back into the "give to the teacher" folder. You might want to pin up the top half of the slip, if your school designs them that way.)

I love what dualvan did, totally saving this for reference later on.