It’s a funny thing about possibilities. Dreaming and imagining are part of a possibility-thinking process. Simultaneously, angst, ambivalence, or uncertainty can also be present. Why is that?

You understand and live your current reality. It may not be how you want it, but it’s familiar. Thinking about alternatives can be thrilling, anxiety-producing, or scary. Change requires time, attention, and resources, which you might or might not have.

Something happened to me recently. Who knew a seemingly simple guest bedroom renovation and organizing project would be such an emotional, satisfying, liberating, and poignant experience?

For years, I wanted to reimagine our guest bedroom. Initially, the room was my art studio and office. After our first daughter, Allison, was born, it became her bedroom. When her sister, Cassie, was born, it became their shared space, “the girls’ room.” Fast-forward to them leaving for college, and it turned into a guest room. However, while I made a few minor changes after they left, I never altered the wall colors, window treatments, or closet.

The girls said, “Mom, you can change the room any way you want. It’s OK.” They repeated this message to me for years. The kids had moved on and kept encouraging me to, too. However, part of me wasn’t ready to let go of certain remnants of their living-at-home years. How could I paint over Allison’s murals or cover up the pencil growth chart markings? Also, I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to figure out how I wanted the room to be until now.

Possibilities Meet the Moment

What shifted? We had other home improvement projects happening, and I knew that the guest room’s time had come. My motivation to make this change was heightened. I didn’t want another year to pass without completing this goal. I was finally ready to turn possibilities into reality.

9 Phases of the Guest Bedroom Project

• Imagine – Envision the possibilities. What do I want the room to look and feel like? How can I make it comfortable for guests and also include functional storage? What will the color scheme be? Can I refer to old vision boards or other visual inspiration sources?

• Plan – Think through the process. How much time do I need to complete this project? Where can we (my husband, Steve, and I) carve out time in our schedule to work on this? How much of this project can we do ourselves? How much outside help do we need? Should we rip out and install a new closet interior or only paint the existing one?

• Gather Resources – Identify vendors and resources. Which vendors can I use for painting and construction, purchasing blinds, framing, buying furniture, and redoing the closet? Which vendors are best for buying organizing containers and other products?

• Budget – Determine the costs. What estimates do I need to get? What will different parts of the project cost (painting, furniture, headboard, bedding, blinds, closet, bins)? What is our overall budget?

• Empty – Prepare the space for transformation. What must be removed from the room to prepare for painting and construction, and when can we empty it? How can I prepare emotionally for the temporary chaos and disruption?

• Renovate – Do the work. How many days will the painter need to prepare, demo the closet, patch, and paint? After the room is painted and before we return the contents, when can Steve install the new Elfa® closet? When can Steve install the new window blinds?

• Edit – Make decisions about room contents. Which items can I let go of by selling, donating, tossing, or giving away? Which things will return to the room? Which items need to be replaced? Which items belong elsewhere?

• Organize – Return ‘keepers’ in an organized way. How will the contents be organized back into the room? Which items will need new storage containers? Do they need labels?

• Finish – Complete the final touches. When will all furniture, lights, books, memorabilia, and games be returned to the room? Which bedding will I use? When can we hang the pictures, mount the wall hooks, and add the door stop? When will I consider the room done?

Emotional Surprises

When we emptied the room to prepare for the painter, I was surprised by how emotional I felt. I was physically handling boxes of the kiddos’ memorabilia, photo albums, books, games, and art. Touching, moving, and looking at objects from the past stirred up many emotions. I felt a powerful combination of gratitude, sadness, joy, and love.

I saw photos and objects from the past. Some images were of loved ones who are no longer alive. I looked at the kids’ art, writings, and school projects. I marveled at our detailed records of the milestones and everyday experiences. It was a journey of emotions as I reflected and remembered the beautiful years we spent raising our daughters.

Even when the room was empty, I could feel the love reverberating within its walls. Cherished memories traveled through time and space, which filled my heart and mind.

“Bringing possibilities to fruition is gratifying.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Practicing Flexibility

During the project, I remained flexible about my options, which was helpful. When a room's contents are removed, many unanticipated things can happen. Gifting yourself the flexibility to make new or different choices is beneficial.

• Closet – The closet required some thought. Do we paint the existing closet or rip it out to install a new one? It would cost more to have a new closet interior. However, time-wise, it seemed most practical to redo it now. Plus, we would gain more storage space.
  

• Furniture – After emptying the room, we liked how spacious it felt with less. While we intended to return the desk, we realized it was unnecessary and took up too much space. I’m letting go of the desk.
  

• Art – After emptying the room and painting the interior, Allison’s murals and other framed art were no longer visible. With blank walls, I reimagined the space. We decided to have more blank wall space and only hang a few pieces, including a new one. I printed and framed one of the landscape photos I had taken in the Finger Lakes.
  

• Memorabilia – I texted the kiddos photos and asked what they wanted to keep. I respected their responses and either let go or kept things accordingly. I also shared several pictures of their projects, writings, and other memorabilia I thought they’d get a kick out of seeing.

9 Lessons Learned

• Imagining possibilities is fun and creative.

• Bringing possibilities to fruition is gratifying.

• Change is refreshing.

• Change encourages more change.

• Emptying one room sparked a reimagining, tweaking, and reorganizing of other areas, such as the pantry and our bedroom.

• Letting go of things that have overstayed their welcome is liberating.

• Life has stages. Organizing your space for the phase you’re in is affirming.

• Embrace gratitude for what was and what is.

The Bedroom Transformation Video

What’s Possible for You?

How does possibility thinking show up for you? What changes have you made or want to make? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Are you ready to get unstuck, plan a new project, or create new organizing systems? If so, I’m here to help. Please email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call. Moving forward is possible, especially with support.

What pace are you traveling as you transition seasons and greet the summer? Are you slowing down and taking time off for vacation? Or are you quickly filling your days to the point of exhaustion and overwhelm? Your pace directly correlates to how well you manage your time and enjoy life.

Whether or not you’re on vacation, you can integrate regular pauses during your week. Without breaks or stops, you become less efficient and productive. With moments to restore and refresh, the quality of your decisions improves. Pacing matters, especially if you want to let go of the extraneous and become more organized. Give yourself the best chance for success. Activate the power of lingering.

How can lingering increase happiness and make you a better time manager? While it may sound counterintuitive, lingering presents an opportunity for a mindful break while focusing on something enjoyable and restorative. Lingering lets you pause, appreciate, and slow down moments. You can then return to your day with a renewed focus on what you’re doing next.

Monthly Meditation and Writing Retreat

Most months, I participate in an inspiring virtual retreat led by my wonderful friend and Clarity Coach, Yota Schneider. She creates a safe, supportive space for women to gather, meditate, write, and share.

Several months ago, the retreat’s theme was “linger.” After our meditation, I wrote this passage during our free-write. It illustrates several ways lingering has had a positive effect on my life.

Thoughts About Lingering

Wet paws, conversations, and gelato. Those probably aren’t the first things that come to mind when you think of linger. However, as I calmed myself in the darkness, the faint sounds of train horns blowing juxtaposed with coyotes howling and the clock ticking. Wet paws, conversations, and gelato lingered in my mind.

Lingering is about time – the stretching, expanding, and slowing down of moments. While lingering can be thought of positively and negatively, happy stories and memories surfaced for me tonight.

Wet Paws

First, the wet paws. Our beautiful black lab, Norton, now long gone, loved going on forest walks with us. We often walked (the five of us – Steve, me, the girls, and Norton) down our block to the path in the woods that led to the Croton River. We’d go to this one spot where we climbed on the big flat rocks – each taking a seat.  We’d sit barefoot with feet dangling in the water as we watched the river flow and heard its thunderous sound. Sun rays coming through the canopy of trees warmed us.

Norton, like us, picked his rock and submerged his front paws in the river. We lingered – each enjoying this beautiful time with no agenda and nowhere to go as if time stood still. And then, for unknown reasons, Norton would get up and decide it was time to leave. So we did. The lingering was over.

Conversations

Second – conversations.  I’ve been missing my mom and two aunts (my mom’s younger sisters) a lot lately. We talked often. Our conversations meandered. Time felt like taffy – stretching and unending. We talked about love, family, and matters of the heart. We laughed, cried, and enjoyed our time together as we lingered leisurely and easily in free-flowing conversations.

The conversations with these three amazing women have ended—at least the out-loud ones have, as they are all gone.

“Lingering has restorative powers when you focus energy on positive moments.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Gelato

Lastly, gelato. I recently had a gelato ice cream cone experience that I didn’t want to end. I tried to linger as long as possible while eating it. But you know how gelato goes—it melts, so my lingering time was limited.

But as I ate this delicious mocha gelato in a cone drenched in freshly dipped warm dark chocolate, I stretched out the enjoyment for as long as possible.

Linger. To linger. Lingering. The precious moments time offers. The beautiful moments I allow myself to savor.

Wet paws, conversations, and gelato.

Lingering has restorative powers when you focus energy on positive moments. Do you linger? If so, have you noticed helpful effects on your well-being or time management? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

If you want help letting go, organizing, or managing your time better so you can enjoy life more, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call.  Change is possible, especially with support.

When you read “leisure time,” what thoughts come to mind? Are you thinking, “What leisure time? I don’t have any free time!” Does downtime feel absent from your life because you’re constantly working, stressing, and feeling overwhelmed? If so, you’re not alone.

In 2014, Brigid Schulte, an award-winning journalist and bestselling author, introduced “time confetti” in her book Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time. Time confetti refers to fragmented pieces of free time that happen during the day. These moments are too brief to be productive or meaningful, and they spoil the downtime we do have.

Time confetti are “short, unenjoyable moments that end up stressing us out rather than relaxing us.” Frequent interruptions are typically due to technology or multitasking. Even if a disturbance seems minor, it reduces the quality of time off, which can lead to a feeling of constant busyness without a sense of accomplishment.

What is the Antidote to Time Confetti?

Strategies to balance the effects of time confetti revolve around reducing distractions and valuing and creating larger blocks of leisure and downtime. Some of Schulte’s suggestions include:

• Identify where time gets spent

• Prioritize what matters, including more leisure activities

• Lessen digital distractions

• Stop multitasking

• Delegate and share household responsibilities

• Schedule and protect leisure time

• Shift perception of busyness and success

What Does Leisure Time Look Like?

Several years ago, I jotted down a list that I rediscovered recently called “Help for those who do too much.”What’s interesting is it doesn’t specify what not to do. Instead, it focuses on creating more time to enjoy life. The list is relevant to this discussion, so I included it.

Siblings - Tod Machover and Linda Samuels

Help For Those Who Do Too Much:

• Taking time off

• Biking

• Connecting with family

• Kayaking

• Going to the beach

• Sleeping

• Waking up naturally (no alarms)

• Losing track of time (no watches)

“Schedule and protect leisure time.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

In the spirit of leaning into more downtime, I reserved two full days of fun this past weekend, which was so welcome.

Intentional Leisure Time Activities

• Spending time with family

• Exploring Manitoga, the house, studio, and 75-acre woodland garden of the mid-century designer Russell Wright

• Having a picnic

• Celebrating Father’s Day with my husband (Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads!)

• Going on a day trip

• Taking a scenic train ride in the Catskills (ice cream included)

Happy Father’s Day!

If your days and downtime are disjointed and overwhelming, gift yourself a present of being more intentional and protective of your leisure time. Eliminate distractions that disrupt your focus. Time is precious. Yes, we need to work and handle life’s necessities. We also need balance to the busyness and overwhelm that many of us feel. What helps you carve out downtime? What do you enjoy doing? What gets in your way? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

If you want help organizing your time so you can enjoy life more, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call.  A life including downtime and fun is possible, especially with support.

When you have a dream or a goal, do you wish it would happen instantly? You want to wave a magic wand, and poof, it’s done. However, most pursuits require time and commitment. A wand won’t get you there.

Patience has become a rare commodity in our fast-paced, always-on, readily accessible world. While you can find the answer to a question in seconds by doing a Google search, most aspects of life require a more substantial time investment.

When you make time to pursue what’s important, you will experience growth, changes, and feelings of satisfaction and joy.

Since time is limited, choosing what’s important to pursue is essential. Understanding and investing the time needed to ‘get there’ will help you focus on your goals. Several things happened recently related to investing time, which I’ll share with you.

5 Ways Prioritizing Your Time Can Lead to Growth and Change

1. Nurturing Time

A few weeks ago, my husband, Steve, and I were gifted three beautiful hydrangea plants. Steve prepared the bed where they would be planted before they could be dug in. It wasn’t easy work, but he did it. Thank you, Honey!

The plants will eventually grow to be about three feet tall. To flourish, they’ll need watering every few days. Each day, I check to see how they’re doing. If they need water, I drag out the hose to hydrate them. Seeing more new growth and bright blueish-purple blooms appear daily makes me happy.

With this investment of physical labor, water, sun, patience, and time, visible growth and change are happening before my eyes. What a gift.

The hydrangea is a literal example of how nurturing something brings growth and change. How can you adapt that idea to other aspects of your life? Time investing is the common denominator, but the nurturing agent will differ.

2. Virtual Organizing Time

I love working with my virtual organizing clients. They are wonderful people who are dedicated to pursuing their goals. It’s exciting to help them facilitate change and witness their growth.

Their changes are often noticeable by the end of their 60—or 90-minute sessions, but they don’t stop there. Growth and change continue weekly, monthly, and beyond. Regular accountability check-ins and tweaks help them stay on track. These shifts show up as changes in perspective, space, or feelings. Confidence and self-esteem improve, obstacles get removed, clutter is released, letting go happens, priorities are focused on, and achieving their goals becomes the norm.

I am so proud of my clients for investing in themselves, prioritizing what’s most important to them, and scheduling the time to pursue their goals one hour, day, and month at a time. Progress is noticeable when you make a time investment.

3. Workshop Time

One of my goals several years ago was to develop and sponsor my own Oh, So Organized! workshops. Creating and presenting was the easy part. Figuring out the technology, back-end stuff, and marketing felt daunting. I invested time and energy to bring this goal to fruition.

Since October 2022, I created, presented, and sponsored five Oh, So Organized! workshops. The most recent one, How to Let That Sh*t Go, was last week. What a great group we had! One section was about letting go of time-related things (distractions and boundaries) that aren’t serving you.

To reach my workshop goal, I had to overcome the fear of doing it wrong. Instead, I leaned on curiosity, experimentation, and my belief in continual learning. Each workshop taught me something new, helped me refine the process, and allowed me to remain open to change.

I’m grateful to the people who helped and encouraged me. While I invested time and resources, I could not have reached this goal alone.

I leaned on a people to . . .

• Listen to me, ‘think out loud’

• Share valuable insights

• Give advice

• Answer questions

• Provide technical support

• Broaden my understanding of options

• Troubleshoot

• Promote the workshops

• Participate in the workshops

• Provide feedback

Taking one step at a time, reaching out for help, and being willing to get it wrong led me to this point. Fear is no longer part of the equation. Instead, I’m excited for each new workshop. My next one will be this fall.

“Progress is noticeable when you make a time investment.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Professional Time

NAPO-NY Area Golden Circle Group - Back row (left to right): Karen Caccavo, Linda Samuels, Jocelyn Kenner - Front row (left to right): Susan Kranberg, Brenda Kamen, Andrea Bowser, Klara Carames, Amanda Wiss

In 1999, the then-president of the NAPO-NY chapter asked me if I’d be willing to start a NAPO Golden Circle Group for the New York area. She noticed that the veteran organizers weren’t participating as regularly in the chapter events and meetings. Her sense was that if we created an opportunity for the seasoned organizers to get together, it might reignite their engagement.

As I was already volunteering with NAPO Golden Circle nationally, developing and leading a local group interested me. Guess what? I said, “Yes.” We held our first meeting in April 1999 and continued to grow and lead the group for eight years.

The group has had many leaders since, and it’s still growing. I enjoyed attending the first in-person Golden Circle gathering since pre-pandemic this past weekend. My friend and colleague, Jocelyn Kenner, hosted us at her house. We shared advice, asked questions, ate, laughed, and invested time in each other, our businesses, and our industry. Based on the number of years in business, collectively, we had over 150 years of organizing knowledge and experience. Talk about a time investment!

I wouldn’t have guessed that the volunteer time given and the commitment I made 25 years ago would still be producing fruit. I am grateful for all the leaders and members who have kept this group growing and thriving.

5. Big Goal Time

Then there are those big, audacious goals. Some remain as ideas and dreams, while others manifest. When I was very young, one of my big goals was to have my own business. While I dabbled in many things from an early age, it wasn’t until January 1993 (over thirty years ago) that I launched my organizing company, Oh, So Organized! Without investing my time, money, and sweat equity, I wouldn't be here now.

Recently, I had the joy of being interviewed by the fabulous Janet Barclay about my organizing background, educational journey, and organizing industry growth. Our conversation reaffirmed my belief that big goals can happen. You will reach your big goals using small blocks of time and focusing on your priorities.

What have you noticed about your time investments? What types of goals have you realized? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

If you want help organizing your time so you can reach your goals, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call.  A life focused on what matters most is possible, especially with support.