Are you excited about the holiday season or already feeling overwhelmed? You might feel both. Mixed emotions are normal. Perhaps you’re feeling positive anticipation because you’ll get to spend more time with your family and friends. At the same time, you might also feel overwhelmed by everything you have to prepare.

I’ve been there, and so have many of my clients. I always look forward to extra time with loved ones, whether we’re hosting or visiting. Yet I also recognize that without self-compassion and planning, I can easily become overwhelmed. My goal each holiday season is to lean into the beauty of the holidays while doing ‘just enough’ planning to experience all the love and joy, too.

If you want more joy and less stress this holiday season, consider focusing on three areas that can help: thoughts, time, and things. If working on all three feels like too much, choose just one. Even one small shift can make a positive difference.

How to Easily Prepare Yourself for the Holiday Season

1. Your Thoughts Matter

The mind is powerful, and what you feed it matters. What thoughts are you focusing on?

Are your thoughts:

• Nourishing or negative?

• Making you feel more anxious or more self-compassionate?

• Tearing yourself down or reminding yourself, “You’ve got this”?

• Keeping you stuck in the past or helping you focus on the present?

• Focusing on everything that could go wrong or imagining what will work out?

• Stressing over the details or reminding yourself that you can ask for help?

We’re human, and we’re not perfect. I understand that it takes work to feed the brain positive thoughts, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed. However, during those times, it becomes even more essential to speak to yourself with kindness, compassion, and positivity.

When you catch yourself heading down the path that fuels distress and overwhelm, stop, breathe, and notice. Then reframe. Just as the body needs nourishment to thrive, so does your brain. In this case, the nourishment your brain needs includes thoughts that lift you up, boost your agency, and foster compassion.

Focus on positive thoughts that resonate with you. Or try saying one of these sentences out loud or in your head:

• Just take the next small step.

• Take a breath.

• I will ask for help.

• I can work through this.

• I’ve got this!

What helps you refocus your mindset on the positive?

2. Your Time is Limited

One interesting aspect of the holiday season is that it has a distinct start and end. Honestly, that’s a good thing. It doesn’t go on indefinitely. If it helps, imagine the holiday season contained in a not-too-big bucket that holds a few months.

How will you fill your bucket? Will you:

• Overfill it until it spills over?

• Fill it comfortably, leaving a little room?

• Fill it only slightly, leaving plenty of free space?

It’s worth thinking about how you want your holidays to feel. It’s easy to get swept up in saying “yes” to every invite and doing more than you have time, capacity, or energy for. Think of your ‘time bucket’ as a visual boundary. Let’s extend that idea and consider your personal boundaries and how they shape your time.

When thinking about how you want to spend your time during the holidays, what do you want to invite in? Do you want:

• A lot of unplanned downtime

• Many parties and gatherings

• Quiet time with family and friends

• Travel time

• Time to make progress on special projects

• Time for yourself

The wonderful part is that you get to decide. It’s not too late to think about what you want first. That way, when an invite or request arrives, it's easier to say “yes” or “no.”

Here’s the most important part: Once you decide on your ideal holiday time mix, embrace it fully. You can adjust your plans and be flexible when needed. However, planning ahead can bring more ease and reduce decision fatigue.

What will your holiday time bucket include?

“We’re human, and we’re not perfect.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

3. Your Things Don’t Have to Overwhelm You

Have you noticed how the volume of stuff in your space seems to increase during the holidays? More belongings mean more to manage, and additional clutter can increase feelings of overwhelm.

Holiday thing-overwhelm can include:

• Gift buying and receiving

• Decorating and putting things away

• Preparing food and cleaning up

• Cards and other papers piling up

• Guests’ belongings ‘living’ in your space

• More recycling than usual

• Existing household stuff and clutter

If your goal is to have more ease and less overwhelm, editing and decluttering before the holidays helps tremendously. This might be the point where you start to panic at the thought of decluttering and letting go. I understand. However, acknowledging some uncomfortable thoughts and taking action anyway can make a meaningful difference.

If decluttering your entire home isn't realistic in the time you have, focus on one to three key areas that will have the biggest impact.

Areas that tend to get the most use during the holidays include:

• Kitchen

• Living room

• Dining room

• Guest bathroom

• Entryway

• Guest bedroom

To make decluttering less complicated, consider these ideas:

• Determine how much time you have to focus on decluttering.

• Select only one to three areas to declutter.

• Schedule ‘decluttering time’ on your calendar.

• Focus on a decluttering sprint (15–45 minutes per area) rather than a deep dive.

• Prioritize clearing surfaces and floor space.

• Start with one area, such as the kitchen.

• Relocate anything that belongs elsewhere.

• Box or bag items for donation.

• Put other items in the trash or recycling.

• If you get stuck deciding, give yourself a pass for now and move on to the next thing.

• After you complete your sprint, take a break. Return when you’re ready to declutter the next area.

• Repeat until you’ve decluttered the areas you chose.

If you run out of time or energy, that’s OK, too. Even if you only get to one area, this is still a win. You can always reset and return to decluttering after the holidays.

Which area or areas would you most like to declutter before the holidays?

What Will a Compassionate, Human Approach to the Holidays Look Like to You?

Invite more ease, joy, and compassion this holiday season. Choose progress, not perfection. Give your attention to these three areas:

• Focus on reframing your thoughts.

• Decide what deserves your time.

• Make your physical spaces easier to manage.

Which ideas resonate with you? What will make the holidays less stressful and more joyful? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Do you feel overwhelmed, stuck, or disorganized? You don't have to face this alone. I’m here to help! Get unstuck and make progress. Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward—with a local feel and a global reach.

Getting organized, making progress, and feeling less overwhelmed are possible, especially with support.

Let’s talk! I’m easy to reach.

• Schedule a discovery call

• Fill out the contact form

• Email me at linda@ohsoorganized.com

• Call 914-271-5673

Feeling stuck is something everyone experiences. It can also take a toll on motivation. Have you felt this way lately?

There can be many reasons you might feel at a standstill, such as:

• Overwhelm from a big or complex project

• Perfectionism and the belief that you have to do it “the right way”

• Decision fatigue that leaves you with little capacity to act

• Unclear about what to do next

• Lack of accountability or support

• Unrealistic expectations about what can be accomplished

• Fear of failure, success, or making the wrong decision

• Waiting until you feel motivated

Do any of these sound familiar, or is there another reason holding you back?

The “I Can’t” Mindset

When you get stuck, something psychological can happen. Instead of feeling a sense of agency and believing you will figure things out and move forward, you focus on what isn’t possible or what you can’t do.

The “I Can’t” mindset could be what’s keeping you stuck. You might ruminate or focus on messages like:

• “This project is so big. I’ll never get it done.”

• “I don’t know where to start.”

• “I don’t have the time.”

• “I don’t have the energy.”

• “It’s impossible for me to get organized.”

• “I’ll never catch up.”

• “I’m afraid I’ll make the wrong decision.”

• “I need to feel motivated first.”

Are any of these phrases ones you ‘hear’ yourself say? Identifying your unique “I Can’t” provides valuable insight into what’s keeping you blocked.

The Shift That Unlocks You, Builds Momentum, and Sparks Motivation

Mindset is everything. It can make all the difference in how you experience life and in what you do or don’t do. One way to take control of the narrative that hasn’t been working for you is to change the dialogue.

Instead of focusing on what’s not possible or your “I Can’t” list, use one of these possibility-infused questions to work its magic. Some options include:

• What’s one small step I can take right now?

• What’s possible today?

• What’s one thing I can do in the next five minutes?

• What’s good enough for today?

• What would make this a little easier?

And if you want an elegantly simple question, here’s one from James Clear that I love:

“What can I do?”

Ask a possibility-focused question to immediately shift your mindset toward a more positive, proactive one. 

“What can I do?”

— James Clear

The Choice Is Yours

It doesn’t feel good to be stuck. Your internal dialogue strongly shapes whether you stay stuck or move forward. Pay attention to the messages you tell yourself. You have the power to shift the dialogue from “I can’t” to “I can.”

Which phrases help or hurt you? How could a shift in mindset benefit you? How would that shift help you get unstuck? In what ways would it help build your motivation? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Do you feel overwhelmed, disorganized, and stuck? Are you struggling with a lack of motivation? I’m here to help! You don’t have to do this alone. Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward – Local feel with a global reach.

Let’s talk! I’m easy to reach.

• Schedule a Discovery Call

• Fill out the Contact Form

• Email me at linda@ohsoorganized.com or

• Call 914-271-5673

Getting organized, cultivating motivation, and reaching your goals are possible, especially with support.

Recently, I reread the first blog post I wrote on waiting. As humans, waiting is something we do, yet we’re not always happy about it. We want things to happen quickly, effortlessly, and painlessly. However, things don’t often go that way. Our patience gets tested as waiting can be a challenging experience.

Maybe you’re working toward a big goal that might take months, years, or even decades. Perhaps your energy is low, and progress looks different from what it did earlier in your life. You might also lack clarity about your goal or what your next step will be.

Developing your internal resources, including patience, resilience, and agency, can be beneficial. You can also enlist help from external resources, such as haulers, handymen, trade specialists, a coach, a therapist, or a professional organizer like myself.

Progress is possible. Reaching your goals is doable. Gathering the resources to get there is essential.

Over the past few months, my husband and I have been working on some home projects. They have taken different amounts of time to complete, and some are still ongoing. The biggest obstacles were setting priorities and managing time constraints. To finish these projects, we had to decide that they were still important enough to pursue. Once we agreed on that, we scheduled the time to complete them. The scheduling was pivotal. Without planning and scheduling, nothing would have happened.

During the process, I reaffirmed and learned a few things. Hopefully, some of these will resonate with you and be useful as you pursue your goals and projects.

5 Life Lessons I Learned About Patience and Promising Progress

Life Lesson #1:  I can tolerate discomfort.

I love the final result when we improve our home. It’s hard for me to tolerate the temporary chaos that happens. Stuff gets pulled out of place, messes spread to multiple areas, and order and organization are disrupted.

I often tell my clients that things usually get worse before they get better. When you’re organizing a closet, for example, and things are pulled out, it doesn’t look great. But as you start editing, rerouting, discarding, and donating, clarity begins to emerge. Once you organize the “keepers,” everything looks and feels better. However, there's a tipping point in the middle of the project where discomfort can surface.

Even though I’m happy when we’re fixing things, I tend to feel more anxious and stressed when we’re in reno mode. That discomfort motivates me to finish what we started as soon as possible. Interestingly, I can easily handle disorder in spaces I don’t live in. But in my own home, I prefer a certain level of order, calmness, and predictability.

Although I prefer not to be uncomfortable, I am capable of tolerating discomfort. This is especially true when it’s temporary or for a good reason. Acknowledging this made me feel less stressed and more accepting of the chaos.

Life Lesson #2: I can transform temporary chaos into an opportunity to reimagine.

One of the benefits of taking things apart is having time to edit, question, and reimagine. We recently disrupted our entryway to spackle, paint, and do some electrical work. Doing that allowed me to let go of some things and reimagine the placement of certain items, like my Pez collection and one of the rugs.

I also felt inspired to repaint three of the cabinets. One is a big project, which I’ll wait to do in warmer weather. The other two cabinets will be done soon. Without being open to chaos and committing to the entryway project, these other projects might not move forward.

Chaos doesn’t have to be negative. It can be an opportunity to bring positive changes. The temporary chaos stirred my creativity and desire to make more improvements.

Life Lesson #3: I can finish what I start when I prioritize and plan.

This might seem obvious, but when you want to accomplish something, whether it’s organizing, home improvement, or changing a habit, dedicating time and energy to it is essential.

Deciding that something is a priority is the first step. This may involve temporarily setting other things aside while you focus your resources on the main goal. After all, you can accomplish a lot, but not all at once. Something has to give.

Once you've identified your priority, the next step is to schedule and plan dedicated time to work on it. For us, that meant working several evenings and weekends. Again, without blocking out specific calendar dates, it would not have been completed.

I can wish all I want, but without making it a priority and including it in a scheduled plan, it’s unlikely to happen. There is great potential and power in recognizing what I’m capable of when I prioritize and plan.

“I can tolerate discomfort.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Life Lesson #4: I can feel the joy and satisfaction that come with progress.

Done is great, but so is progress. No goal happens with one step. Progress happens one step, one action, and one commitment at a time. When working on the renovation projects, Steve and I took a moment to appreciate the progress along the way.

Momentum is a powerful force. Taking action motivates you to do more. Experiencing progress encourages further movement. Progress is satisfying and joy-inducing.

Steve and I made sure to see, feel, talk about, and celebrate the progress we've made. It was no small feat to get some of these projects started. We embraced the positive feelings that came with making progress.

Do you know the expression, “Stop and smell the roses?” For this one, let’s pause and celebrate the progress. You took action and worked hard. Now, enjoy it!

Life Lesson #5: I can be awed by my bad-ass husband.

After 42 years of marriage, I am still amazed by my husband. He is a talented man who, among his many skills, knows how to cook, play the drums, coordinate large-scale architectural woodworking projects, and handle almost any type of home improvement or repair project. He’s also a devoted volunteer, a great listener, a wonderful father, and an incredible husband and life partner.

Whether he was finishing the glass tiles in the bathroom, doing electrical work, plumbing, cutting through walls, spackling the ceiling, or painting surfaces, he not only knew what to do but also had the right tools to do it. He also taught me how to do some things, so we could work together on projects. I love that!

I am constantly inspired by Steve’s work ethic, humanity, skills, design sense, dedication, and talent. He was willing to let go of perfection to do his best and finish projects. I’m grateful for and in awe of the incredible human he is. Thank you, Honey!

How Do Patience and Progress Manifest for You?

Patience, or the lack of it, is part of being human. In fact, impatience can sometimes drive progress. When you feel stuck, progress may seem out of reach. However, leaning into that urge to move forward and pushing your patience to its limit can be one way to make progress. Prioritizing and planning are also helpful. What helps you move ahead?

Which ideas resonate most with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Are you ready to make progress? Do you feel overwhelmed, stuck, or disorganized? I’m here to help! Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward – Local feel with a global reach.

Let’s talk. I’m easy to reach.

• Schedule a Discovery Call

• Fill out the Contact form

• Email me at linda@ohsoorganized.com or

• Call 914-271-5673

Getting organized and making progress is possible, especially with support.

The things you say or think can act as possibility-blockers, preventing you from moving forward. They can be subtle or obvious. You might not notice how these phrases get in your way.

The blockers may sound like:

• “I can’t do this.”

• “It’s too hard.”

• “I can’t tolerate the discomfort.”

• “I’m just not good at this.”

• “I’m unable to figure this out.”

• “I don’t know where to start.”

• “I don’t have any skills.”

• “Nothing ever seems to work out.”

• “I’m really frustrated, and I don’t know what to do.”

• “I never finish anything.”

• “It has always been like this, and I can’t change it.

• “I’m feeling totally overwhelmed.”

• “Nobody ever taught me how to do this.”

• “I can barely get through today, let alone think about tomorrow.”

• “I’m stuck where I am.”

• “I’m too busy and don’t have time to find a solution.”

• “I can’t imagine what’s possible because my mind and space are so cluttered.”

That’s a lot to take in. Have you noticed yourself repeating any of these phrases? Maybe you have different go-to messages that aren’t helping you. Take a moment to identify which thoughts are shutting you down.

What did you find out?

Focusing on negative messages reinforces your lack of agency. You are paying attention to defeat. While you might not be able to eliminate negativity completely, there is hope. In fact, here is a three-step approach that can help. It consists of awareness, reframing, and action.

A Three-Step Approach: Transform the Impossible into Possible

Step 1: Develop Awareness

“The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the ‘buts’ you use today.”

— Les Brown

Notice the messages that aren’t serving you. Each time you repeat them, those neural pathways in your brain become stronger. The applies to positive messages, too. Becoming aware of your thoughts is the first step in changing them.

• Observe and record.

• Write down your negative thoughts and messages without judgment.

• Make a note of how frequently they ‘visit’ you.

Step 2: Experiment with Reframing

“Take your mind off the problems for a moment, and focus on the positive possibilities. Consider how very much you are able to do.”

— Ralph Marston

Once you recognize which negative messages appear and how often they do, you’re ready for this next step.

When you notice yourself repeating the undesired words, use that as a cue to reframe them. Make a mental or written note. Intentionally craft a statement that reduces the power of negative thoughts and promotes healthier, more proactive messages.

Reframing examples:

•  “I can’t do this,” can become “I’m learning to do this.”

• “I don’t know where to start,” can become “Just start anywhere.”

• “Nobody ever taught me how to do this,” can become “I can learn and will ask for help.”

• “Nothing ever seems to work out,” can become “The past doesn’t have a hold over my future.”

Step 3: Do Something

“The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Negative messages can cause doubt and inaction. One way to overcome them is by taking action. After trying out the reframes, you’re ready to move on to this last step.

Ask yourself, “What tiny action can I take to move this project or situation forward?”

Make the action as small and simple as possible. That’s where the real change begins. By doing something, you shift from “I can’t” to “I can.”

Taking action changes your thinking and behavior. It helps you move from feeling stuck to being proactive.

Action also helps you to:

• Be more creative when facing challenges,

• Build momentum,

• Foster a sense of agency,

• Achieve your goals, and

• Nourish hope.

What Is Possible When You Change Your Message?

You’re human. You’ll have internal and external messages that are negative and unhelpful. However, by learning to acknowledge, reframe, and take action, you can change the course of today and the future. Words and thoughts matter. Are yours supporting or hindering your growth? Change the messages so you can thrive.

Which ideas resonate most with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Do you feel overwhelmed, stuck, or disorganized? I’m here to help! Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward – Local feel with a global reach.

Let’s talk. I’m easy to reach.

• Schedule a Discovery Call

• Fill out the Contact form

• Email me at linda@ohsoorganized.com or

• Call 914-271-5673

Getting organized and making progress is possible, especially with support.