Spring is a fun time of year. It’s a welcome change from grayer winter days. I’m continually amazed by the new beautiful blooms appearing every day. The daffodils are starting to wilt as the tulips and lilacs are emerging. Growth radiates hope and possibilities as the landscape becomes greener and more colorful.

Lightening up and letting go are integral to the spring season. However, sometimes, the letting go process can feel overwhelming. You might be trying to decide what to let go of or are challenged with activating.

There are many ways to work through to the other side. One letting go strategy is so effective that I highly recommend trying it. I’ve used this myself and with clients, and it always works. I’m using this exact strategy now, which I’ll share.

Value of a Deadline

You might want to edit but are having difficulty beginning. Perhaps you want to declutter because guests will be visiting. Maybe you feel like your space is piled with stuff that you no longer want. Or, you’re thinking about downsizing and letting go of the excess. Your “why” is clear, but you’re procrastinating.

One of the best letting go strategies is to combine a deadline with accountability. For example, I have a donation pick-up scheduled this week with GreenDrop®. They are a nationwide resource that accepts donations through pick-up or drop-off locations. Knowing GreenDrop® will be here on a specific date incentivizes me to let go now. I’ve been filling bags and boxes of things I want to release. When I set the deadline, I gave myself enough time by factoring in my other commitments.

Here's the thing. Could I let go of even more? Sure! However, given the time I have to edit, I’m letting go of enough to make a difference. The good news is I can always schedule another pick-up when I’m ready to say goodbye to more.

Letting Go Questions

I often think about letting go. Sometimes, it’s about unhelpful thoughts or time challenges. Yet, right now, I’m focused more on editing the physical stuff- things like clothing, household wares, linens, books, cosmetics, or pantry items.

When decision-making, I ask letting go questions like:

• Has it overstayed its welcome?

• Does it fit?

• Do I still like it?

• Is it damaged beyond repair or even repair-worthy?

• Do I use or wear it anymore?

• Is it expired?

• Is it taking up space and no longer worth the real estate?

• Has it served its purpose?

• Is it necessary?

• Am I ready to say, “It’s been nice knowing you?”

“One of the best letting go strategies is to combine a deadline with accountability.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Do I ever get stuck? Of course. I expect it, but I don’t let that deter me. I focus first on the less challenging items. Then, I circle back to the trickier things and make a decision. I might keep those things a little longer or let them go. It’s a low-pressure, fluid process.

Do you use deadlines to facilitate letting go? What works for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and invite you to join the conversation.

If you need help with letting go, reach out anytime. Please email me, Linda, at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call. Letting go is possible, especially with support.

This is the newest release (v43) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature, with my latest finds that inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. These unique, inspiring, fresh start discoveries reflect this month’s blog theme.

You are a passionate, generous, and engaged group. I am deeply grateful for your ongoing presence, positive energy, and contributions to this community. I look forward to your participation and additions to the collection I’ve sourced.

What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? – 5 Best Fresh Start Discoveries

1. Interesting Workshop – Clutter-Free Fresh Start

Do you feel overwhelmed with the clutter and disorganization in your life? If you answered “yes,” you’re not alone. Help is here! The New Year is an excellent time to change how you approach decluttering and organization.

Join me, Linda Samuels, Professional Organizer, for an empowering workshop – My Simple Organizing Plan, on Thursday, February 8th, from 7:00-8:00 pm Eastern. Together, we’ll uncover the impact of clutter, master motivation, and create a personal decluttering plan.

During this one-hour Zoom workshop, you’ll come away with a transformative, ready-to-implement strategy to make immediate positive changes in your life. Say goodbye to chaos and hello to a calmer, organized you. Reserve your spot now!

2. Interesting Trend – Immersive Fresh Start

Color drenching is a design trend that has emerged in recent years. Amy Wax, an internationally recognized color expert, describes a color-drenched interior as “designed with one color in mind, and that color doesn’t just coat the walls…it’s everywhere…a real color-drenched interior means that the ceiling, trim, railings, doors, and sometimes even the floor all have the same color.”

Are you wondering about the connection between the color-drenching trend and a fresh start? I thought you might. Words describing this trend include daring, saturated, adventurous, all-consuming, harmonizing, sensual, and calming. As you begin this New Year and embrace your fresh start, which words speak to you? Do you want more adventures and boldness, or would you like more calm and harmony? Select a theme to ‘drench’ your year that can be a guiding force for your choices and goals. What color or word speaks to you?

3. Interesting Read – Peaceful Fresh Start

Do you desire a more peaceful, calmer life? We now have 24-7 access to people, places, and things. Life has become complicated, noisy, and distracting.  

A Simpler Life – A Guide to Greater Serenity, Ease and Clarity by The School of Life provides a path to “the simpler lives we crave and deserve.” We’re at an unusual juncture where the yearning for simplicity is historically reasonably new. “We long to unburden ourselves of excess, to have more straightforward relationships, to declutter our homes, and to avoid noise, complexity, and fuss. Simplicity has grown central to our vision of happiness.”

The book focuses on five areas to simplify- relationships, social life, lifestyle, work, and culture. If your fresh start includes the desire to release the excess, you’ll appreciate the suggestions explored. “Simplicity isn’t so much a life with a few things and commitments in it, as a life with the right, necessary things, attuned to our flourishing. Our lives will feel – and be – simpler when we’ve probed our minds to yield…the knowledge of what we truly want.”

“Your fresh start is ready for you to lean in, activate, and thrive.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Interesting Product – Focused Fresh Start

During a session with one of my virtual organizing clients, she showed me an adorable gift she purchased for the holidays. Toast is marketed as a night light. However, she and a few of her friends use it differently. They turn it on to help them focus when working. It has a warm, dimmable glow, an adjustable timer, and a ‘friendly’ face.

I couldn’t resist, so I purchased a mint green one to see if it would help me. To my delight, it does. As a matter of fact, while writing this post, I brought my Toast nearby to keep me company and hold my attention. I didn’t use the timer feature, but I found the gentle light worked for me.

Check out this little fellow if you want your fresh start to include more focused work and improved concentration.

5. Interesting Thought – Promising Fresh Start

What is the best thing about the New Year? It allows you to reset, rethink, and reimagine how you want the next twelve months to be. If you want to make tiny tweaks or strive for those big, audacious goals, you have the spaciousness to make things happen. Let go of what doesn’t work, learn from your mishaps, and activate the hope-filled ‘blank canvas’ the New Year brings. Your fresh start is ready for you to lean in, activate, and thrive.

Do you have an interesting, fresh start-related discovery? Which of these resonates with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Here’s to you and a happy, healthy, joy-filled, and organized New Year!

Last week, I wrote about the transitions we’re experiencing as the seasons change. While fall doesn’t officially begin for several weeks, its unofficial start has happened. You’re back from summer vacation, the kiddos have returned to school, and your plate is piled high with numerous projects, goals, and activities. Your schedule is packed, and your daily patterns are changing. Do you feel calm and prepared, or anxious and not ready?

Transitions can be tricky and uncomfortable. However, intregrating mindfulness into the mix can bring calm and confidence to this next phase.

There are six ways to feel ready as you prepare for your busy season. You can use these strategies for any shift you’re experiencing, such as starting a new day, month, season, year, project, or life change.

6 Ways to Mindfully Prepare for Your New Season

1. Prepare Emotionally

Your emotional state benefits greatly when you prioritize your self-care. To fortify your energy reserves and to create a positive emotional state:

• Get enough sleep

• Eat healthfully

• Hydrate

• Move your body

• Make time for just you

• Engage in nourishing activities

2. Prepare Environment

Clutter can cause blockages in your thinking, well-being, creativity, daily flow, and routines. Make time to let go of the physical things you no longer need, want, are in your way, or are no longer relevant for this new phase. Clear the path for your new season. What can you declutter now?

3. Clarify Goals & Why

Did you create an ambitious list of goals at the start of this year? This change of seasons presents an excellent time to revisit and reset. Ask:

• What one or two things do you want to accomplish this season?

• What will success look or feel like when you accomplish those?

• What is driving you to get there?

• What is your why?

Taking the time to clarify will be valuable. The clarity will help with more effortless and less stressful decision-making when your choices align with your goals and overarching why.

“Integrate mindfulness to bring calm and confidence to this next phase.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Gather Your Team

The busy season makes it a terrific time to gather more support. Collect your go-to peeps- family, friends, colleagues, and professionals. There is no reason to go it alone. Who will be on your team? They can help you:

• Succeed

• Provide accountability

• Brainstorm and discuss ideas

• Navigate frustrations and challenges

• Cheer you on

5. Gather Your Resources

Aside from your ‘team,’ what else will help you prepare for this season? What physical supplies or products will be beneficial? What about finding resources for ideas or referrals?

As we’re in the back-to-school mode, images of sharpened pencils, blank notebooks, and boxes of new, colorful crayons fill my thoughts. While our kiddos are adults now and not in that stage, I remember when they were. Returning to school meant gathering the essential supplies, which helped them feel prepared and ready to learn. What do you need to feel prepared?

6. Schedule Downtime
During the fullness of this new season, plan time to stop. We aren’t designed to be constantly doing. We also need time to just be. Whether you make time daily, every week, or once a month, build breaks from the busyness. Each of us has different refueling needs. My daily mindfulness meditation practice and walks in nature keep me grounded and calm. They give me a quiet space to practice mindfulness, restore my energy, and prepare me to engage more fully after I pause.

New Podcast: Helping You Reset for the New Season

A few weeks ago, I enjoyed talking with the engaging, delightful podcast host, writer, and my new friend Kara Cutruzzula on her “Do It Today” podcast. Our conversation covered many topics, including ways to get ready for the new season. Listen to our conversation below:

If you are gathering your team and would like support from me as your Virtual Professional Organizer, let’s talk. I’d love to help as you travel on this next part of your journey. Call 914-271-5673, email me at linda@ohsoorganized.com, or click here to contact me through this site.

What helps you mindfully prepare for change? How do transition times affect you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

This is the newest release (v41) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature has my latest finds that inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. These unique, inspiring, motivation-related discoveries reflect this month’s blog theme.

You are a passionate, generous, and engaged group. I am deeply grateful for your ongoing presence, positive energy, and contributions to this community. I look forward to your participation and additions to the collection I’ve sourced.

What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? – 5 Best MOTIVATION Discoveries

1. Interesting Read – Motivation and Words

The Words We Choose – Your Guide to How and Why Words Matter, author, speaker, and coach Terre Short encourages you to use words authentic to your values and intentions. Through stories, reflections, and activities, Short supports healthy communication, influence, and engagement with words that connect us to ourselves, loved ones, people at work, our written word, and more.

Short says, “You can transform your communication through the power of your words.” Explaining how we speak an average of 16,000 words every day, which “represents a lot of daily word choices...Our daily experiences are shaped by words spoken to and by us. What impact did your words have today?”

If you are motivated to strengthen your relationships, become more emotionally intelligent, improve how you talk to yourself, and align your words, values, and intentions, this book is for you.

2. Interesting Product – Motivation and Labeling

A common organizing principle is to label your stuff. Why? It helps you know at a glance what a box, drawer, or file contains without extensive searching. Having things labeled increases motivation to establish “homes” for your belongings. This makes them easier to retrieve and return.

BoxBrain brings new meaning to labeling. They created “smart labels for smart living.” Their water-resistant labels help you organize your life, especially when packing, unpacking, and storing your things. The labels are color-coded with a QR code connected to their app.

I love BoxBrain’s simple 3-step process:

1. Grab Some Labels – There are 3 sizes and 5 colors.

2. Slap ‘Em On Your Stuff – Label your boxes with the color-coded labels. For example, use blue labels for kitchen items, yellow labels for toys, or green for the home office.

3. Know Where Your Stuff Is – Using your smartphone, scan the label, then enter keywords and photos. Use the keyword search to locate an item quickly.

“Motivation increases when you take action, even if it’s tiny. ”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

3. Interesting Article – Motivation and Organizing Mistakes

Have you ever worked on an organizing project and made a mistake that crushed your motivation? Maybe you underestimated the needed storage space, took on too many simultaneous projects, or purchased organizing containers before decluttering. Guess what? You’re not alone.

In the recent Redfin article, “Organizing Mistakes: 27 Slip-Ups to Avoid During Your Next Project,” Jamie Forbes features professional organizers, including me (#5). We share our best advice for making your next organizing project a success.

My suggestion is to keep like with like. By corralling similar items together, you can make more informed decisions, stop overbuying, know what you own, and quickly access your belongings.

4. Interesting Resource – Motivation and Downsizing

Are you or someone you know thinking about downsizing to a smaller home but aren’t 100% sure? If so, you’ll love the 10 Signs It’s Time to Downsize and Sell Your Home infographic from HomeLight. The real estate company explains how important timing can be in making that decision. Waiting can cost you more to run a larger home. Also, downsizing as you age can be more challenging due to health or mobility issues.

Motivations to downsize include feeling overwhelmed with home maintenance, your career or family no longer tying you to your location, you want a lifestyle change, or your home no longer fits your needs.

Downsizing is a compelling motivator to make a life change.

5. Interesting Thought – Motivation and Progress

A fascinating aspect of motivation is how it increases when you take action, even if it’s tiny. Progress, no matter how small, is still forward movement. So, when you are feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, instead of giving up, do one little thing. You’ll be amazed how an action will change your perspective from being stuck to feeling hopeful, energized, and motivated.

Do you have an interesting motivation-related discovery? Which of these resonates with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.