In the northeast, the leaves are changing, and it’s a season of transition. Is fall the unofficial moving season? It seems so, especially since many of my clients and kiddos are in the process of moving, downsizing, right-sizing, or transitioning.

Moving involves many decisions and plans, which can be overwhelming. The good news is you don’t have to do it alone. Reduce your stress and enjoy the benefits of getting help from a virtual professional organizer like me.

Depending on your stage in the moving process, motivation can vary significantly. For example, if you're moving within a month because your lease is ending or your house was just sold, the limited time creates pressure that boosts motivation. However, if you're planning to move years from now or moved several years ago but haven't fully unpacked or settled, your motivation might feel important but less urgent.

No matter what stage of moving you’re in—pre-move, during, or post-move—having the right support makes an enormous difference. Whether you hire a professional organizer or ask family and friends for help, creating your team will help things go more smoothly and reduce stress.

Because you know what they say—moving is one of the top ten most stressful things we do in life.

• In a 2020 survey by OnePoll for North American Van Lines, 64% of respondents said that their recent move was one of the most stressful experiences they ever had.

• In a 2022 Move.org survey, 38% of respondents said moving was more stressful than parting with a significant other.

• In a 2025 survey by HireAHelper, 29% of participants said they’d rather get a divorce than move again. 55% of participants rated moving as highly stressful.

5 Ways a Virtual Professional Organizer Helps You Navigate a Move

1. Clarify Your Why

Your reasons for moving might seem obvious. However, an organizer can help you clarify these reasons and keep them relevant as you make decisions. There are many choices to consider, and decision fatigue can set in. Keeping your ‘why’ visible helps you stay focused, encourages the right actions, and boosts your motivation. 

Maybe your why is to:

• Simplify life—own less, manage less, and reduce your financial obligations.

• Consider the future—downsize and organize your belongings now so your family won’t have the burden of doing it after you’re gone.

• Get more space—Your current living situation is too cramped, and you need extra room for your growing family.

• Relocate temporarily—A family or work situation requires you to move, even if it’s not an ideal scenario.

• Reimagine life—You’ve experienced a major life change, like losing a loved one, starting a new job, becoming an empty nester, or retiring. Now you want a fresh start in a new place.

2. Establish Timeline and Pace

As an organizer, I enter someone’s life at a particular moment in time. Sometimes, I’m contacted well in advance of a move, giving enough time to plan and edit. Other times, I engaged right before or after a move. Every scenario requires a different timeline to help someone go from where they are to where they want to be.

Working together, we can create a schedule, even a loose one, to put a reality check on what’s possible to accomplish within a certain timeframe. Many considerations will affect your timing, including:

• Budget

• Urgency

• Time available to focus on the project

• Life demands more than just moving

• Support team you have or need to assemble

Pacing is just as essential as understanding the overall timeline. If you're years away from moving, you can proceed at a slower, steady pace. However, if you're moving this month, the pace needs to be much faster. You might need extra help to finish your move.

3. Edit and Organize Your Stuff

Even if you don’t see yourself as a ‘collector,’ you probably have plenty of things to edit before and even after your move. You know how it goes, right? As humans, we accumulate a lot of stuff. And if you’ve been in your home for a long time, you likely have even more stuff.

Enlisting help from a virtual professional organizer during the editing phase is invaluable. I can support that process in various ways, including:

• Asking good questions

• Weighing your options

• Providing focus as you sort through your things

• Establishing decision-making parameters

• Sharing letting go strategies

• Helping determine which category something belongs to: Keep, Toss, Donate, Sell, Route to storage, or Give to a specific person

While it’s best to edit your belongings before moving, that’s not always possible. Letting go often continues after the move, even if you edited beforehand. If you’ve already moved, I can help you with ongoing editing, decluttering, refining, space planning, organizing, and deciding about the last 10% of items that haven’t been unpacked.

“Even if you don’t see yourself as a ‘collector,’ you probably have plenty of things to edit before and even after your move.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Have Access to Trusted Resources

Throughout every stage of a move, you’ll need various resources for donating, selling, recycling, or disposing of items. You might also need referrals for vendors like movers, junk haulers, or suggestions for organizing products.

With over 30 years in the organizing industry, I’ve gathered hundreds of resources to share with my clients. I also have a network of industry colleagues who generously share their resources whenever I need a referral for something or someone I don’t already have.

5. Collaborate with a Thought Partner

Moving can feel like a huge jumble of puzzle pieces. Although the pieces will eventually fit together to create a new, beautiful picture, it currently feels chaotic and overwhelming. Moves and related tasks can be emotionally draining.

However, working with a thought partner helps you make sense of those pieces more quickly and feel supported throughout the process.

A thought partner can help you:

• Get unstuck

• Reduce overwhelm

• Identify your next step

• Brainstorm solutions to obstacles

• Develop checklists

• Encourage action

• Discuss your choices and options

• Provide accountability

• Boost motivation

Can You Benefit from Virtual Organizing Help?

While physical tasks like packing and unpacking are not things I assist with as a virtual professional organizer, there are many other areas, as discussed, that I can help with.

Location isn’t a barrier. Virtual organizing lets me work globally. Even though I’m based in New York, I can help whether you’re in California, Canada, or somewhere else.

Virtual organizing sessions are focused and short, lasting 60 to 90 minutes each. We’ll work together on your goals, then you’ll have time afterward to work independently, with ongoing support to repeat that process.

Are you moving right now? If so, how can you benefit from enlisting help from a virtual professional organizer? 

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@ohsorganized.com or

• Call 914-271-5673

Getting organized is possible, especially with support.

Can you feel it? Transitions are in the air. The summer is coming to a close. Fall is around the corner, and change is on its way. One transition signal I noticed on a recent walk was the appearance of these beautiful berries that start white and turn to blue and purple hues. Oh, yes. Fall is coming. The transition is happening.

How do you feel about transitions? Are you excited, optimistic, empowered, sad, scared, apprehensive, or overwhelmed? Change can be challenging. You let go or say goodbye to what was and move forward to something different. The ‘different’ could be an unknown, a new stage of life, or a smaller, seemingly insignificant change. Navigating transitions can be much easier when you get planning, implementing, and supporting help.

Here's the good news. Many people can provide support, including friends, family members, colleagues, or virtual professional organizers like me. Much of my work centers around helping people of all ages and stages during their life transitions.

9 Ways Organizers Can Help With Transitions

1. Resetting for the New Season

Can you enlist the help of an organizer to do a clothing edit and organization? As you store your spring/summer clothes and bring out your fall/winter ones, choose the items you will no longer wear and can release. Could you hire an organizer to support your decision-making and organizational ideas? Your seasonal clothing transition will go more smoothly.

2. Going Back to School

You had one pattern for the summer, but now it’s time for the kiddos to return to school. This is a transition time where habits and schedules change. An organizer can help you create great organizational systems that work for your family.

3. Becoming an Empty Nester

Perhaps going back to school means you’re now an empty nester. This is an enormous transition for both you and your kiddo. If you need help getting your college-bound kid organized to leave the nest or need help reorganizing your home and schedule now that your kid is out, enlist help from a professional organizer.

4. Becoming a Parent

When a new life arrives, everything changes. You will prepare emotionally and physically during this transition. You can use the services of an organizer to help create an organized space for your little one.

5. Changing a Relationship

Whether you are moving in with your partner, getting married, or divorced, these transitions can be stressful and complicated. There are emotional aspects to navigate. There are also scheduling and space transitions, which an organizer can be especially helpful with. Whether merging two households into one or dividing one home into two, it’s beneficial to have a non-judgmental, compassionate person to plan, organize, and navigate this transition.

“Transitions are an opportunity for growth, renewal, and possibilities.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

6. Moving and Downsizing

Moving and downsizing are significant transitions. This can be anxiety-producing, especially if you work with a tight deadline or do not want to move. There are many things to handle, even when your deadline is flexible, or you’ve purposely chosen the change. Hiring an organizer to help you plan, support your decisions, and share resources can ease the stress of these complex transitions.

7. Retiring

You worked a lifetime, and now you’re ready to stop. You’re used to being highly scheduled with less free time to pursue hobbies and friendships. As you transition into this new stage of life, consider what you want and no longer need. What can you let go of? What do you want to make space for? You can work with an organizer to figure out what ‘belongs’ now.

8. Experiencing Health Challenges

While you have your medical health professionals’ support team, an organizer can help with health-related transitions in many ways. Perhaps you need a system for documenting doctor visits, instructions, or medications. Maybe you need to reorganize space in your home, declutter, or create an unobstructed flow. Especially when you’re not feeling your best, having another person to support your transition and organizational needs can be helpful.

9. Losing a Loved One

When someone we love dies, life changes instantly. It doesn’t matter if it is expected or not. Loss is loss. Everyone grieves in their way. At a point when the grief fog lifts, you might feel ready to make changes, like rethinking the use of rooms or letting go of some of your loved one's belongings. This is a highly emotional time. Having an organizer to work with can help you honor your loved one’s possessions as you organize, let go, and move forward.

As Tom Stoppard said, “Every exit is an entry somewhere.” As you travel from where you are to where you are heading, don’t go it alone. Gather your team who will help, support, and be there as you navigate. Transitions are an opportunity for growth, renewal, and possibilities.

Are you going through a transition? Who is on your team? Do you want additional help? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

— Albert Einstein

We’re all at different stages with our families. Some of us have kids and others have none. Some have young and some have adult children. Some live close by while others live far away from our families. All families go through transitions and changes of varying magnitudes. There are marriages, births, divorces, moves and deaths. There are joyful times and challenging ones.

We don’t always notice the changes because we’re living them. Sometimes we feel the tumult and haven’t assimilated the movement these shifts create.

With the many changes our family has experienced in the last bunch of years including becoming empty nesters, family moving away, and loss of loved ones, my family has become even more essential for me.

I’m not only grateful for my family, but also realize how much they ground me. They play a significant role in helping me feel balanced. Whether my family is near or far, whether they are living or have passed on, they are part of me. They are with me wherever I go.

What brings balance to your life? Come join the conversation and share your thoughts.

On a recent family beach vacation in the Outer Banks, I was lying in the sand, looking up at the clouds. They were slowly shifting. The clouds weren’t moving quickly but undulating and reshaping themselves ever so slightly. As I watched them, my thoughts felt connected to their movement. It was the beginning of the vacation. I wasn’t relaxed yet. I, too, was slowly adjusting. I was attempting to let my motor slow down and just be. Like the clouds, I was in a transition.

Transitions can be easy or difficult. Many factors influence how we process them, such as temperament and attitude. Transitions can be successful, painful, or somewhere in between. While the transition I just described was about shifting from being in the busy mode to a relaxed state, we often find ourselves in other kinds of transitions. They include getting organized, having children, moving, changing jobs, becoming empty nesters, losing loved ones, and many other significant times.

Transitions usually make me uncomfortable. With my most recent, launching our youngest off to college, I’ve used many strategies to help me through this time of different. These concepts can be helpful for all types of transitions, and I’m happy to share them with you.

10 Ways to Navigate Successful Transitions

• Floating – Allow yourself time to wander without any pressure. Don’t make any radical decisions while in transition.

• Thinking – Indulge in your thoughts. Reminisce, future think, and go where the mind wants to go. It’s all about processing your thoughts, the positive and the negative.

• Feeling – Allow yourself to feel. Cry if you need to. Laugh if you want to. Don’t deny or hold back your feelings.

• Connecting – Communicate with others. Use all possible outlets such as email, telephone, texting, old-fashioned letter writing, or face-to-face contact. Extend yourself so that you’re not alone.

• Writing – I’ve always been a journal writer and am now a blogger. If you’re inclined, writing is another helpful way to process and document your thoughts.

• Being – It’s OK to just be without doing. Get rid of the “shoulds.” If you need a nap, take one. If you need fresh air, go for a walk. If you want quiet, sit. Remove any pressure. Listen to what feels right for you.

• Gathering – There’s nothing like spending time with the people you love. So, instead of retreating, get together with friends and family. Be around others, whether sharing a meal, listening to music, or dancing. Strengthen your relationships.

• Traveling – Getting away from your familiar environment, even briefly, is valuable on many levels. Travel experiences spark new ideas and remove us from the familiar. Allowing ourselves to enjoy these new environments and sights strengthens our confidence and sense of well-being.

• Thanking – Gratitude for what was and what can be is essential. Acknowledge all that there is to be thankful for – the people, places, and things.

• Opening – Be open to the possibilities. The life you knew has been altered by choice or the natural course of things. Life is now different. Keep your mind open to what might be and what you might want to invite into your life.

Are you in transition now? What strategies help you?