It’s no fun to feel stuck, stressed, or overwhelmed. Remaining that way for a long time isn’t good for your mental health or well-being. Take a moment to check in with yourself and see how you’re feeling. Do you need help making a change right now?

The good news is that you can make minor adjustments. These tiny shifts can have positive influences on your energy and overall well-being. I’ve often written about ways to calm and ground yourself.

For me, activities like walking in nature, journaling, eating nutritious foods, and getting enough sleep are my go-to methods for boosting energy and improving my mood. They also reduce stress and overwhelm and help you get unstuck. 

Recently, I discovered several new energy-changing strategies to help reduce morning stress, create momentum, and embrace relaxation.

 

3 Easy Ways to Help Shift Your Energy and Get Unstuck

1. Help Reduce Morning Stress

“Just give your brain 10 minutes to wake up.”

— Jay Shetty

In a recent issue of Real Simple, Jay Shetty, author and On Purpose podcast host, advises against checking your phone first thing. Allowing your brain a few minutes to wake up without that distraction will have a positive effect on your entire day.

Jay says, “You would never wake up and let 100 people into your bedroom before you showered or brushed your teeth. But when you look at your phone first thing in the morning, you’re letting 100 people into your mind. Then you end up chasing dopamine the rest of the day. Just give your brain 10 minutes to wake up. If you do that, your whole day will be different and you’ll have less anxiety. Try it for seven days, and you will feel so much better.”

I’ve been working on this. One challenge I face is that I meditate first thing in the morning using an app on my phone. My goal is to meditate with the app before checking email, texts, or social media. I notice a clear difference in my practice when I meditate first. However, when I get distracted by other inputs, it’s harder to settle into my meditation.

As I consider Jay’s strategy to “just give your brain 10 minutes to wake up,” I’m reaffirming my commitment to my morning routine. I will meditate first before doing any other phone-related activities. 

2. Help Create Momentum

“Clear enough space for momentum to arrive.”

— Oliver Burkeman

In one of Oliver Burkeman’s newsletters, The Imperfectionist, he wrote, “If you’re stuck in a rut, and you feel like you’ve stopped making progress on things that matter, it could be that you need more immediacy in your life.”

He discussed ways to build momentum through concrete actions, like recycling the “300 articles I’d saved to read later.” How many things have you saved for someday—things to do, read, or take care of? Those piles of unfinished projects, unread books, clothes you’ll never wear, or gadgets you’ll never use occupy valuable physical and mental space in our homes and minds.

To get unstuck, create momentum, and spark creativity, do some “stuff” clearing. Oliver said, “It was as if I’d been assuming that what I needed was to collect sufficient resources to create momentum, when what I really needed was to clear enough space for momentum to arrive.”

What can you release, recycle, or donate today?

3. Help Embrace Relaxation

“Rushing tends to trigger the stress response, and slowing down helps switch it off.”

— Nicola Jane Hobbs

In a recent Real Simple article about how to relax and unwind, especially at the start of your vacation, Nicola Jane Hobbs, a psychologist and author of The Relaxed Woman, offers excellent advice. She understands how difficult it can be to switch from the stress and fast pace of your work life to taking time off and relaxing. I don’t know about you, but when I’m on vacation, it usually takes me a day or two to transition from go-go-going to just being.

One of Nicola’s strategies is simple and can be helpful beyond just vacations. She explains that slowing down even the smallest parts of your daily routine can act as a reset. “Rushing tends to trigger the stress response, and slowing down helps switch it off.” Slowing down your “daily actions” will “help your mind and body relax.”

Some ways to slow down (as in doing these things more slowly) include:

• Walking

• Chewing

• Drinking

• Breathing

• Stretching

• Washing your hands

• Brushing your teeth

Next time you feel stressed or overwhelmed, try slowing down a small action and watch how it changes your experience.

What Helps You Get Unstuck?

There are so many ways to get unstuck, reduce overwhelm, or shift your mood. What are some of your go-to strategies? Which strategy that I shared resonates with you the most?

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.

If you have a little clutter, a lot, or somewhere in between, you can benefit from editing and letting go. What happens when you hold onto things that no longer serve you? What results when your ‘stuff’ takes up too much physical, emotional, or energetic space?

Clutter can intensify feelings of:

• Overwhelm

• Anxiety

• Stress

• Frustration

• Hopelessness

It can significantly affect your daily life, sense of agency, self-esteem, and energy.

The good news is that you can change your relationship with clutter and live with more ease. I’ve compiled a list of seven resources to help motivate you to declutter. From simple questions to client-inspired experiences to advice from experts, you’ll find what you need to support your decluttering journey.

Seven Resources to Motivate Decluttering

1. Commitment – Is Decluttering Worth It?

Let’s face it. Decluttering takes effort and time, and you might feel you have a limited supply of both. Ciéra Cree interviewed me for the Livingetc article, “Is Decluttering Worth It? Experts Say Yes – and Highlight Why a Clutter-Free Space Feels So Good.”

Only you can decide if decluttering is worth it. As shared in the article, “Countless clients of mine have experienced the positive effects of decluttering their space…they feel relief, as if a weight has been lifted. They are more energetic, productive, and optimistic about their space.”

2. Well-Being – What is Clutter’s Impact on Mental Health?

Clutter can negatively affect your mental health and well-being. If you are looking for several valuable resources that dive into the impact of clutter on your life and some helpful tools, check out my article, “One Excellent Tool to Assess Clutter’s Impact on Your Mental Health.”

The article includes links to my interviews with Melissa Tracey for

• “How Clutter Creates Stress and Anxiety: Strategies for Decluttering” – Houselogic article

• “You’ll Never Look at Your Home’s Clutter the Same” - The Housing Muse podcast

3. Observation – Does Clutter Blindness Affect You?

How can you declutter if you are clutter blind? Ciéra Cree interviewed me for the Apartment Therapy article, “4 Signs You May Be Struggling with ‘Clutter Blindness’ – And How to Fix It for Good.”

I defined clutter blindness as “the experience of having clutter in your life that you no longer see.”

Cultivate curiosity by developing awareness of clutter by purposefully noticing what’s around you. Focus on heightening your awareness. This will “help shift your internal perspective as well as your actual view of the physical clutter.”

4. Motivation – What Are the Top Reasons That Motivate Decluttering?

Significant life events can make the decluttering process easier and faster. This is because the reasons to declutter are clear. Decision-making goes more quickly and less stressfully because your choices are aligned with your goal.

The five top decluttering motivators are:

• Moving – Downsizing, upsizing, or right-sizing

• Cycling – Revolving door stage when kids leave and return home frequently during the college years and beyond

• Surprising – Experiencing extreme weather events that damage possessions

• Ending – Handling deceased loved one’s possessions

• Stabilizing – Adjusting the environment to accommodate unanticipated medical or mental health conditions

To learn more, read my post, “5 Strong Motivation Reasons to Get Rid of Your Clutter.”

“Significant life events can make the decluttering process easier and faster.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

5. Distress – What to Do First When Overwhelmed by Clutter?

Does clutter overwhelm you? If so, you’re not alone. You will love this resource if you’re curious about excellent first-step strategies.

Caroline Bologna recently interviewed me for the HuffPost piece, “The First Thing Professional Organizers Do When They’re Feeling Overwhelmed by Mess.”

There are many practical approaches. I prefer to change my internal state first to gain control so that I can more calmly and easily alter the external state, the clutter. You can achieve this by taking several slow, deep breaths. Then, shift your thoughts to more proactive and positive messages.

6. Solutions – Where Are the Best Tips for Decluttering and Organizing?

For over thirty years, I’ve been helping clients declutter and organize. Fast-forward to 2009 when I started blogging about organizing and life balance.

The categories I write about include clutter, letting go, virtual organizing, mindfulness, parenting, motivation, change, and more. Use the Browse the Blog feature or the search icon to learn more about a specific topic that interests you.

Many excellent organizing blogs are great resources for tips and strategies. Each blog has a distinct focus and personality. Feedspot recently featured its favorite organizing blogs on two lists, and I was thrilled to be included.

They are:

• 100 Best Organizing Blogs and Websites in 2025 (#17)

• 25 Best Organizing Mom Blogs and Websites in 2025 (#4)

7. Progress – How Can the Decluttering Process be Simplified?

One of my favorite creatives and authors, Todd Henry, shared an excellent question in his book, Daily Creative. While he didn’t pose the question specifically for clutter challenges, I thought it could be effectively used in that context.

Todd asked,

“What’s the very next thing I need to do to make any kind of progress?”

I appreciate three aspects about this question and why it’s so powerful. They are:

• The emphasis is on “the very next thing.” This implies not worrying about the entirety of your goal but instead reducing the scope to take one small next step at a time.

• The qualifier “any” encourages you to start decluttering wherever you choose.

• Including “progress” focuses your effort on moving forward rather than on perfection or completion. A progress pursuit is easier to measure, reduces overwhelm, and boosts motivation.

What Motivates Decluttering?

Is clutter challenging for you? What are your go-to resources that motivate you to declutter?  I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Do you want support organizing, editing, or decluttering? I’d love to help! Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward – Local feel with a global reach.

Please schedule a Discovery Call, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, or call 914-271-5673. Living clutter-free is possible, especially with support.

Enjoy the newest release (v49) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature with my latest finds that inform, inspire, and relate to organizing and life balance. These unique letting-go discoveries reflect this month’s blog theme and time of year. Spring is a season for growth, change, and letting go of what no longer serves you.

You are an engaged, vibrant, and generous 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 Letting Go Discoveries

1. Interesting Workshop – Letting Go of Clutter

Do you feel burdened and overwhelmed by the clutter in your life? This transformative workshop can help. Spring is a wonderful time to let go and thrive.

Join me, Linda Samuels, Professional Organizer, for the empowering workshop – My Simple Organizing Plan. One workshop with your choice of two dates:

• April 22nd at 7:00-8:00 pm Eastern or

• April 24th at Noon-1:00 pm Eastern

  By the end of the one-hour Zoom workshop, you’ll have strategies for immediate change. You will:

• Uncover the hidden impact of clutter on your emotional well-being.

• Learn how to harness motivation to propel your decluttering journey forward.

• Acquire the skills to design a simple, personalized decluttering plan tailored to you.

Let go of the chaos and say hello to a calmer, more organized you. Reserve your spot now!

2. Interesting Article – Letting Go for Spring

Have you ever chosen a decluttering, letting go, or organizing project based on your Zodiac sign? Are you curious about which project aligns best with your sign? If so, you’ll love this!

In the Homes & Gardens article, What to easily organize this spring based on your Zodiac sign – it’ll turbocharge decluttering and banish motivation blockers, writer Ciera Cree explores star sign-adjacent organizing projects based on recommendations from astrologers and professional organizers (including me).

Ciera shares the astrologers’ advice and says, “Aligning your decluttering mission with your star sign will maximize efficiency...”  For example, if you’re an Aries (March 21st – April 19th), astrologist Rebecca Gordon suggests doing a “closet refresh.”

Based on Rebecca’s advice, I suggested, as a professional organizer, “To get your closet ready for spring, begin by removing darker, heavier clothing to make space for lighter, more colorful seasonal pieces.”

What is your sign? I’m a Scorpio. The astrologer suggests organizing my to-do list for spring home maintenance tasks. Which spring decluttering and letting go project are you looking forward to?

3. Interesting Read – Letting Go of Overwhelm

Feeling overwhelmed is the top reason people reach out to me for support. Their overwhelm comes from having:

• Too much clutter

• Too many projects and people to manage

• Unwieldy to-do lists

• Lack of time or

• Inability to focus on what’s valued most

In Overwhelmed – Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, author and award-winning journalist, Brigid Schulte explores why we’re so stressed out and overwhelmed and ways to create time for what matters most.

Schulte shares neuroscience research that “when a human is pressed for time, rushed, and caught up in overwhelm, that yellow blob [prefrontal cortex] does something alarming: It shrinks.” In addition, “when children are exposed to stress – often stemming from the overwhelm of their parents – it can alter not only their neurological and hormonal systems but also their very DNA.”

This is sobering stuff. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Schulte also provides readers with compelling research, stories, and many strategies. She advocates for:

• Letting go of unrealistic expectations

• Creating flexible work schedules

• Establishing parenting and domestic parity

• Setting technology boundaries

• Slowing down

• Having more leisure time

• Practicing gratitude

• Playing more

• Embracing ‘good enough’

• Taking intentional breaks

• Focusing on the present

What can you reimagine or let go of when you're feeling overwhelmed?

“Let go of the chaos and say hello to a calmer, more organized you.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Interesting Resource – Letting Go to Help Someone Else

As you declutter and let go this spring, do you have bras you no longer wear that could benefit someone? Finding a good home for your belongings is a helpful strategy for letting go. You’ll feel better and more at peace when your things go to someone who will appreciate receiving them. In the organizing industry, this is known as providing “safe passage.”

A terrific non-profit organization, The Bra Recyclers, repurposes old bras and new underwear and gives them to people in need. Repurposing also keeps textiles out of landfills.

They accept regular bras, sports bras, nursing bras, and new ones with tags or women’s panties and men’s boxers and briefs in the package. With their “hassle-free solution,” The Bra Recyclers makes it easy to get your undergarments to them with this three-step process:

• Wash it

• Fill out the online form

• Mail or drop it off

Let go to help people and the planet.

5. Interesting Thought – Letting Go of What’s Keeping You Stuck

What is holding you back? What is keeping you stuck? What is no longer necessary in your life?

If you sense it’s time to let go, give yourself permission. Close your eyes and settle. Take a deep breath, hold it briefly, exhale slowly, and let it go. Repeat two more times.

Can you identify a part of your life that needs help letting go? It could include physical items, negative thoughts, overly busy schedules, or unhelpful habits.

How will you benefit from letting go?

New Season Inspires Letting Go Opportunities

When you release what is no longer needed, you make space for possibilities, calm, and what’s most valued.

What will you let go of this spring? Which of these discoveries resonate most with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Do you want help getting unstuck, reducing overwhelm, letting go, and getting organized? I’m here to help. Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward – local feel with global reach.

Please email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call. Letting go is possible, especially with support.

When you think about change, which emotions bubble up? As someone who has observed, experienced, and helped others make changes, I’ve noticed many reactions. When anticipating change, we can experience mixed emotions, including fear, frustration, anxiety, doubt, overwhelm, sadness, ambivalence, excitement, relief, and hope.

Emotions are powerful. They can paralyze or propel us, depending on which ones are in play.

• What if you could stack the deck in your favor?

• What if you could shift your perspective to encourage a more joyful experience for your desired changes?

• How would that alter your journey?

When you think about making a change, it can feel enormous, confusing, and unreachable. For example, let’s say you feel overwhelmed and frustrated by the clutter and disorganization in your life. You want things to change but don’t know what to do or how to begin. As a result, you do nothing.

A common organizing philosophy encourages breaking down large projects or goals into small, doable parts or tasks. Using this strategy is an effective path forward. You keep the larger goal in mind while focusing your effort on tiny, baby steps. This process reduces overwhelm and facilitates forward movement.

Encourage Change by Shifting Your Perspective

During a recent meditation and writing retreat led by my friend and colleague, Yota Schneider, she shared an insightful question. We considered it in a particular context around focusing.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I recognized how you could use the question to encourage change through a lens of positive expectations.

The question Yota shared was from neuropsychologist and author Dr. Rick Hanson. He asked,

“What will I be glad I did today?”

I appreciate the question’s simplicity and graciousness. What will I be glad I did today? The question has several fascinating effects.

• Contemplate – It invites you to consider joy, happiness, gratification, or satisfaction as the driving force. In other words, you are taking action inspired by this positive perspective.

• Strengthen – It offers a nonjudgmental inquiry while strengthening activation confidence. You imagine this positive change or task as if you have already accomplished it. The question boosts agency.

• Reduce – While it doesn’t overtly state this, the question implies a narrower, singular focus. Dialing down the possibilities to something smaller can reduce or eliminate overwhelm.

• Imagine – It merges present action with positive, immediate future results. You are doing something now that you will be happy you did later today.

• Build – Using this question to navigate change gently promotes a repeat-and-build pattern versus a one-and-done method.

• Act – The question is non-confrontational. It’s even kind of fun. You’re focusing on how good you’ll feel or “glad” you are when you do that thing today. 

“Encourage change through a lens of positive expectations.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Work the Present and the Future

Once you gear your mind toward a “glad I did today” focus, you will experience many positive changes that connect with your larger goals. Here are several of the positives I’ve experienced recently and the change categories they influenced. I am glad I:

Relationships – Nurture and Strengthen

• Celebrated my husband’s birthday

• Cooked with my daughter

• Sent packages and notes to our kiddos in advance of Valentine’s Day

• Had assorted conversations with friends, family, and colleagues, including a friend I hadn’t spoken with in way too many years

Professional – Lead and Learn

• Completed the edits and returned my chapter for a new ICD book on chronic disorganization

• Led a planning meeting for my organizing colleagues for NAPO Westchester

• Had virtual organizing sessions with my clients

• Wrote my blog

Finances – Manage and Build

• Gave our accountant a preliminary tax summary

• Paid bills

• Reconciled accounts

Household – Maintain and Edit

• Cleared out the 2024 files and set up the 2025 files

• Did laundry

• Added a few clothing items to the donation bag

Well-Being – Calm and Care

• Scheduled vaccines

• Didn’t eat that extra piece of cake

• Took a walk along the river even though it was cold

• Slept later than usual

• Went to yoga class

• Meditated

It’s Your Turn to Invite Change

Which categories in your life are you looking to change? What is one thing you can do today that will bring you closer to that goal? With this in mind, what will you be glad you did today? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

How Can I Help?

Do you want support organizing, planning, or inviting positive change? I’d love to help! Virtual organizing is an extraordinary path forward – local feel with a global reach.

Please email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call. Change is possible, especially with support.