What are your days like? Is life moving along smoothly? Or are your days filled with overwhelm, ups and downs, and challenges? There are times when finding your next step flows easily. At other points, the next step feels elusive. What if next included embracing “small awe” moments? How would that change the mood for your day and your experience of next?

Have you ever seen or experienced something that evoked such a sense of awe that you could barely find words to describe it? I remember visiting the Grand Canyon decades ago. My husband and I stood on the edge, looking at the magnificent expanse and feeling that deep awe. We were speechless.

Experiencing big awe because of natural wonders, cosmic events, encounters with wildlife, moments of surprise, spiritual experiences, human achievement, art, scientific discoveries, or personal transformation is amazing yet rare.

Small Awe Concept

The idea of small awe is more readily accessible. I was introduced to the concept when I visited the Dinner Gallery in New York City with my daughter, Allison. We saw the Time Is A Fire exhibit by artist Langdon Graves, who gave a talk about her work. Langdon used the phrase “small awe” to describe the intent behind some of her pieces. I’ve been thinking about that idea ever since. She said these tiny moments of awe are always available to us. However, we often don’t stop long enough to recognize them.

a Small Awe Next Step

What if your next step was discovering and enjoying a small awe moment? That might be . . .

• Seeing the first purple crocus of the season emerge from the earth

• Hearing your client declare confidently the progress they are making

• Crossing off the last task on your to-do list for the day

• Feeling the sun warm your body after days of gray, gloomy weather

• Going to the post office to mail your tax packet to your accountant

• Basking in the post-mindfulness meditation calm

• Taking in the coffee aroma and flavor from your favorite mug

• Sensing the warm water cover you as you shower or soak luxuriously in a tub

• Enjoying the open space you have in your closet after decluttering, organizing, and donating some clothes

• Hearing the sound of your loved one’s voice on the other end of the phone

• Climbing into your cozy bed after a long day

• Making progress on that big project, you were procrastinating about

• Having a great conversation with dear friends

“Be on the lookout for a ‘small awe’ moment.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Next can be a grand gesture or something smaller. It can be infused with awe. Are you stuck and unsure about what to do next? Be on the lookout for small awe moments. It might be just what you need to help you joyfully move forward. What moments are available to you? What will be your next step? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you want guidance with your next step, I’m here to help. Please email me at linda@ohsoorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or click here to schedule a Discovery Call. Next is doable, especially with support.

We’re in the last week of this year and in full holiday mode. You may feel stressed, calm, conflicted, anxious navigating holiday dynamics, sad, lonely, ready for company, happy this year is almost over, excited about your plans for next, grateful, ambivalent, uncertain, exhausted, or off-balance. No matter where you are or what you are feeling, increasing your joy awareness will have a positive outcome. In fact, experiencing more joy will bring a powerful counter-balance to life’s challenges.

One of the highlights of my week is a regular meeting I have with the Executive Mom Nest advisors and members. Marcy Stoudt, the Nest founder, developed a four-pillar concept, which she integrates into our gatherings and her coaching work.

The pillars are:

• Vivid Vision

• Aligned Action

• Growth Mindset

• Prioritizing Joy

During our last meeting, we focused on the pillar, Prioritizing Joy. She asked us to bring forward the “feeling of joy” by listing things that make you feel “comforted, present, inspired, and just plain good.” This was such a powerful thing to do. I encourage you to take a few minutes to create your own list.

“Joy brings a powerful counter-balance to life’s challenges.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

Here are fifty ways joy finds me:

1. Discovering bright spots of color in the bare winter landscape 

2. Putting on my new cozy purple slippers

3. Receiving an unexpected call or text from my kids

4. Hugging my husband

5. Having a deep conversation with a dear friend or loved one

6. Creating a colorful meal

7. Taking my first sip of morning coffee

8. Seeing twinkling lights, sparkles, and glitter

9. Clearing, cleaning, letting go, and organizing

10. Touching velvet

11. Eating fresh fruit and vegetables

12. Spotting a sign of spring like the first purple crocus that appears outside of our dining room window

13. Moisturizing, hydrating, and taking care of myself

14. Writing

15. Walking in the woods

16. Tending to my mini herb garden and flower pots

17. Watching the first big snow of the season

18. Wigging my toes in the sandy beach while hearing and seeing the ocean waves flow

19. Experiencing anything water-related – seeing, hearing, being, or playing in it

20. Doing yoga

21. Practicing mindfulness meditation

22. Having virtual organizing sessions with clients

23. Learning something new

24. Baking

25. Getting a massage

26. Seeing the light and patterns dance along surfaces

27. Swimming

28. Changing into my PJs

29. Taking photos and videos

30. Smelling lemons

31. Putting fresh flowers around my house

32. Feeling the sun on my skin

33. Watching, smelling, and listening to the crackling sounds of a fire

34. Getting into our cozy bed at the end of the day

35. Burning my favorite scented candles

36. Reading a book curled up on the sofa wrapped in a soft blanket 

37. Understanding something in a new way

38. Sharing something I love with someone I love

39. Humming

40. Sipping a cold iced tea with lemon on a hot day

41. Having a guilt-free “blob” day

42. Spending time with our family and friends

43. Setting a beautiful table

44. Seeing something I never noticed before

45. Traveling to somewhere new or familiar

46. Holding hands with my husband

47. Hearing birds chirping

48. Seeing gorgeous colors

49. Reading the hang tags on my Yogi Tea or the fortunes in my Fortune Cookies

50. Laughing so hard that tears roll down my cheeks

When we prioritize joy, we increase our awareness of tiny moments, which will bring more balance, resilience, and happiness into our lives. These moments are there for you, waiting to be noticed and embraced. What are a few things on your “joy” list? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Does getting organized feel elusive? If so, don't give up because there is hope. In the almost 30 years I’ve been helping people get organized, there are successful organizing habits that I’ve observed. Even when few are applied, the results can be life-changing.

Being organized will look and feel different for each person.  Someone’s end goal can be another’s starting point. What matters is finding the level of order and organization that feels right for you. 

Let’s look at the useful things people do most frequently to get and stay organized. As you read, note the ones you already do and concepts that will be helpful to try. 

5 Useful Things People Do to Help Get and Keep Organized

1. Make a Plan

When you think of the word “plan,” what comes to mind? Are you imagining detailed lists, charts, and graphs that track your every move? Or, do you think of a plan as something loose and flexible? To become and stay organized, some type of plan needs to exist. The format should align with how you best function. I’ve seen that both detailed and loose plans work. However, with no plan, getting and staying organized won’t happen. 

Both ways of planning work for me, depending on what I’m doing. Currently, I have a long-term goal to reduce the amount of stuff in my life. My plan isn’t a detailed room-by-room-do-this-by-x-date proposition. It’s a low-pressure, loose plan. I have one simple daily repeat on my to-do list that says, “Edit & release some stuff.”  I go to the room, drawer, or closet I feel like doing that day and spend 15-30 minutes editing something.

Some might prefer having a more specific plan, listing each room, and detail the exact things that need editing or organizing on a particular date. This also works. It just depends on what you need to stay motivated and on task. There is no right or wrong.

2. Be ‘Edit’ Aware

One of the reasons that clutter accumulates and disorganization happens is we stop listening to our time to edit antenna. What the heck is the edit antenna? This is the ability to notice when things are piling up and making an area unmanageable. Awareness is essential for getting and staying organized. This edit awareness cues you to activate decision-making. That, in turn, will help you release things that you no longer want, need, or belong elsewhere.

The visible cues can include . . .

• an unwieldy pile of unopened mail gathering on the dining room table

• a stuffed sock drawer that can no longer close

• some random objects that have taken up residence in the wrong rooms

• a crowded clothes closet, with the feeling you having nothing to wear

• many back-to-back entries on your calendar without time to breathe

“Awareness is essential for getting and staying organized.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

3. Get ‘It’ Together

Becoming and staying organized involves putting similar things together in the area you are going to use them. Organize so things are easily identifiable and readily available when you need to retrieve or return them. We describe this in various ways that include creating zones, grouping like-with-like, organizing by the ease of use, or corralling related stuff into bins, trays, or boxes. 

Think of the hot beverage zone in the kitchen, which includes an assortment of tea, coffee, hot chocolate, mugs, sweeteners, and filters. Items are strategically placed in the cabinet next to the coffee maker and electric kettle. When it’s time to brew your morning cup of Joe, everything you need is in one place. 

4. Return Home Today

Closely tied to the like-with-like concept is the idea of establishing specific ‘homes’ for all of your belongings. Organizing our stuff involves choosing the most helpful location for things to live. It’s unlikely that you would store your underwear in the kitchen, although that might be the best spot if it’s where you get dressed. But for most of us, having an underwear drawer in the bedroom or dressing area is a more practical location.

The beauty of having a specific home for underwear is you know where to find a pair when getting dressed, where to put the clean, newly washed ones, or where to find extras when packing for a trip. Creating a home works for underwear and everything else you own too. 

Establishing homes is not just about creating specific spots but returning things to their location. That’s what “return home today” is about. Imagine life in pre-pandemic days when you left your house in the morning to go to work and came back when you were done. You physically returned yourself home. You completed the cycle of out/in, which readies you for the next day.

Apply that same concept to your stuff. Something leaves its home. That’s OK and expected. It might leave for a few minutes, hours, or possibly days. Like gravity, what goes up, must come down. With our stuff, what leaves its home gets returned. This includes . . .

• silverware back to the cutlery drawer

• pens back to the pencil cup on the desk

• keys back to the zipper compartment in your bag

• cell phone back to the charging station

• pants back to the hanger in the closet

“Like gravity, what goes up, must come down. With our stuff, what leaves its home gets returned.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

5. Make a Quick Exit 

You did some decluttering and identified things to release. In the process, you filled four 30-gallon bags of clothes, two big boxes of dishes and housewares, three shopping bags of linens, two boxes of books, and a large bin of toys. They are contained and ready to exit your house. However, the bags and boxes of donates continue to sit and take up space. The organizing process isn’t complete until the stuff leaves your home.

One of the things people do to get and stay organized is to physically remove the outtakes as soon as possible. Once you identify the giveaways, keep going. Bring them to your local charities or arrange to have them picked up. Focus on that quick exit and then enjoy your clearer, more organized space.

There are many things people do that help them get and keep organized. Which ideas resonate with you? Are there other common strategies you do or have observed? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Many years ago I was at home when from the other room I heard a loud crash and a distressed sounding, “Oh no!” Our younger daughter came to me crying and blurted out, “I didn’t mean to…I broke your coffee pot.” I calmly asked, “You did?” Then to her surprise I hugged her, smiled and said, “Thank you.” She stopped crying as I explained that everything including coffee pots had a life and its time had come. I went on to explain that I'd been ready for quite a while to say good-bye to that particular appliance and now she gave me a good reason to do so. I was grateful.

I often think about that story. To this day, Cassie is still surprised by my reaction. When we’re ready to let go, we can do so almost effortlessly. We might even feel giddy. We are open to the next phase and new possibilities. That’s not the case, however, when we’re not ready.

Fast forward to now, fall 2010. I recently had another coffee maker mishap. This time it was completely my doing. I’m still not sure exactly how I managed this, but as I was putting the pot back on its burner, I knocked the glass into the edge of our kitchen counter and the pot broke.

As I cleaned up the pieces of glass, I remembered what I had said to Cassie, “Everything has a life.” Its time had come. A few days passed and I went shopping for a replacement. The new models were big and chunky looking with more features than I needed. I was frustrated and angry that I couldn’t find a simple, sleek automatic coffee maker. Even though it was just a coffee maker, I was mourning the loss of the one I had. Some of you are surely thinking, “Linda, get a grip! It’s only a coffee maker!” It’s replaceable. It’s not human. It’s just an object.

Why couldn’t things just remain as they were? I suppose that’s how it goes. Sometimes we’re poised and ready to let go, move on and embrace change and possibilities. At other points, we aren’t and need time to transition to the new.

While my husband is not a coffee drinker, he was sympathetic to my problem. After my unsuccessful shopping excursion, he volunteered to search the internet for a solution I’d like. He ordered one and it should arrive any day now. Interestingly enough, as I wait for the delivery, my thoughts have shifted away from loss and are focused now with positive anticipation. I’m looking forward to once again smelling the fabulous aroma of coffee brewing, experiencing that luxurious first sip of morning joe and sharing a full pot of java, food and good conversation with my family and friends.

What wonderful possibilities wait for you as you prepare to let go?