We’re in the thick of the holiday season. Holiday music permeates the background as you stroll through stores, restaurants, and grocery stores. Is it just me, or do you catch yourself singing along? I can’t help it. The music is contagious. Your balance might be excellent right now. You feel unencumbered, giddy, and joyful with the glitter and whimsy of the holiday season. Or, you might feel overwhelmed by your physical or mind clutter. The overwhelm makes it challenging to focus on twinkling lights, time with loved ones, and feeling at ease.

Finding balance is a constantly moving pursuit. When your balance wanders too far in one direction, it’s time to adjust. It’s an excellent season to make some changes. It will set you up for a happier, more peaceful holiday time. No one wants to be preoccupied with clutter at the expense of enjoying celebrations, cozy time around the fire with family and friends, and quiet moments of relaxation or reflection.

My clients have been especially motivated and focused on recalibrating their balance in the past several weeks. Their physical and mental clutter reached a tipping point, encouraging them to edit, let go, and organize. It’s been exciting to help them make the changes they desire. Enlisting my help enabled them to clarify and recommit to their goals, get unstuck, reduce overwhelm, and feel energized with hope. Making small steps, taking action, and experiencing progress are the secret ingredients to finding your desired balance.

While there are many potential areas to balance, I’ll share five common ones that can inspire positive changes for you.  

5 Positive Benefits of Creating More Balance for Happy Holidays

1. Balance Clothing Clutter

Are you familiar with the One-in, One-Out Rule, a commonly used organizing principle? This encourages you to release one equivalent-type item you no longer want, like a pair of pants or a sweater, when you bring in something new. This concept helps you maintain your current space and organization.

A more substantial edit is helpful if your clothing closets are already tight or overflowing. Especially at this time of year when we are gifted things, including clothing, it’s beneficial to do some closet and dresser editing now. I encourage you to release those items that no longer fit, you don’t like, are worn or stained beyond repair, and are never selected to wear. Let those go. Create visual and physical space for your clothing. You’ll be able to get dressed more easily and know that you love wearing what remains.

2. Balance Mind Clutter

What thoughts are swirling around in your brain? Are your tasks, projects, and decisions to make preoccupying your thoughts? You may have one particularly significant project that is shouting the loudest and making it challenging to focus on other commitments. It’s time to rebalance with the Brain Dump.

An excellent first step is releasing your thoughts from your head and capturing them on paper, a digital document, or a voice recording. Let them out! What happens when we keep them in? The mind clutter continues to swirl around. It keeps us stuck and preventing us from taking action. You can get easily fooled when thinking overtakes doing. It might seem like you’re accomplishing something because that ‘thing’ is all you think about. But you aren’t doing, you’re ruminating.

Action, which brings about progress, is the key to reducing your mind clutter. Select one tiny task from your list. It can be the next step in moving forward on that big project or a single one-and-done-type task. Continue to select something from your list and turn your tasks into small, doable actions.

3. Balance Desk Clutter

Often, my clients tell me they can't think or work when their desks are out of balance and cluttered. Paying bills, writing, scheduling, making calls, or responding to emails can be challenging when your desk surfaces contain visual and physical clutter. The items that collect over time onto your surfaces are waiting for decisions. The objective is to remove things you don’t need visible or belong elsewhere, like

• Old or fileable papers

• Extra office supplies

• Random items that ‘landed’ there or

• Other people’s stuff

When your desk balance is off, invest time to recalibrate. This doesn’t mean it needs to be completely empty. Find a balance between what you need to be immediately visible and accessible and those things that can be stored or moved elsewhere.

Edit, let go, reroute, and breathe. Can you feel a sense of relief?

“When your balance wanders too far in one direction, it’s time to adjust.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Balance Pile Clutter

Are you a piler? You might see stacks of books, magazines, gifts, toiletries, craft supplies, and more. Guess what happens when a pile gets too big? It becomes off balance with the potential to tip. The tipping can cause a tripping hazard. Who needs that during the holiday or any season?

Here’s the good news about these piles containing larger physical objects. Each item takes up a significant volume of space. That means your editing and decision-making power creates visible results more quickly. Here are some examples:

• A one-foot pile of sweaters to edit = about 5 decisions

• A one-foot pile of books to edit = about 18 decisions

• A one-foot pile of magazines to edit = about 36 decisions

Compare these to:

• A one-foot pile of papers to edit = about 240 decisions

If you want quicker progress on your piles, focus on editing the objects that take up more space and require fewer decisions. You’ll be less likely to experience decision fatigue.

5. Balance Paper Clutter

Why does paper collect? There are several reasons, such as

• It needs to be filed

• It is out as a visual cue

• Belongs to someone else

• Requires a decision

• Is pending

• Is part of an active project

• It needs to be routed elsewhere

• It needs to be shredded, tossed, recycled, or digitized

While the reasons are valid, the paper clutter often seems to multiply when we’re sleeping. Getting papers into a manageable balance hinges on your paper management system. This will include an area to

• Store frequently referenced files

• Organize current action items

• Archive less frequently accessed files

• Recycling container

• Garbage container

• Shredder or container to collect shredding

Investing in your paper management system will create flow, reduce paper clutter, and increase productivity. What a beautiful gift to give yourself in preparation for the holidays. And if you can’t focus on this before the season, why not set it as a goal for the New Year?

As you navigate the fullness of the holiday season, what will help you recalibrate your balance? Let me know how I can help with editing, decluttering, and organizing. I’m here for you. Schedule your virtual organizing session today. Reach me, Linda, at 914-271-5637, linda@ohsoorganized.com, or through my contact form.

I wish you a happy, joyful, and organized holiday season!

For almost three decades, I’ve enthusiastically helped people edit and get organized. Recently, I’ve become my own client and leaned into some organizing self-help. My motivation to let go of the extraneous was partially influenced by this summer’s tiny house vacation. While I no longer am obsessed with moving into a tiny house, I want to live in our right-sized house, but with less stuff.

Our home isn’t disorganized or cluttered. Things have a place. My husband, Steve, and I can easily retrieve and return items to their designated ‘homes.’  However, there are belongings that have overstayed their welcome. Those are the things that have been stored for a long time and are no longer used, needed, or wanted. They are taking up physical and emotional space. Their time has come to move on.

After returning from vacation, I set a long-term goal to reduce the amount of stuff I own. My plan isn’t a detailed room-by-room-do-this-by-x-date proposition. It’s a low-pressure, loose plan. I added one simple daily repeat on my to-do list that says, “Edit & release some stuff.”  There is no expectation other than to do something. I spend 15-60 minutes editing what I feel like working on that day.

In the last two weeks, I edited and organized clothing, shoes, handbags, toiletries, cleaning products, paper goods, dishes, and glasses. Additional edits included candles, vases, office supplies, books, photos, cards, letters, memorabilia, personal and business files, and email inbox. These items were from the dining room, entryway, laundry room, kitchen, office, main bedroom, and bathrooms.

I let go of

• Five 13-gallon bags of trash

• Two 30-gallon bags of trash

• Two 30-gallon bags of clothing and home goods for donations

• One bag of books for donations

• One bag of paper for recycling

• One bag of paper for shredding

• One container of pens for a friend

Like with all experiments, come learning. My ‘edit & release some stuff’ plan is no exception. There will be more insights, but here are seven discoveries I made so far.

7 Best Organizing Self-Help Discoveries Made With My New Simple Plan

1. Track Your Progress

There are many ways to enjoy progress, but for me, tracking with a simple chart helps me review and acknowledge my accomplishments. I created a Word document with three columns- date, area worked on, and result. Taking photos or journaling can also be helpful.

2. Respect Random Approach

Typical organizing wisdom encourages us to organize one area before moving on to the next. I’ve shared that advice with many clients. However, as logical as that sounds, it’s not always possible or desirable. Clients sometimes get bored working in one area or encounter emotionally charged belongings they are not ready to organize. With my approach, I gifted myself the option for randomness. Instead of a specific plan of what to edit each day, I let myself choose more intuitively. Which area do I feel like working on today? It keeps the pressure low and the satisfaction high.

3. Honor Your Emotions

Is organizing emotional? It can be. While editing, I experienced a range of feelings like happiness, joy, sadness, ambivalence, resistance, frustration, annoyance, guilt, exhaustion, satisfaction, and love. I let my emotions have the space to surface. When editing my cards, I found a beautiful, love-filled note written by my mom for my 40th birthday. I felt sad that she is gone and simultaneously felt her love and encouragement. 

4. Trust the Exit

Honestly, if I wasn’t logging my progress and noting the stuff I said goodbye to, I wouldn’t remember what was gone. I have no regrets and don’t miss anything that I released. It feels good.

“It’s liberating to live with less.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

5. Live With Less

As each area or space is edited, I appreciate having less. For example, when I open the sticky note drawer, only my favorites are there, and the never-used ones are gone. When I get dressed, the clothes I like and wear most are in my closets and drawers. They have space to breathe, and it makes it easier for me to select what I’m going to wear. It’s liberating to live with less.

6. Rethink Your Space

One of the benefits of letting go is the opportunity to rethink your space. Having less visual and physical clutter makes it easier to improve flow and organization.  As I released stuff, I cleaned and asked a few questions. Is the space working as is? Or, could it use a slight tweak? Some areas were set. However, for others, I made improvements. For example, after the kitchen edit, I inserted freestanding cabinet shelves. This made use of wasted vertical space and also improved access to frequently used dishes.

7. Engage Self or Outside Help

While I’m making progress, I recognize the value of enlisting help. While I have released a lot, I’m pretty sure if someone supported and asked me questions as I edited, I’d let go of more. Help with facilitating decision-making is invaluable. For now, I continue to go it alone, coaching myself through the process. I will leave the door open to reach out for help if needed.

Have you been editing and organizing? Are you doing it on your own or did you get help? What did you learn? Did any of my discoveries resonate with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

2020 has been the year of Zoom, and with it came an abundance of desk time. It’s a good thing that this professional organizer loves being in her home office. It is the place I have virtual organizing sessions with clients, write blog posts, attend workshops, pay bills, and connect with family, friends, and colleagues. My space reflects a balance of the elements that are most important to me. When I’m here, reminders that help me focus, be productive, feel calm, creative, grateful, and supported surround me.

Organization at its best happens when our environment supports what we need and want to do. After all, when you’re struggling to find a pen that works, a paper to jot a note onto, staples to replenish your stapler or a cord to recharge your device, that searching adds undue stress in your life. When your surfaces are covered with non-essentials, they detract rather than help you focus on your intentions. If your space lacks comfort, your body and mind will become exhausted. And if your place is void of the “you” factor, it won’t honor your uniqueness.

As we wrap up one year and head into the next, this is an excellent time to consider balance and its role in your physical environment. While I’m sure you have your list of what makes you feel organized and supported in your space, I thought you’d enjoy this behind the scenes view of my office and the elements that help me. If you’re curious, you can read and see more photos of how my office space came to be in Dreams Need Help Too. Continue reading for a behind the scenes look at Linda’s office.

10 Elements That Add Balance

1. Inspiration 

Inspiration is present in many forms. There are the small signs or words I display around my desk, like the Anna Quindlen quote card that says, “I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.” My favorite inspirational books are perched visibly on the shelves, including Mindset by Carol Dweck. Other favorites include I’ll Carry the Fork by Kara Swanson, Mindfulness by Ellen Langer, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Resilience by Linda Graham, and The Little Book of Hygee by Meik Wiking. These visuals encourage me to continue learning, be creative, and focus on what is meaningful.

2. Technology

My Apple device trio- the iMac, iPad, and iPhone helps me communicate and stay organized. They sync with each other, which helps with productivity. If a new contact or appointment is entered on my phone, it automatically syncs with my iMac and iPad. One of the keys to using technology is having confidence in your devices and knowing where and how to access the vast amount of information you are storing. Tech balance comes from organizing my e-files for easy retrieval and having physical and cloud-based auto back-up systems. Over the years, I’ve become increasingly dependent on technology, which has its pros and cons. One way I manage that balance is by minimizing the beeps and dings so my devices don’t interrupt me when I’m working.

3. Comfort

While I’m committed to having non-desk time with activities like walking, doing yoga, or meditating, the reality is that I’m at my desk a significant amount of time. Part of balance includes being physically comfortable. A few small things make desk life better. I have gel-filled wrist rests for my keyboard and mouse, a purple velvet footstool for my short legs, and a navy blue velour desk chair that is soft to the touch. Good feeling fabrics and textures matter to me. My lighting is also comfortable with various sources, including natural light. Don’t underestimate the value of improving a few physical office essentials to increase your comfort. Your body and mind will thank you.

“Organization at its best happens when our environment supports what we need and want to do.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO

4. Organization 

I can’t ignore the value that the physical organization of papers, files, and supplies has in feeling balanced. My office was designed to hold all of the items I use regularly. There are filing cabinets for papers, open slots for ongoing projects, closed cabinets to store supplies like the label maker, pads of paper, printer cartridges, and notecards. There are drawers for stamps, mailing labels, and eyeglasses. Everything has a place and is at my fingertips. Pens, stapler, sticky notes, and scissors, and other frequently used supplies are visible and contained on my desk. 

5. Time

Managing myself involves being time-aware. This awareness enables me to be punctual for appointments, focus on projects, take breaks, and shift gears. The clocks and timers in my office support boundaries and balance. My tech devices display the time digitally. It is my large yellow analog wall clock that I rely on most. I interpret time most easily when I can see the visual representation of time moving. I also use the Time Timer and the alarm setting on my iPhone Clock app to manage my time.

6. Family

When we talk about work, the phrases work-life balance or work-family balance often emerges. Having a space that inspires and supports your work is great. However, remembering that life isn’t just about work is key. Spending time with the people I love is essential. On display are photos of happy faces snuggled together and beautiful moments spent with my husband and kids. They exude love. My family lifts my heart and brings balance, meaning, and joy into my life.

“Having a space that inspires and supports your work is great. However, remembering that life isn’t just about work is key.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO

7. Color

Color affects my mood. Even as a young girl, the color was how I interpreted the world. When curious about a place or thing, my first question was often, “What color is it?” By age five, my favorite color was purple, and it still is. When it came time to design my office, I wanted to incorporate my color. I combined different violet hues like the red-violet pullout keyboard tray, the blue-violet cabinets, the muted purple filing cabinets, and the blue fleck quartz desktop. Being surrounded by my favorite color makes me feel happy, grateful, and balanced. How does color affect you?

8. Sparkle

Color is great, but color with sparkles is even better. I’ve always responded to light. There’s something so lovely how sparkly things like glitter, glass, and other shiny objects, reflect light. The undulating lightness brings balance and some whimsy to the darkness. When I look around the office, my eye catches glimpses of shine from objects like the lavender glass cabinet knobs, the silver glitter-covered Eiffel Tower, or the purple sparkle pen cup. Who says we can’t find balance in the sparkles?

9. Toys

Toys make me think about play, which is the opposite of work. Prominently displayed under my computer screen is a long tray of toys, I affectionately call fidgets. They are miniature buttons, clothespins, Legos, trolls, rubber ducks, maracas, egg timers, and other tiny objects. They represent a variety of colors, textures, and messages. Why are they there? And what do they have to do with balance? When I’m in a meeting or on a call, playing with the objects helps me focus. Fiddling around in this tactile way improves my concentration. The other aspect has to do with my appreciation of small things and fun. My fidget collection provides a balance of focus and whimsy.

10. Nature

For me, feeling aliveness within extends into being surrounded by living things, like plants. So much is quiet and still in my office. Including greenery or fresh flowers add vibrancy and balance to my space. Allison, my oldest daughter, gifted me with a beautiful wooden stand she made, which displays a miniature ceramic pot and air plant. It’s the sweetest little plant that makes me think of my daughter and how she has blossomed. The tiny plant also reminds me to extend nurture and care to it and to others. The balance lies in doing and not doing, watering, not overwatering, and nurturing, but not smothering. 

As we end one year and shift to the new one, how will you bring balance into your life? Have you considered the ways your space supports or disrupts your balance? What one change can you make to improve your physical space? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.