Posts in Fresh Start
Here Are Today's Most Interesting and Best Fresh Start Discoveries - v43

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!

 
Is Resistance Something That Has Paralyzed Your Fresh Start?

Resistance is something we’ve all experienced at one time or another. Resistance can be an indicator or an internal alert system to stop you from doing something harmful. However, it can also prevent you from growing, learning, and embracing something extraordinary, like the fresh start a new month or year brings.

Do you remember when you pulled back instead of leaning into an idea, opportunity, or suggestion? Maybe you encountered an external or internal “should” statement that elicited the response, “No way am I going to do that!” Or, perhaps fear showed up when a significant opportunity presented itself. Instead of embracing the unknown, you retreated.

One of the weekly emails I enjoy receiving is from my business and website consultant, Tanya Moushi. Recently, she mentioned writer Steven Pressfield’s characterization of resistance as “the artful insidious feeling that holds us back from doing the things that are meaningful to us.” What a powerful force when resistance prevents us from doing what we truly desire.

 

I personally experience and also frequently observe resistance with my virtual organizing clients. There can be a disconnect between the work and habit changes needed to achieve desired goals. That disconnect can show up as resistance. My clients might want to live with less clutter, yet they resist letting go. They might wish to clear living and working spaces, but they continue purchasing more to fill those areas.

Acknowledging resistance is part of the work we do together. We notice when it appears and talk about what it indicates and how to work with it.

I’m still in the vision board-creating process and will share more about it in the coming weeks. However, I chose my theme for the year: “What would it take?” In Zoe Chance’s Influence is Your Superpower, she writes about how this is the magic question that cuts excuses and respectfully opens the door for “surprising answers that you would never have expected.”

The question, “What would it take?” acts as my resistance melter. I’ve been actively experimenting with that question to help me when I encounter resistance to:

  • Letting go of unhelpful thoughts

  • Getting unstuck when the next step isn’t clear

  • Shifting my perspective

  • Making complicated plans

  • Getting out of my own way

What would it take?
— Zoe Chance

With the start of this year, you have an opportunity to embrace the motivation a new beginning brings. If you resist the changes you want to make, it’s worth exploring what that’s about. Is it indicating there is something you, in fact, don’t want to change? Or is fear or uncertainty blocking you? What would it take to move forward? If you need clarity to figure it out, please reach out. I’m ready to help.

How are you making the most of your fresh start? Where have you encountered resistance? What has helped you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

 
How to Make Fortune Cookie Wisdom Inspire Your Fresh Start

Do you love the surprise of reading fortune cookie fortunes? I do. Recently, I got one I want to share with you, which I will do momentarily. Cookie fortunes vary a lot. Some don’t resonate or make sense. Others are so timely or hope-filled that they become ‘keepers.’

As you begin a new month and year, anything you discover to inspire or encourage your fresh start is worth exploring.

Often, I’ve noticed how the start of a project or a change you want to make is the most challenging. Imagine rooms filled with paper piles, non-functioning closets overflowing with clothes, or schedules packed so tightly there is no time to breathe.

Figuring out where or how to start can be overwhelming and prevent you from moving forward. You remain bothered and stuck by the clutter in your space, calendar, or mind. The clutter weighs heavily on your thoughts.

 



enter the fortune cookie wisdom . . .

Begin...the rest is easy.
— Fortune Cookie

Perhaps that seems too simplistic. Play around with the phrase to make it more authentic for you.

How about:

  • Begin…the rest is doable.

  • Begin…the rest is possible.

  • Begin…the rest will happen.

  • Begin…the rest is achievable.

  • Begin…the rest is within reach.

  • Begin…the rest is manageable.

  • Begin…the rest is ______.

I encourage you to begin. Take a small action step toward the project or change you desire. Maybe that means editing one tiny pile of papers, removing the additional hangers in your closet, or hiring an accountability partner or professional organizer like me. The operative word is, begin.

I’ve seen over and over the positive energy and momentum that come from taking the first minuscule steps toward your goal. I encourage you to lean into the fortune cookie wisdom. Just begin. If you aren’t sure how or where to start, reach out. I’d love to help you activate and work on your 2023 goals. How can I help?

How are your new year and fresh start going? Have you made progress, or are you feeling stuck? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

 
Celebrating 30 Astonishing Years, Taking More Risks, and Embracing Your Fresh Start

As I began writing about fresh starts and the New Year, I thought about how life changed significantly for me 30 years ago. With two babies and a regular commute to New York City for my job in the computer graphics industry, I dreamed of starting my own business. This month marks my 30th anniversary of launching Oh, So Organized!

When I was a young mom juggling work, family life, and two young kids, I recognized that my organizational abilities helped me navigate life with less stress. Other moms often asked, “How are you managing everything?” While I was ‘born organized,’ I realized organizing was a teachable skill I could share with other parents.

After much deliberation, I left my computer graphics career and combined my visual arts expertise, business background, love of helping people, and organizing abilities to launch Oh, So Organized! It was a risky decision, yet I’m happy I took it.

Taking Risks

I’m reminded of a story one of my clients shared about taking risks. Especially if you’re thinking about change as you enter this new year, I hope you find encouragement in this story.

When lobsters grow to be about one pound, they instinctively know they are facing a crisis. They have lived in a shell that protects them but inhibits their growth.

To mature, the lobsters must shed their old shells and grow new ones, which takes about two days. This isn’t long, but they are left naked and vulnerable during that time.

Other sea creatures may eat the naked lobster, or waves may slam it against a rock and damage it. Yet there is no alternative. The lobster must endure two days of risk to grow a new shell and become mature.

Humans often have to do that too.



Celebrating 30 Years

I had no idea what an amazing journey I would have when I left the security of a job with medical benefits and a steady paycheck. Talk about shedding my old shell to grow a new one. Wow! In these past three decades, I’ve continued to shed and grow. Each transition and change I was willing to make opened doors for new experiences, clients, learning, growth, and opportunities.

I remember when being in business meant you needed at least a business card, phone, and fax number. That morphed into adding an email address. After that, having a website was a cornerstone of any business. My first website was launched in 2001 and was redesigned several times, with the most recent revamp in 2020.

The business has several aspects to it. There is the business of running a business, organizing work with clients, and being a participant, resource, and volunteer in the organizing industry. In each of these areas, I experienced tremendous opportunities for growth, learning, and giving. There are too many highlights to include (or remember,) but here are several:

  • 1993- Gave my first newspaper interview in December 1993, which connected me with new clients for years and taught me the value of PR. Since then, I’ve been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, Westchester Magazine, and many more media outlets.

  • 1994- Wrote and mailed out my first ‘snail mail’ quarterly newsletter, which I still send to a selective group.

  • 1995- Presented at the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) conference in Dallas, met industry expert and thought leader Judith Kolberg, and learned about chronic disorganization.

  • 1999- Asked to launch and lead the NAPO-NY area Golden Circle group for veteran organizers, which I ran for 8 years.

Let your past experiences fuel your fresh start.
— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Gratitude & Fresh Starts

None of this would have been possible without the love, support, guidance, and trust of my family, friends, clients, colleagues, mentors, teachers, and guides. While 30 years is a milestone, it’s not an end. It’s the beginning of this year and many more to come.

My deepest gratitude to all the incredible people I’ve developed relationships with and met along the way. To my clients, I thank you for your ongoing trust in allowing me into your lives and being part of your organizing journey. I love helping and supporting you. To my colleagues, I am grateful for your wisdom, generosity, friendship, and guidance. To my family and friends, your ongoing encouragement, support, and love has helped me grow and thrive. I wouldn’t be here without all of you.

How will you make the most of your fresh start as you dive into this New Year? What are you excited about? What will you let go of? Where do you want to give your time and attention? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.