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!

It’s a busy time of year. Maybe you’re already in play mode. Or perhaps you’re scrambling to finish up those year-end projects so you can enjoy your time off during the holidays. We often feel an ongoing push-pull between resting and producing. And our balance between the two can become completely off-kilter. At other times, there is a better mix.

Life can be incredibly confusing this time of year. You have a ton to accomplish, but you’d rather be off to enjoy the sounds, sights, and scents of this twinkly, festive season with your family and friends.

Deadlines and Deliverables

I’m pushing to prepare several workshops for the first quarter of 2024. I’m so excited about them! Stay tuned for updates, which I’ll announce soon. The first round of deliverables is almost complete. Then, I’ll be able to enjoy the break and festivities even more.

My guess is you are in the midst of things, too. Maybe you’re preparing and organizing your home for a houseful of guests. Perhaps you’re doing some last-minute holiday gift shopping or putting the finishing touches on your holiday décor. Or, like me, maybe you’re focusing intently on completing your 2023 goals and projects.

An Inspired Perspective

Whatever is going on, I came across an idea in Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, which I thought would help. It’s a beautiful perspective, which I, for one, want to hold close. She wrote,

“Hard work is important. So are play and nonproductivity. My worth is tied not to my productivity but to my existence. I am worthy of rest.”

— Glennon Doyle

I love this! As someone driven to work hard and be productive, I need this reminder. Perhaps you do, too. Life is not just about work. While I know this, I want to embrace Doyle’s message even more. I will thoroughly lean into the joy of playing, being, and resting. I will let go of defining my worth by what I produce.

How is your balance this season? What do you want more of? What do you want to release? How can I help?

It’s fascinating how big changes are made. They start with small, almost unnoticeable habit shifts. On your journey to be free of clutter, you donate a bag of rarely worn clothes or edit and clear the pile of unsorted mail from your kitchen counter. These tiny, single actions can bring about significant changes when consistency and support are added to your effort. 

The other aspect of making meaningful changes is the need for time and mental energy to make them happen. When you’re preoccupied, running as fast as you can to keep up, or emotionally exhausted, change is the last thing on your mind. You can’t stop your life to make a change. Instead, to integrate new habits, it’s essential to create space in your life for prioritizing the change you desire. 

In the last several years, I’ve experienced many emotional energy pulls. These included taking care of my mom with dementia, saying my final good-byes to her last March, grieving, navigating the pandemic’s effects on my organizing business, and preparing for and having our youngest daughter’s wedding at our home during the pandemic. Despite these emotional highs and lows, I’ve found focused intervals to bring about changes in my life. Admittedly, many of these changes came into being when I had more mental energy to give them.

Coincidentally, the three anchors/words, which rhyme, kept me motivated and focused on my desired changes. They are Zoom, Noom, and Room.

While these specific ideas might not be on your change radar, I encourage you to consider which words are. Which anchors will help you pursue the changes you seek? How will you make the space and time for change to flourish?

3 Hopeful Ideas Motivated Big Changes in My Life Which Can Help You Too

1. Zoom

Communication, relationships, and community are some of my treasured values. When the pandemic arrived, many communication networks halted. Most in-person contact was suspended. I couldn’t visit with family, friends, colleagues, or clients. Sure I still had the phone, text, and email, but physical contact was limited and non-existent for extended periods.

Using Zoom became an incredible go-to tool that helped me slowly change and think about how I interacted, did business, and stayed socially active. I’m guessing that many of you are Zoomed-out, but for me, Zoom continues to be a viable way for navigating life and keeping connected with people. 

I embraced communication changes and used Zoom to-

• Have bimonthly family meetings aka ‘SamFam Zoom’

• Host parties and gatherings for cocktails, New Year’s Eve, and Thanksgiving

• Attend comedy events, yoga class, Shivas, Seders, religious services, retreats, cook-offs, bonfires, and breakfasts

• Enjoy virtual ‘coffee dates’ with family and friends

• Continue my professional development

• Add to my certifications becoming a Certified Virtual Professional Organizer (CVPO™)

• Engage in organizing conferences, business meetings, and networking

• Present organizing workshops

• Pivot my business and help clients through virtual organizing

Zoom provided a channel to nurture and develop relationships, shift my organizing business, learn, and teach. While most in-person activities are now possible as many pandemic restrictions lift, Zoom still remains a viable way for me to stay connected. The platform allowed me to be flexible during these last few years, quickly embrace change, and support what I value most.

2.  Noom

Being healthy is a top priority for me. While I had some healthy practices like meditating daily and eating lots of fruits and vegetables, I wanted to change other habits. For what seems like a bazillion years, one of my goals has been to ‘lose 10 pounds.’ I’ve never been a dieter and didn’t like the idea of going on a diet. Instead, about five years ago, I saw a tremendously helpful nutritionist. She gave me a better understanding of what foods and portions were best for me. Over eight months, I lost 15 pounds. But then, in time, I gained it back and more.  The ongoing support was vital, and the difference was noticeable when I stopped seeing her.

Do you remember how I spoke about having the time and mental energy to bring about change? It takes focused effort to make eating and other lifestyle changes. When my mom died, I was emotionally exhausted. It took me months to get my energy back. When it returned, I felt ready to refocus on my health and make some changes.

In September, I signed up for Noom. It’s a weight loss app with a psychology-based approach to “help you change not just how you eat, but how you think.” It’s well-designed and simple to use. The app with built-in accountability helps me keep daily food logs, understand my calorie budget, track water intake, daily exercise, and weight. You are assigned a personal Coach and receive short articles every day, which encourage, motivate, and explain the psychology of habits.

While I’m still working towards my target goal, in five months, I have lost 18.5 pounds, I’m drinking 9 glasses of water a day, and walking an average of 10,000 steps a day. There have been other changes such as losing many inches around my body, clothing fitting better, feeling more energetic, learning new skills, and knowing I have a doable life-changing plan that’s working.

A bonus surprise was my husband signed up for Noom with me. He’s made incredible changes, and I’m so proud of him. We support one another, which is invaluable.

With any significant life change, it’s essential to have ongoing support, whether an app, person, Coach or all of those. If you’re curious about Noom, click here to learn more.

What do you need to bring about the habit changes you desire?

“Big changes start with small actions.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

3. Room

This last idea is about creating both physical and mental space in your life to feel calm, have room to think, and live with less stress. These changes were worth pursuing, and I have worked years to get there. For me, there is the physical manifestation, which comes in the form of an uncluttered home filled with colors, textures, and scents that soothe and delight. 

One of the goals I worked on last summer into fall, inspired by our vacation staying in a tiny house, was my ‘live with less’ project. While I had lots of stuff, I recognized I didn’t need or want it all. I started randomly going through drawers, closets, and files to let go of unnecessary things. It was cathartic and surprising how much stuff exited. I don’t miss anything.

The other part of ‘room’ is making space for your mental well-being. For me, that’s having quiet time, finding cozy spots to write, journal, or read, spending time in nature, exploring and photographing, meditating, or doing yoga. It’s making room for self-care and carving out time to feed my soul.

Especially with all that has happened in the world and the ongoing challenges, making time to replenish yourself is critical. It’s all too easy to get derailed by a crisis near or far. Our bodies are not designed to sustain continual stress.

What would it take to make room for you? What changes will help make room and space for your physical and emotional well-being?

Big changes start with small actions. What will be your anchors for change? What will provide motivation and support for the changes you desire? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.