At this reflective time of year, I love revisiting the past before moving ahead to the future. As part of this year-end review, I selected the best-loved organizing concepts of 2023, one from each month. I hope you discover or rediscover a seed idea that will bring inspiration and balance to your New Year.

Where will you focus to create organization and achieve your desired balance? Which people and projects will receive your time, energy, and attention? If you’re ready for a fresh start, embracing change, taking your next step, letting go, decluttering, enlisting help, and more, this is for you.

12 Hopeful and Best Loved Organizing Ideas of the Year

1. Fresh Start: Is Resistance Something That Has Paralyzed Your Fresh Start?

“What would it take?”

— Zoe Chance

2. Embrace Change: How to Make the Courageous Connection Between Risk and Change Really Helpful

“Making a change involves taking risks.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

3. Next Step: How to Take One Next Step Now When You’re Feeling Unusually Overwhelmed

“Consider the big picture, yet approach it one small step at a time.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

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4. Letting Go: When Your Big Plate is Quickly Overflowing, Can You Let Go of One Thing?

“Is there simply ‘one thing’ you can let go of, reschedule, or delegate?”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

5. Clutter: What Kind of Overwhelming ‘Noise’ Does Your Clutter Actually Make?

“Clutter can create more stress and overwhelm than you realize.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

6. Time Management: One Absolutely Effective Time Crafting Strategy to Bring You Clarity

“Time passes in the blink of an eye.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

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7. Motivation: How to Revitalize Your Motivation Now Using Helpful Progress Principle Insights

“… of all forms of human motivation, the most effective one is progress.”

— Greg McKeown

8. Enlisting Help: 7 Ways to Joyfully Enlist Help Making Decisions When You’re Really Stuck

“When all else fails, flip a coin.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

9. Mindfulness: One Simple, Positive Way to Be More Mindful During Your Day

“We’re doing now, not next.”

— Twink McKenny

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10. Possibilities - One Remarkably Brave Question to Open the Door for Possibilities

“Does this belong in my life right now?”

— Juliet Landau-Pope

11. Wonderfully Human: What is the Value in Your Life of Appreciating More Spaciousness?

“The mosaic you create is the magnificent life you get to live.”

— Cassie Holmes, Ph.D.

12. Life Balance: 5 Positive Benefits of Creating More Balance for Happy Holidays

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

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

My deepest gratitude for being an integral part of this vibrant community. We’ve had an incredible year of conversations and sharing. You bring learning, growth, support, and inspiration to every exchange. Thank you for participating and sharing your best each week.

What inspired you this year? Which organizing concept resonates most with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

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.

As the cold freeze of winter chases the second month of this New Year, are you actively pursuing the changes you want to make in your life? Or, are you in the research and planning phase? Maybe change is the farthest thing from your mind. I’ve noticed during my latest conversations how people are at different ‘change’ points. Some have committed to specific changes, others are pondering change, and some want no change. Where are you right now on the change spectrum?

Recently I discovered three inspiring ideas. I considered them concerning these ‘change’ conversations. Especially if you are in the midst of change or trying to decide what changes you want to pursue, one of these concepts could help you clarify your direction or encourage a perspective shift. 

3 New Trends Will Inspire You to Make Remarkable Changes

1. The Big Quit

Life has changed in numerous ways. The last two-plus years of the global pandemic affected how we live, think and respond. The pandemic has influenced “the great resignation” or “the big quit,” where millions of employees from all industries are leaving their companies in droves. They no longer want to continue as they had, which was not working for them. Instead, they’ve gone for more significant opportunities, higher pay, and better scheduling flexibility. Enough was enough.

How does “the big quit” relate to you? Use this mantra to ask questions to encourage change in your life.

• What are you currently doing that is not serving you well?

• What do you need to “quit?”

• Is your home environment cluttered and draining your physical and emotional energy?

• Do you have ineffective systems that don’t support who you are and what you’re doing?

• Which unhelpful habits are preventing you from living your best life? 

• What do you want to stop doing that no longer works for you?

• What do you want to “quit” to transform your life?

2. Resilience Hubs

According to Google, the word used most to describe 2021 was “exhausting.” It’s no surprise since we’ve had to navigate the pandemic for another year. We’ve experienced loss, working differently, and shifting COVID protocols. We’ve had to balance work and family life with continually changing rules and a mutating virus (now Omicron BA.2). And as if this weren’t enough, we’ve experienced political unrest, inflation, and unprecedented uncertainty. I’m exhausted just thinking about all of this. What is the antidote to fatigue?

Recently, I heard about “Resilience Hubs.” These are trusted physical spaces, typically located in urban areas, established to support communities during regular times and disasters. With local government and residents as their leaders, these hubs have better communication and can more easily pivot to provide the resources the community and its members need to thrive.

As you pursue the changes you want for this year, consider creating your own personal resilience hub. What do you need to replenish your reserves after the exhaustion from the last few years? My resilience hub includes:

• Meditating daily

• Walking in nature

• Doing yoga

• Practicing mindfulness

• Spending time with friends and family

• Getting enough sleep

• Letting go of things that drain my energy

What will you include in your resilience hub?

“Which unhelpful habits are preventing you from living your best life?”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

3. The Magic Question

Zoe Chance, Yale University professor and author of Influence Is Your Superpower, was interviewed on NPR this month. During the conversation, I was especially intrigued when host Leila Fadel asked her to elaborate on a section in her book about the magic question. Magic question? I couldn’t wait to hear what it was. Are you thinking the same thing?

The magic question: What would it take?

As Zoe explains, “The magic question is magic because…it’s respectful…you get creative and surprising answers that you would never have expected. And…when they tell you, here’s the roadmap to success, they are implicitly committing to supporting that outcome.”

Change is hard. Often it’s a challenge because we get in our own way with excuses, doubt, or fear. But if we activate some magic, in the form of this magic question, what becomes possible? As you navigate your path of change, ask, what would it take to:

• have an organized, decluttered home?

• have a workspace that helped me focus and supported my needs?

• have time to work and relax?

• have  . . . ?

I hope that with some new tools or phrases at the ready, you will be inspired to pursue the change you desire. Did one of these ideas resonate with you? Did you discover something today to help? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

As always, if you want help on your change path, I’m an email or phone call away. Reach out at any time to schedule your virtual organizing session. Find me at linda@ohsoorganized.com or 914-271-5673. I’m ready to help facilitate the change you desire.