This is the newest release (v45) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature, with my latest finds that inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. These unique, inspiring clutter discoveries reflect this month’s blog theme.

You are an intelligent, 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 Clutter Discoveries

1. Interesting Workshop – Overwhelming Clutter

Do you feel stuck and overwhelmed by emotional and physical clutter? If you answered “yes,” you’re not alone. Help is here!

Join me, Linda Samuels, Professional Organizer, for an empowering workshop – How to Let That Sh*t Go on Thursday, June 6th, from 7:00-8:00 pm EDT.

Together, we’ll unleash your superpower and learn to let go of thoughts, time, and things that no longer serve you.

This one-hour Zoom workshop will teach you transformative strategies to spark immediate positive changes. Release the clutter holding you back and say hello to a happier, more organized you. Reserve your spot now!

2. Interesting Product – Card Clutter

One of the questions clients frequently ask me is,

“What should I do with all the cards I have received?”

Card recipients often feel guilty for letting them go, so they hold onto them for years or decades. However, they feel distressed by card clutter and the space they take.

Some cards aren’t as treasured. However, many are sentimental and meaningful, received by loved ones here and gone. So, how do you decide what to do?

Card Decluttering Process: 

• Gather your cards

• Keep your favorites, which include cherished hand-written messages or ones you especially enjoy

• Recycle the rest

What can you do with the keepers? You can contain them in a box. Or, there’s another fun way to make them a usable keepsake. Transform them into an 8” x 8” custom hardcover book with Cards by Artkive.

Check out the video describing their process.

3. Interesting Read – Communication Clutter

Are you overwhelmed by email, text, and other communication clutter? This deluge creates mind clutter, too. There have never been this many ways to communicate, and it’s a lot to sift through.

Smart Brevity–The Power of Saying More with Less by the co-creators of Axios and Politico said, “Never in the history of humanity have we vomited more words in more places with more velocity.”

As a verbal processor, I am guilty of using lots of words. However, this book inspires me to think about the impact and stress this has on others. It includes specific techniques for creating shorter, more robust communication for email, meetings, speeches, presentations, social media, and more. “Smart Brevity is a new way to think about creating, sharing, and consuming information in our cluttered, clanging digital world.”

Authors Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz created a nifty AI-powered Smart Brevity® test. Enter your text, and the tool scores how “smart, clear, and effective it is.”

Declutter your communication. Stop overexplaining. “We make people deduce what we’re trying to say instead of just blurting it out. Don’t be fancy-be effective.”

“Remove clutter that’s distracting you.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP@

4. Interesting Resource – Textile Clutter

Do you have textile clutter and want to keep it out of the landfill? If so, you’re in luck. Retold Recycling has a solution for you. To date, they’ve diverted 150 tons of textiles from landfills.

Easy Recycling (Decluttering) Process:

• Gather your unwanted textiles, including fabric scraps, rags, stained, ripped, or unwanted clothing, linens, single socks, cotton face masks, and more.

• Do not include pillows or cushions.

• Order your Retold bag with a pre-paid label.

• Fill your bag and bring it to the post office.

• Retold with soft your goods and send them to thrift stores, donation centers, recyclers, resellers, and up-cyclers.

5. Interesting Thought – ‘Noise’ Clutter

When your spaces, calendars, and thoughts are filled with too much noise, it’s impossible to focus on what matters most. This is an excellent time of year to quiet things down. Remove clutter that’s distracting you. Let go of the unnecessary, and create space to invite in what you truly value.

Can you share one interesting, clutter-related discovery? Which of these resonates with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and invite you to join the conversation.

Do you want help decluttering? If so, reach out anytime. Please email me, Linda, at linda@ohsorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or schedule a Discovery Call. Letting go of clutter is possible, especially with support.

You are more than halfway through the first month of the new year. Have you leaned into the energy boost a fresh start brings? Or are you feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and weighted down by your clutter? Clutter can keep us frozen in time, be demotivating, and make activation challenging. Physical clutter can include things like paper piles punctuating counters and surfaces. There can also be mind clutter, internal thoughts, and ideas swirling around the brain. Clutter can be time-related. It can infiltrate calendars and is visible as over-committed schedules with no breathing room.

One of the focus areas this month with clients has been helping them clear a variety of clutter. They want to feel calmer, happier, and more in control of their space, time, and thoughts. I’m continually thrilled by how much progress clients make during their one-hour virtual organizing sessions. They further their goals by working independently in between sessions, too. Relief and joy are typical feelings they experience due to their decluttering efforts.

When clutter is released, you increase your capacity to attend to what is most essential and fully embrace the life you want.

Declutter Physical Things

I recently worked on my own physical and mind clutter that weighed on me. It felt great to make space for the new year. For decluttering the physical things, I

• Removed and archived last year’s papers

• Made new file folders for the current year (I love my Brother PTouch label maker!)

• Edited papers I no longer needed

• Shredded and recycled

• Bagged household items to donate

“When clutter is released, you increase your capacity to attend to what is most essential and fully embrace the life you want.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Declutter Thoughts

Because my mind was cluttered and filled with too many competing thoughts, I needed help focusing and getting clear. To release mind clutter, I

• Wrote in my journal

• Reviewed past journal entries

• Shared my thoughts out loud with a few people (I’m a verbal processor)

• Engaged in email exchanges to tease out more thoughts

• Filled out the Three Things Reflection (a set of questions to review the previous year and future-think about the current one)

• Practiced patience while allowing ideas to percolate

• Meditated

• Practiced yoga

Like my clients, I experienced relief, clarity, and joy after decluttering my things and thoughts. My physical and mental capacity has improved. The slate feels clear and clean. I chose to embrace this fresh start with renewed energy and open arms.

If you feel frozen and overwhelmed by clutter and want help, I’m here for you. Please email me at linda@ohsoorganized.com, call 914-271-5673, or click here to schedule a Discovery Call. Experience the joy, relief, and clarity decluttering and organizing brings.

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!

Having a long holiday weekend is a wonderful way to temporarily change the pace of life. That extra time allows you to engage in fun activities, recharge, and break from your usual schedule. It also presents an array of opportunities to calm your mind clutter.

Perhaps your thoughts aren’t intrusive, and you don’t have unproductive worries and thought loops. However, if you experience these challenges regularly or occasionally, I have some ideas to help.

Reflecting at the end of this long leisurely weekend, I realized how my experiences decreasing mind clutter could be valuable solutions for you.

3 Ways to Calm Your Mind Clutter

1. Observing

One of the things I enjoy doing is taking photographs of nature. I love framing images that capture the larger landscape. I also enjoy taking details, like a bee pollinating a flower. Over the weekend, I felt inspired to take pictures with so many gorgeous flowers in bloom. While these photos only take a moment, intently looking helped me focus like the camera lens I look through. In an instant, I see the vibrant colors nature offers or notice details of leaf veins, flower filaments, or light sparkling on the water’s surface.

And guess what? My mind isn’t racing or cluttered with thoughts when I'm present and observing. Maybe taking photos isn’t your thing. That’s absolutely OK. Activate the skill of observing to calm your mind clutter. What do you see in front of you at this very moment? What details are present?

2. Sensing

I am sensitive to the physicality of how things feel. For instance, I will only wear clothes with smooth, not itchy textures. I love the feel of velvet, velour, and other soft fabrics. I also enjoy the feeling of the sun or a cool, gentle breeze on my skin. If I’m in a store ‘window shopping,’ I like to touch things. It helps me see and interpret them in another way.

This weekend, my husband and I visited Field + Supply’s spring makers' market in Kingston, NY. Our daughter, Allison, had a booth for her Level Up Project with a cohort of eight small businesses. We enjoyed walking around, seeing beautifully crafted pieces, and meeting the makers.

We needed a break from the visual and auditory input at one point, so we sat on the lawn to snack and relax. I took off my sandals, and my feet enjoyed the feeling of the cool grass beneath them. Noticing, touching the grass, and acknowledging that pleasant sensation, helped me be in the moment. My mind clutter disappeared.

What sensations are you experiencing now? When you focus on physical sensations, does it distance you from your thoughts and calm your mind clutter?

“Activate the skill of observing to calm your mind clutter. ”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

3. Watering

I’m not talking about watering plants or hydrating yourself. Instead, I use ‘watering’ about being near or in the water. I love doing anything water-related, and kayaking is one of my favorites. There is something so grounding about being on the water, sitting low, and in a boat. I can float and drift or actively paddle to locomote from one part of the river to the next. All the while, I’m surrounded by the ambient nature sounds- water whooshing, birds singing, and the breeze blowing.

Paddling through the water becomes a kind of mindfulness meditation. At the same time, it makes me feel strong and calm. My arms pulling the paddle through the river brings me to the present. My thoughts are focused on precisely what I’m doing. There’s no mind clutter, no mind wandering, just pure enjoyment in the kayak on the water.

Does water have a mind-decluttering effect on you? Maybe kayaking isn’t your thing. How about swimming, jumping waves in the ocean, or taking a bubble bath? Can you use water to calm your mind clutter?

There are many ways to reduce your mental clutter. What resonates with you? Are there other strategies you prefer? I’d love to hear your thoughts and invite you to join the conversation.