Wayward Wellness Coaching

I thought I was avoiding the clutter.

...turns out I was avoiding the decisions.

↓ ↓ ↓

What We’ll Cover This Week:

• Why clutter feels heavier than it should
• The nervous system cost of “I’ll deal with it later”
• How physical purging becomes emotional regulation
• A simple regulation practice you can try this week

Listen to the AUDIO HERE 🎧 — [Weekly Recharge Newsletter AUDIO]

Hey Reader,

Last week I talked about the purge phase — how sometimes things feel worse before they get better.

Well.

This week my brain decided we were purging.

Not emotionally. Physically.

I woke up with the overwhelming urge to clear clutter. I just couldn't ignore it anymore. Not in a cute “Sunday reset” way. In a “if I walk past that table one more time, everything is going in the trash” way.

And let’s be honest — this didn’t come out of nowhere.

Clutter builds the way resentment does.
Quietly. Subtly. One “I’ll deal with that later” at a time.

Until one day your dining room table that you never eat at looks like a yard sale hosted by Past Versions of You.

And here’s the real reason I’ve been avoiding it:

It was going to take forever. It was going to be boring. I wanted to get OTHER work done.
And it was going to require decisions I didn't feel like making. Which, if you have even a mildly ADHD brain, is the holy trinity of executive dysfunction.

Because your brain goes:

“This will take three hours.”
“It will not be fun.”
“We will have to think.”

Hard pass.

But today I picked one task. One. And it took all morning.

Not because it was physically hard. But because every single object became a nostalgia documentary.

“Oh my god I bought this when…”
“Aw I bought this for Nick and he never uses it…”
“Do I still identify with this version of myself?”

Ma’am. It’s a deck of cards that I snagged from a bank freebie table at a convention I just sang the National Anthem at.

At one point I almost did the classic move:

The “I don’t want this but I’m not ready to throw it out so let me gently place it in a box mentally labeled Important Emotional Artifacts that will absolutely just live in another corner of the house forever.”

You know the box.

The box that is just clutter with better PR. Similar to the way a muffin is just a cupcake dressed up as breakfast.

And that’s when it clicked:

Clutter isn’t stuff.

It’s unfinished decisions.

Every item is an open tab in your brain.

Keep.
Release.
Upgrade.
Admit that 2017 was a confusing time.

And when you don’t decide? Your nervous system holds the loop open. Which means every time you walk past that pile, there’s this tiny micro-brace in your body.

Not full anxiety. Just… background tension. Like your house has 47 silent notifications.

So today I made a different choice. Instead of emotionally processing every object like I was officiating its retirement ceremony… I started throwing things out. Actually out.

And when something left my fingertips and hit the trash bag? Immediate relief.

Not dramatic. No choir of angels. Just this subtle internal, “Oh. We’re not carrying that anymore.”

That’s regulation. Not everything needs a journal entry.

Sometimes regulation is removing low-grade stressors your nervous system has been quietly babysitting for months.

Visual clutter = visual noise.
Visual noise = cognitive load.
Cognitive load = your system never fully powering down.

You don’t feel chaotic. You just never feel settled.

So here’s your regulation practice this week:

Close one loop.

Not the whole house. Relax.

One drawer.
​One shelf.
​One stack of papers that’s been “temporary” since 2022.

Pick it up. And instead of relocating it to a prettier pile…

Decide.

And when you drop it in the trash — pause.

Notice your shoulders.​
Notice your breath.​
Notice the half-inch of space that just opened in your chest.

That’s your nervous system registering completion.

Healing doesn’t always look like crying on the floor. Sometimes it looks like a trash bag and you muttering, “We’re not doing this anymore.”

And honestly? That might be the most regulated you’ve felt all week.

And the episode is officially out.

My conversation with Erika Coleman dropped — and we go deep into “even achieving” and what it looks like to stop living like every day is a championship game.

Because if everything is urgent… nothing actually lands. If you listened to the week's prior solo episode, that was the setup.

This one is the expansion.

Go listen. And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do that — especially if you’re realizing your nervous system is tired of playing in the Super Bowl every Tuesday morning.

Apple Podcast - [Hustle Rebels - High Achievement Without burnout: How to Succeed Without Self-Destructing (W/ Erika Coleman)]

Spotify -

High Achievement Without Bur... Feb 19 · Hustle Rebels: Burnout &... 56:57   ​

As always, I appreciate you guys and always here if you have questions or even a chat. Share the Weekly Recharge with a friend so they can be regulated just like you.

- Renae

Wayward Wellness Coaching
Hustle Rebels Podcast