#35: Decluttering for ADHD: How Your Home Can Give You Your Energy Back

You already know you should declutter your house.But what if a clean house was never a good enough reason to actually do it?Five months ago, decluttering expert Dana K. White said something on this podcast that I haven't been able to stop thinking about: The goal isn't to have a clean house. The goal is to have a house that doesn't hold you back.So this summer, after YEARS of thinking about decluttering, I finally did it. I decluttered 7 rooms and 3 spaces in 5 weeks.And what happened wasn't just that my house looked better.My brain felt different.Because every time I searched for a missing basketball jersey, stepped over a Goodwill bag, dug through a laundry basket for underwear, couldn't find a piece of paperwork, or walked past something I'd been meaning to deal with for six months, my house was quietly spending some of my limited capacity for me.I thought avoiding the mess meant I had more time for the things I actually cared about.I had it completely backwards.In this episode, we're talking about decluttering as unconventional nervous system work, especially for those of us with ADHD brains. I'm sharing what happened when I stopped trying to create a “clean” house and started asking two very different questions:How is this space holding me back?How can I make this space make tomorrow easier?Because maybe nervous system regulation sometimes looks like meditation, breathwork and somatic exercises.And maybe sometimes it looks like knowing where the damn leotard is.In this episode: Why “having a clean house” was never enough to motivate me  The Dana K. White advice that completely changed the way I think about my home  How I decluttered 7 rooms and 3 spaces in just 5 weeks  Why your clutter may be taking your time and energy even when you're avoiding it  The surprising connection I've noticed between my environment, ADHD brain and nervous system  Why I stopped organizing for an imaginary “neat freak” version of myself  How I'm creating a home that does some of the remembering for me  The two questions I'm now asking in every space of my house I don't want my house to BE my life. I want my house to make my life possible.If you're creative, ambitious, full of ideas and perpetually wondering why you can't just get your shit together at home, this episode is for you.