15 ADHD-friendly tips for DOOM piles
DOOM piles get a bad rap.
Yes, they have an incredibly intimidating name (it’s actually a clever acronym), and yes, they seem completely pointless to people who don’t need them …but don’t let any of that put you off.
Deferring decisions with DOOM piles (aka DOOM bags, DOOM boxes - I’ll use them all interchangeably in this article) can be a really kind thing to do.
For those of us that DO need them, and if used correctly - they are a game changer.
First we’ll cover some DOOM bag basics, then I’ve got 15 tips for how to level up your DOOM pile game.
I may receive a commission if you buy something via a link on my site - here’s my full disclaimer
DOOM bag example 1 - too overwhelmed
DOOM bag example 2 - ran out of energy
What is kept inside of a DOOM bag?
What’s the link between DOOM bags and ADHD?
What are the benefits of DOOM bags?
Other people in my home are fed up with DOOM bags
Can’t you just donate everything in a DOOM bag?
When do you empty the DOOM bag?
15 Tips for how to deal with DOOM bags & use them more positively
What are DOOM piles?
DOOM bags are a quick way to reduce visual clutter by putting unrelated items in a bag, instead of returning them to where they belong (tidying) or finding them a logical home (organizing).
DOOM boxes are a coping mechanism used by people who care about their physical and mental environment.
Why is it called a DOOM bag?
DOOM is an acronym: Didn’t Organize, Only Moved
I usually use DOOM piles or DOOM bags, but they can come in many forms:
DOOM bag
DOOM box
DOOM pile
DOOM drawer
DOOM room
DOOM corner
DOOM closet
DOOM garage, etc.
I’ve referred to them as several things over the years:
LBT box (lazy but tidy)
Dump drawer
Sh!t box
Crap bag
I’m going through my content to standardize to DOOM bags now, as I think it’s important to use terms that people are already familiar with.
Why do people use DOOM piles?
There are a variety of reasons why a DOOM bag might be used:
We may have gotten distracted with side quests whilst tidying, and then shoved the last of the clutter into a bag
We may have felt overwhelmed with having to decide where things should go
We may have started out strong, but began running out of energy towards the end of a tidying spurt
We may have to tidy when we’re not in the right mindset to do so, e.g. for guests, because we’re told to, for an inspection, because we’re unable to deal with the visual clutter anymore, etc.
We may just be self aware enough to know that our time and energy is limited, and that there are bigger priorities at the moment
Some of us may think that that’s how everyone tidies
We may just be going through a really stressful time at the moment
DOOM bag example 1 - too overwhelmed
Imagine a table with three things on it that need to be cleared:
A dead battery
A hand cream
A book
Some people would find it ridiculously quick and easy to clear the table.
However, some of us are more prone to overwhelm because our brains are wired to overthink each step, consider every possible scenario and go off on side quests.
Simple organization and executive functions can feel exhausting and paralyzing to some of us.
Here are some possible thought processes about this seemingly simple task:
The dead battery probably needs to go to the recycling centre, so let’s do a quick google search. Should I take it there right now? What are the opening hours? Should I drive, walk or take the bus? Does the car need to be filled up? What’s the weather like? What bus route is it on? Is there anything else I need to do whilst I’m out? Do I go before or after I clear the rest of the table? Should I start a box of things that need to go to the recycling centre, and then drop everything off when it’s full? What box should I use? Where should I keep the box? Wait …don’t I already have a box of this kind of stuff somewhere? Bollocks, where did I put it?
The hand cream needs to go back into a basket in a cupboard in the bathroom. The cupboard is too high to reach so I need the step stool. The step stool is usually kept next to the washing machine but it wasn’t there when I put the laundry in earlier. Oh, crap, I need to go put the laundry in the dryer! Where is the step stool?? I think we used it for painting the spare room. That still needs another coat, maybe I should do that now. My hands are dry, I should use some hand cream. Oh wow, I’m long overdue for a manicure.
The book is new so I need to decide on a home for it: should it go on my bedside table, or in the magazine rack next to my morning coffee spot? I’ve still got three books on the go that I should finish first. I can’t remember what this one’s about, let me read the back. It sounds good, I should quickly check out the first couple of pages.
You use a lot of mental energy to consider the options and make decisions, and you use physical energy to take each item to the correct location.
Here’s how using a DOOM bag would look:
Swipe all three items off of table and in to a bag
You save mental and physical energy.
DOOM box example 2 - ran out of energy
This is my personal DOOM bag MO:
Step 1 - I have complete clutter blindness as clutter builds up (this could last days, weeks or months)
Step 2 - I eventually notice the clutter but feel too overwhelmed to do anything about it, so I just look at it and sigh several times a day. The visual clutter fuels my cluttered brain and my functioning and mood slowly deteriorates (this could last days, weeks or months)
Step 3 - One day I am suddenly struck with a powerful urge to tackle the clutter (usually it’s just before bedtime, when I’m supposed to be leaving the house for an important event, or when I have another task that I should be doing)
Step 4 - I launch a systematic, meticulous, and merciless attack on said clutter, until it is 85% cleared (I feel really pleased with myself at this point)
Step 5 - I deflate like a balloon as my energy and motivation drain out of me. I grab a tote bag and shove the remaining 15% of the clutter in to it.
Step 6 - I very slowly and very gradually empty the DOOM bag when my time, energy and attention allow.
I’ve been creating DOOM bags ever since I was old enough to tidy my own room.
What are kept inside DOOM bags?
DOOM bags contain these three types of items:
Things that already have a home
Things that do not already have a home
Things that need to leave the home (rubbish, recycling, items to be returned, etc.)
Who are DOOM piles for?
DOOM bags are for anyone that needs them.
DOOM piles are very often discussed in ADHD communities, but I’m sure that they are a very helpful tool for all kinds of people.
What’s the link between DOOM piles and ADHD?
I have ADHD, so I can speak about my experience, but I don’t speak on behalf of everyone with ADHD.
A lot of us struggle with organization and executive functioning, which can lead to messy homes.
Ironically, cluttered spaces are thought to have a greater negative impact on people with ADHD (check out these 23 surprising problems caused by messy homes).
So for those of us that are sensitive to clutter, who don’t always have the ability to minimize, organize and tidy in traditional way, DOOM piles are a logical solution.
However, simply utilizing DOOM bags should not be considered as an ADHD diagnosis.
What are the benefits of DOOM boxes?
DOOM bags have lots of benefits:
Quick way to reduce visual clutter
Surprisingly easy to find things - I am strong believer that a DOOM bag is a more helpful and positive than shoving something back in a random place, because your belonging is either where it’s supposed to be, or it’s in the DOOM bag.
Kind solution for overwhelm
Can be creative long term solutions - what started out as a DOOM bag in my bedroom is now my “bed basket”. A basket of random things that I like to keep close by, that I used to feel guilty about not putting back in their various different spots
Can help us minimize and declutter - not using items for an extended period of time helps me let it go permanently
DOOM bags show that you care about your space and mental well being
Are DOOM piles bad?
Like most things, DOOM bags are neutral.
Whether they are good or bad for us depends on how we use them and how they make us feel.
Personally, I find shorter term DOOM bags to be very helpful in our home, and I find longer term DOOM bags to be more negative and draining.
The biggest risk for me is missing a deadline if I include important mail in a DOOM box. I try to avoid that by setting up automatic payments wherever possible.
I’ve also wasted money on buying unnecessary duplicates.
For those that don’t need them, a DOOM bag probably seems “lazy” (here’s what I think about laziness)
Which seems silly to me - surely the fact that you wanted to tidy up at all proves that you’re not lazy.
A lot of naturally tidy people often say, “why put things off that you could just do now?”
But that’s ok, other people don’t need to approve of or even understand how you run your home.
Your home only needs to work for you and your family.
Talking of which…
Other people in my home are fed up with DOOM piles
If there are other people in your home that struggle with DOOM bags, you’re already on the right track by reading this and researching more about them.
Every home and relationship dynamic is different, but there are some things you can try to find a solution that works for everyone involved:
Body doubling can be a really helpful tactic to clearing DOOM bags - even just sitting with someone as they go through the DOOM bag can help. You can experiment with each person asking the questions / going through the items to find out what works best for you (use my free interactive decluttering tool if you want it to be even easier)
Agree on some DOOM bag ground rules - could you commit to reviewing the contents of DOOM boxes within a certain period of time? Is there a certain area of the home where DOOM bags could be kept that’s less stressful to others? Is there anything else anyone can think of to make this less of a conflict between you? Are there certain things that are best left out, and not put in to a DOOM bag?
Share this post with them - the more everyone understands DOOM boxes, why they really help some of us, and how they can be used more positively, hopefully the easier it will be to work as a team
Read these 13 tips on how to argue less about mess together to see if you can come up with any plans for your home
Learn more about being messy and “lazy” - the more we understand why we do things, the easier it is to communicate with others
Can’t you just donate everything in a DOOM box?
Surprisingly, I often find things that I really love in my DOOM bags - but for whatever reason, I didn’t have the capacity to deal with it at the time.
On the other end of the scale, I often find rubbish in my DOOM bags.
For example, I really hate packaging that is a mix of recyclable and non recyclable materials. Sometimes something as simple as having to pull it apart can feel too overwhelming, so it ends up in in a DOOM bag for a while.
So whilst having items in a DOOM bag often makes it easier for me to let go permanently and donate them, just dropping all of my DOOM bags off at the thrift store is not an option for me.
When do you empty a DOOM bag?
DOOM bags may be short term or long term.
Ideally, we would empty our DOOM bags as soon as possible.
Realistically, it could take days, weeks, months, maybe even years.
I often hear of stories of people moving sealed DOOM boxes from house to house every time they move.
Here are some tips to try and avoid that…
15 Tips for how to deal with DOOM piles & use them more positively
Some of these tips will work for some people, and some will work for others.
Pick and choose whichever appeal to you most.
1) Minimize
Here’s my obligatory minimalism plug: The less stuff we have, the smaller and less scary our DOOM bags will be
There’s a magic number of items in our home that I can keep reasonably tidy, most of the time.
You have a magic number too, and I my suggestion would be to keep minimizing until you hit it.
Removing the excess, letting go of the things that we don’t use or love, and simplifying our routines takes so much of the overwhelm off of our shoulders.
Where should you start decluttering?
If you’re a sentimental old fool like me, here are 13 tips to let go of your sentimental items.
If paperwork is a big issues for you, here’s a ridiculously easy way to declutter your paperwork.
If you’re indecisive about what to keep, here’s my foolproof decluttering process that makes it easy to know what to let go of.
If you’d like to dive deeper, check out the first half of my free challenge: how to become a minimalist in 30 days.
2) Organize
Organizing means giving everything a logical & labelled home.
So much overwhelm is reduced when the majority of our items can just be tidied (quickly and easily put back in their logical and labelled home), rather that organized (find them a logical home and then label it).
Here are some organizing tips:
Store like with like
Keep items you use more often front and centre
Keep things you use less often high up, low down or behind other things
Use small boxes to maximize storage in drawers and on shelves
Make things ridiculously easy to put away - the easier it is, the more likely you are to do it
Give everything a logical home - challenge yourself to make your life easier by keeping every thing in the best spot possible.
Label where everything goes - no matter how organized you are, it usually doesn’t apply to everyone else in the household. In fact, 86% of responders to a recent reader poll shared that other people in their home didn’t know where everything belonged. Labels make tidying stress free and easy for everyone in the home.
If you’d like to dive deeper, check out the second half of my free challenge: how to organize your home in 30 days.
3) Teeny Tiny Tidies
Start small by starting a new daily habit: a teeny tiny tidy.
Set a timer for at least 1 minute - more if you have the energy - and go, go, go!
One of my favourite metaphors is that tidying is like brushing your teeth - doing it once a week just isn’t enough.
Maintaining is much easier than tackling a mountain of mess.
Also see my 25 tidying tips, tricks and hacks.
4) Introducing the PASS bag
PASS bag stands for Put Away Sometime Soon.
One of the things that stops me from clearing out DOOM bags sooner is that they contain three different types of items, here’s a reminder:
Things that already have a home
Things that do not already have a home
Things that need to leave the home (rubbish, recycling, items to be returned, etc.)
Let’s just focus on the first two groups.
My issue is that I need to be in a completely different mindset to deal with items from the first group, vs. the second group:
Group 1 - Putting things away when I already know where they belong (aka tidying) is quick and mindless. I just need to have the physical energy to walk from one spot to the next. I can even listen to a podcast to help the time pass.
Group 2 - Deciding where to keep items on a permanent basis (aka organizing) is slow and methodical. I need the mental energy to pick the best place, and the physical energy to take them there, move things if necessary, and add a label (labels are the only way I can consistently remember where things go). I need to consider where that item is used, how often it’s used, how easy it needs to be to grab and put away, where there’s currently space, whether there are other items it should be stored close to, etc. It requires a lot of my focus so I can’t multitask, and need to avoid interruptions and distractions.
So my solution is to use a PASS bag as well as a DOOM bag whenever I have the energy to do so.
Then, when I do have the time and spoons for some quick and mindless tidying, everything that already has a home is already together and I don’t feel overwhelmed with things that need to be organized.
Alternatively, you could just cherry pick your DOOM bag, and just pull out things that already have homes, and go and put them away.
Talking of which…
5) Cherry pick your DOOM pile
We ADHDers are motivated by interest, not by importance, so I’m a big fan of cherry picking.
Take a look in your DOOM bag, and pick whichever item appeals to you, or feels the least intimidating to deal with.
If you’re still feeling energized once you’re done with that item, grab the next best one.
6) Sort your DOOM box
If even cherry picking feels too much, you could just sit down with your DOOM bag and sort through it a bit:
Separate the three types of items (have a home, don’t have a home, and need to leave your home) in to three different baby DOOM bags
Sort items by room and make a baby DOOM bag to go to each area
Sort like with like so it’s easier to find them a spot together
7) Set a reminder
People with ADHD may be more likely to take longer to sort through their DOOM bags due to object impermanence - if we don’t see something, it ceases to exist in our world.
Try setting a regular reminder to go through your DOOM bag(s).
Tackling DOOM boxes little and often is the best solution I’ve found.
8) Create room specific DOOM bags
I mostly use these for my daughter’s stuff.
If I don’t have the energy to put every little toy away, but the toy clutter in the living room is driving me barmy, I’ll grab a bag, fill it with her stuff, and then put that bag in her room.
At least that way it’s slightly closer to where it needs to be, and we have less visual clutter in our living space.
This would be a much, much bigger issue if we didn’t rotate her toys.
Talking of which…
9) Use DOOM boxes as a toy rotation hack
Toy rotation is a lifesaver if toy clutter is taking over your home.
Here are the full details about toy rotation, but for now I just want to quickly touch on how DOOM bags can be used as a toy rotation hack.
If you quickly sweep up all of the toys in to a toy DOOM bag, and swap it out with a toy DOOM bag that you already had stashed in a cupboard …that counts as a toy rotation.
We aim to only keep out 10 toys at a time.
They always seem to multiply somehow, but it’s better than all 80 odd toys being out at once.
10) Set a timer
Whenever I set a timer for something that I don’t really want to do, I aim for five minutes.
Usually it’s a short enough amount of time to not feel too intimidating, but it’s just long enough to make enough progress that I’ll often keep going after the buzzer goes.
If it feels like too much, I consider three minutes, if that still doesn’t feel great, i just do 1 minute.
I prefer a visual timer like this rather than the timer on my phone.
11) Use this free interactive decluttering tool
Use this free interactive decluttering tool - it will walk you through step by step what to do with each item, which makes it much less intimidating.
I am a complete decluttering dork nowadays, but I still use this to avoid getting too overwhelmed.
12) Consider a capsule wardrobe
I’m not sure if it was technically a DOOM pile, but I definitely had a “floor-drobe” before I created a capsule wardrobe.
If clothes make up a lot of your clutter and chaos too, here’s everything you need to create a free capsule wardrobe in two hours.
13) Work with your brain, not against it
Think outside the box when it comes to your home.
People with ADHD are usually remarkably creative - so try challenging yourself to come up with systems that work for you and your home.
I created a no-fold clothes storage system
We got rid of our coffee table because it was too much of a clutter magnet
We have a clean clothes basket to keep the floor clear until things get put away
You may find that challenging yourself to be creative gamifies the process and makes it more exciting and enticing for you.
14) Work with your energy, not against it
After years of unsuccessfully trying to guilt and shame myself in to being tidier and more organized, I’ve found that pandering to my every whim gets things done an awful lot quicker.
If I’m tired, I rest.
When I’m well rested, I often feel motivated to look after myself better.
15) If it’s important to you, make your DOOM boxes prettier
I’m not always a fan of prettifying organization but if it improves the quality of your day to day life, consider swapping out your worn tote DOOM bag for a cute DOOM basket with handles.
Conclusion
Hopefully now you have a good understanding of what DOOM bags are, how they can help us messy and/or ADHD folks, and little tweaks we can make to make them work better for us.
My main goal is to work towards my DOOM piles being short term rather than long term.
