Part 2 of the 4 most common clutter culprits
As my mentor Sonya Fehér proclaims, “Miscellaneous is dangerous.” Think about it. As a professional organizer, my experience in people’s homes confirms this. As a human being who strives for a tidy home AND is a busy mom and solopreneur, the clutter buildup in my home is that miscellaneous stuff we aren’t quite sure if we want to keep, where it should live, what its function will be. So it just…sits (or, it is swept up quickly into a doom bin to be dealt with later).
This is a series of the four common issues I see in my clients’ homes:
Buried surfaces: If you missed part 1 on buried surfaces, find it here
Doom bags/bins
Paper everywhere
Overstuffed closets
Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4, coming soon!
What is a doom bag? It is exactly what it sounds like. I typically see this in the form of a reusable bag, broken-but-technically-still-functional laundry basket, or a random plastic tote—it’s the most random stash of junk you found and quickly swept up and concealed “to deal with later.”
“Later is the best friend of clutter.” ~ Peter Walsh
When it comes to kids, it can also be that giant trunk filled to the brim with every odd piece that you didn’t find a match to, with party favors, broken toys, toys they outgrew years ago. My goodness it’s amazing how much kids’ doom bags can hold!
Below are some examples of doom piles/bins I’ve seen in clients’ homes (posted with consent). Scroll down to see the AFTER pics.
Doom bags contain clutter, technically, and so they can be pushed up against a wall or hidden between furniture, or tossed in a closet—they are easily forgotten. It makes sense that I find very old food, receipts from years ago, clothes your kids have long outgrown, brand new store-bought items with tags still on, etc.
DOOM is also an acronym in my industry that stands for “Didn’t Organize, Only Moved.”
It is common in neurodivergent people, but the truth is, we all have these in one way or another, to varying degrees. It causes a lot of overwhelm for people. It gives a low-grade but chronic mental load of another “to-do” that can weigh on us.
Sometimes, we can condition ourselves to become clutter-blind to them; they line the walls of our rooms and don’t get in the way, so we can rationalize that they’re not that bad.
But they’re stagnant. They sit there. The items are unused, lost, forgotten. You’ll waste time looking for items. You’ll buy duplicates. The back-burner whispers of, “I know I need to address this,” exists whether you acknowledge it or not.
It’s a pretty clever way to clear a space in seconds—let go of the judgment that you’re broken or a mess or wrong. They’re a quick fix but not a solution. And remember, organizational skills are just that—skills you can learn and improve upon.
To remedy, it takes action NOW and also ongoing steps to prevent/deal with more promptly in the future.
To address current doom bins:
Start with one room. Do a quick scan of the piles/bags and see which looks most manageable/fastest to unpack. One at a time is the best way to warm up and overcome the overwhelm that can paralyze you if you try to do them all at once.
Set a timer to see how long it takes you and/or to keep you on task. Sometimes time blindness gets in the way of initiating or completing a task. Or, you could use the Pomodoro technique and divide the decluttering into 25-min blocks of focused work with 5-minute breaks (or whatever duration works best for you).
Ask a friend or family member to help. If kids are involved, make it a game or competition. See if you can empty one bag before a song ends (and take turns picking the song). Find a way to mobilize this clutter!
Empty the contents of the bag onto a clear surface.
Pull out any trash/recycling. Check expiration dates, mold, growth. Anything funky goes. If it’s broken, ask yourself if it’s really worth your time and energy to fix, or if it can be recycled or tossed. Don’t forget your time is valuable and if you haven’t had desire or resolution to fix it yet, what will be different now that you’ve rediscovered it?
Make a pile for donation. (Have a plan for the donations after you’re done!)
Make a pile for relocate; have each person collect their own pile and put away.
Clean/rehome the bag/bin.
Take a break, reward yourself, say Congratulations! out loud. One down, and you’ll feel a little more confident with the next one. Keep moving through until the room is void of the doom piles/bins. Even one a day. Or one a week. Put it on your calendar and commit.
If/when you feel more confident, tackle a few at a time and categorize what you uncover. Look for patterns/themes. What are the items you’re discovering you had to quickly stash away? Once you increase your understanding of the problem, you can more creatively problem solve.
To prevent future doom bins:
Remove the bins. Why keep all those partially broken laundry baskets? If their sole purpose is to hold clutter, what if you just…let them go altogether? Stop buying those dollar store plastic bins that collect crap; donate them to someone who will use them more functionally.
OK, or allow for a smaller bin, maybe even just one. Once the designated bin is full, it must be addressed. It won’t be overwhelming and shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes because of its size.
Give items deadlines—how long do you allow birthday cards/balloons to linger after a party? How long do tools sit on the counter after a project? How long do we keep decorations up during the season? Don’t make it the norm for things to be out indefinitely.
Give belongings a home, with other like objects. Respect their homes and keep them together. Make sure everyone in the family knows/understands these categories. Explain the rationale in developmentally appropriate ways.
Make commitments to your belongings. If you make the conscious choice that you want/need/love/will buy something, bring it home and welcome it into your home by removing the packaging and tags and putting it away. When items stay in the package or remain with store tags, they’re far less likely to be used much less remembered. Commit to it, or return it before the window closes.
Make decluttering an everyday routine. Just like we have to wash our dishes and do laundry regularly, so too must we be vigilant against clutter buildup. Keep things moving—out the door, or into the right room/space. Everyone in the home is responsible for this, not just Mom.
Make routines, designating specific tasks to family members by their strengths or interests. Delegate where you can. Automate what you can (electronic bill pay, autorenew of medications, etc.).
Please remember that organizing is not one-size-fits-all. There’s not really a right or wrong way to do it, so long as you’re actually doing it, little by little. With doom bags, the goal is not perfection and to never again rapidly collect a miscellaneous stash into a bin, but to know that you can confidently and swiftly address these before they become overwhelming. Progress over perfection.
I’m here for you if you need additional assistance or want to talk it through. My background in occupational therapy and NAPO certificate in organizing for brain-based conditions gives me expertise in modifying the organizing process for anyone. There’s no trick. It’s a matter of finding what works best for you. You are not a failure if you can’t accomplish this on your own. Nonjudgmental help is here.