Doom Boxes & ADHD: What Are They & Do They Work?

What Is a Doom Box?

A doom box is a designated container to store essential items that are frequently lost or misplaced. Doom boxes don’t have to look any particular way, and some people may use bags, baskets, drawers, or an entire closet as their doom box. It’s only important that the doom box serves as a consistent location for important belongings so they’re always within easy reach to minimize the chaos of everyday misplacements. Doom boxes can be created intentionally or accidentally over time.

Are Doom Boxes a Form of Hoarding?

Accidental creation of doom boxes may be associated with hoarding behaviors. While hoarding isn’t necessarily a sign of ADHD, hoarding behaviors have been found to be correlated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.¹ Another study of adults living with ADHD found a 28% correlation rate between hoarding behavior and ADHD.² Due to these correlations, doom boxes can be a form of hoarding.

It is important to distinguish an individual who struggles with disorganization from someone struggling with hoarding who has anxiety about letting go of objects or collecting objects to an unhealthy extent. To distinguish hoarding behaviors from disorganization, it is important to understand the underlying emotional experience associated with the behavior.

Why Are People With ADHD More Likely to Have a Doom Box?

People living with ADHD may be more likely to have a doom box as a compensatory strategy for dealing with symptoms of disorganization and executive dysfunction than the general population. ADHD is a neurological disorder that impacts the frontal lobe of the brain which handles executive function tasks such as planning, organizing and managing tasks. Struggles with planning and organizing as well as difficulties with task management are all symptoms of ADHD in the DSM-5.

You can think of the frontal lobe in the brain as the brain’s CEO. In an individual living with ADHD, that CEO tends to be incredibly disorganized and chronically struggles to meet their deadlines. They probably often have papers piled up on their desk and can’t ever seem to get all the tasks they need to get completed in a designated time frame. Doom boxes and other compensatory strategies may function to assist individuals who struggle with these deficits.

ADHD symptoms that make organization difficult:

• Difficulty staying focused: Struggles with focus make it hard to complete tasks and an individual may end up starting many different tasks they don’t finish.
• Difficulty regulating emotions: Individuals living with ADHD might also struggle with regulating their emotions and may notice themselves feeling frequently overwhelmed.
• Lack of cognitive flexibility: Individuals living with ADHD might struggle with cognitive flexibility, which is needed in order to plan and organize tasks and activities.
• Difficulty prioritizing work: People living with ADHD often struggle with procrastination and generally struggle to know how to prioritize tasks and activities which leads to disorganization.
• Difficulty with forgetfulness: Deficits in memory have been found in individuals living with ADHD, according to several studies.³
• Difficulty with regulating action: Individuals who struggle particularly with hyperactivity and impulsivity will often have trouble regulating and structuring their behavior.
• Inconsistencies in effort: People living with ADHD often struggle to give consistent effort on a given task or activity.
• Engaging in hyperfocus: People living with ADHD might engage in hyperfocus on one activity or task which causes them to neglect others.
• Being easily distracted: People living with ADHD are easily distracted, making it difficult to complete tasks.
• Avoiding tasks that require sustained mental effort: People living with ADHD may generally be reluctant to engage in mentally strenuous tasks that require them to sit still for long periods of time.

While people with ADHD will have a few of these symptoms, most will not have all of them.

Benefits of Doom Boxes

Benefits of having a doom box include creating intentional structure around organization for individuals living with ADHD who struggle in that area. Doom boxes allow a person to more quickly clean up their current space, so that they can better focus on work and have a calm space to relax in. Doom boxes can also help individuals living with ADHD who struggle with forgetfulness or frequently misplacing important items. Parents can also use doom boxes to help their children improve organization and mitigate struggles with forgetfulness.

Are Doom Boxes Only for ADHD?

Doom boxes aren’t just useful for people living with ADHD. They can be helpful for individuals struggling with anxiety or for individuals struggling with depression, both of which can also have detrimental effects on the ability to organize. Someone struggling with grief or PTSD might also benefit from using doom boxes for similar struggles with forgetfulness and organization.

Drawbacks of Doom Boxes

Doom boxes might not be advisable for someone who is in emotional crisis or at a level of distress where adding another task to their routine will cause more harm than help. It is important for individuals living with ADHD to be mindful of when they might be overloading themselves with compensatory strategies when maybe exercising self compassion or taking on less would be more beneficial. If living with a roommate or partner, having doom boxes could also cause issues in shared spaces especially if there isn’t communication around their importance.

Possible drawbacks of doom boxes include:

• Tension with roommates: Using shared spaces to store doom boxes without communicating their utility with roommates.
• Increased anxiety: If someone is already engaging in several compensatory strategies to treat ADHD, adding something else onto the list might be more overwhelming than helpful. It is important to engage in ongoing self-assessment in the process of treating ADHD symptoms. This can also be a helpful conversation to have with your therapist.
• Exponential pileup: Doom boxes might lead to holding on to unnecessary items and result in increased clutter if not used intentionally.
• Promoting consumerism: The idea of needing a doom box to store possessions or belongings may be indirectly reinforcing consumerism when having fewer belongings might result in generally lower levels of stress, and is better for the planet.
• Doesn’t address the underlying issues: While doom boxes might help manage symptoms of disorganization in ADHD, they aren’t helping to treat the root cause of executive function deficits. An individualized treatment plan with a therapist and medication management provider will likely be more helpful at reducing overall symptom severity.
• They might enable unhealthy dependence on compensatory strategies: While compensatory strategies for ADHD are helpful, they can also enable individuals from working on improving their struggles with disorganization in more sustainable ways.
• They make mobility difficult: If you’re working in a field that requires you to be able to travel or generally like to live life in a minimalist fashion, having doom boxes around the house can interfere with these lifestyle choices.

8 Tips to Tackle a Doom Box

While tackling doom boxes can be overwhelming, there are tips and tricks that can make the process go a lot smoother.

Here are eight tips for tackling a doom box:

1. Categorize

Categorize the doom box into many smaller boxes that each have their own labeled category. This can help the doom box itself from becoming cluttered and disorganized.

2. Set a Timer

Tackle the doom box in short, timed increments. Completing complex tasks in short bursts often makes them more manageable.

3. Use a Body Double

Ask a friend if they might be willing to help you with ADHD body doubling. Be sure to check-in with your friend for capacity and consent rather than assuming or expecting someone might take on this supporting role.

4. Stop Negative Self-blame & Judgement

Approaching this task with self-compassion rather than self-blame and judgment is very important. Often, people living with ADHD think they are lazy or failures for not being able to reliably complete what might seem like a basic task.

5. Create an Outline

Creating an outline or plan for your doom box before actually starting on this project might be helpful. Take time to make a list and be intentional about what you need to keep in the box.

6. Take Inventory

Creating a doom box might be a useful opportunity to take stock of the possessions you have and think about what you need versus what you don’t need. Use this project as an opportunity to also unload unnecessary items. The sixth month rule is a good strategy to use: if you have an item you haven’t used in six months it might be a good time to consider getting rid of that item.

7. Re-evaluate

It’s okay to go back and make changes to your original doom box configuration to simplify, expand, or generally make improvements on this strategy.

8. Get Creative

Rather than going out and buying something to create a doom box with, challenge yourself to use resources you already have, like an unused basket in storage or optimizing existing closet or drawer space.

How To Start Tackling Your Doom Box

The first steps to starting a doom box are to create a plan for this task as well as taking inventory of what you might need versus what you already have on hand.

Items needed to start a doom box include:

• Trashcan
• Recycling bin
• Box for donations
• Boxes for each new category
• Marker to label new boxes
• Conversations with roommate or partner about placement of doom box
• Making a list of items to keep in the doom box

How to Find Professional Support For ADHD

If symptoms associated with ADHD are causing significant stress in relationships, at work or in other important areas of life consider finding a neurodiverse affirming therapist. Using online therapist directories or online therapy platforms are good ways to find a therapist who specializes in ADHD treatment. You may also want to consider finding a prescribing provider to discuss options for medicating symptoms. There are online psychiatrist options where you can find support for ADHD medication.