Decluttering your space can feel like a Herculean task that you’d much rather put off than tackle. But one simple and comically named rule of thumb may help you make some headway. It’s called the “poop rule.”
When trying to decide if you should keep or get rid of an item, ask yourself this question: If the object had poop on it, would I wash it off or throw it away?
This “rule” went viral after ADHD content creator Becka Karle, known as @adhdorganized on TikTok, posted a video on the social media platform about it in July. The video racked up 175,000 views on TikTok before making the rounds on other social media sites.
Karle told HuffPost she first heard about the poop rule from a therapist she was seeing to help manage her attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. At the time, Karle was downsizing her home, having a hard time going through and purging items she had accumulated over the years. Difficulty staying organized is a common challenge among people with ADHD (more on that below).