diff --git a/src/adr/0076-deleted-message-vault-single-bucket.md b/src/adr/0076-deleted-message-vault-single-bucket.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e7c7ba6e6b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/adr/0076-deleted-message-vault-single-bucket.md
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# 76. Deleted Message Vault: single bucket usage
+
+Date: 2026-02-01
+
+## Status
+
+Accepted (lazy consensus).
+
+## Context
+
+At the moment, the current [deleted message vault](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JAMES-4156) uses multiple buckets to store deleted messages of users. Each bucket is generated
+with a name corresponding to a year and a month, following this pattern: `deleted-messages-[year]-[month]-01`.
+
+Then we when run the purge tasks, every bucket that is older than the defined retention period is being deleted.
+
+However, this solution can be a bit costly in terms of bucket count with S3 object storages and can affect performance by 
+doing multiple API calls on multiple buckets at once. Also some provider, like OVH, put limits on count of buckets per account.
+
+## Decision
+
+Using a single bucket for storing deleted messages instead. The objects in the single bucket would be following this name pattern:
+`[year]/[month]/[blob_id]`. S3 buckets are flat but we can still use the year and month as a prefix for the object name.
+
+For this we can:
+
+- provide a new implementation for the blob store deleted message vault that would store deleted messages on a single bucket.
+- write only on the single bucket, fall back if necessary on old buckets for read and delete
+- add the single bucket usage case to the purge task, that would do cleaning on both new and old buckets.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- easier to maintain, only one bucket
+- keep the bucket count for James low on S3 object storages
+- read/write/delete operations on only one bucket, not multiple
+- James would no longer require rights to create buckets at runtime when the deleted message vault is enabled
+- migration is simple: old buckets will get removed with time until only the new single bucket remains
+
+# Alternatives
+
+Specific James implementation could overload an unchanged deleted message vault and provide their own however we believe 
+the problem and complexity of operating atop multiple bucket is detrimental for others in the community for minimal to no gains.
+
+# References
+
+- [0075-deleted-message-vault.md](0075-deleted-message-vault.md)
+- [Deleted Message Vault: use a single bucket](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JAMES-4156)
+