obsessed with arrangment?

[simplyme]

does anyone else have weird hang ups the the arrangment or organization of things? I myself was obsessed with arrainging things into heirarchies, either in order of size,power, or developement. I loved the show digimon (evolution hierarchies) and I often arranged my beaniebabies into heirarchal lines. I also get hung up with symmetry and create symbols as a hobby which I painstakingly work to make symmetrical (often zooming in 5X the veiw to make sure there symetric even though no one would notice) I do this all less now but its still present

 

[silent ABAB]

Of course. Albeit I don't feel like sharing the details.

 

[King_Oni]

I do like to look at how something is structured, tables, stuff like that.

And don't even get me started with boxing groceries or arranging stuff in the car. I end up humming tetris music and make it a perfect fit every time, lol.

I don't know if this is arrangement as such, but I can not stand if things are supposedly coherent (or meant to be coherent) but miss some kind of shared symmetry. This can range from things like not exact matching colors to any other stylistic element that feels "not the same".

 

[Bay]

I smiled as I read your posts. I have been arranging or sorting things my entire life. I have an almost visceral need for order. And I much prefer symmetry to asymmetry, in fact, I generally find asymmetry unsettling. As a child, I would sort my toys more often than I would play with them. When I go to a restaurant, I arrange things on the table in an orderly fashion: salt and pepper lined up and the same distance from the edge of the table, etc.

 

[anne.bc]

I'm not necessarily obsessed or fascinated with cleaning, but when my room is messy for the umpteenth time in a month, I get furious until I take care of it. Because of my degree recital coming up, I don't worry so much because of my priorities but I get excited when my room is clean for sure!

I do however keep my electronic dance music albums organized in alphabetical order by artist. <3 :smug:

 

[HelloDizzy]

Indeed. My art supplies are all arranged in different things - my soft supplies are in one bag, my writing utensils in another, spray paint in another, etc.
Then we get to my closet. Tank tops in front, then t-shirts, fancy shirts, long sleeves, hoodies, skirts, dresses, then jackets. Shoes are in a shoe cubby, boots on the floor arranged by season.
I have a file folder with all important info such as birth certificates and passport, diary to keep up with what I do daily and weekly, and a planner to keep up with my budget and where I go and what day, who I see. Calender on my wall has symbols which only I know what means on each day that something significant does or will happen.

In my car, sports bag contains exactly what it sounds like - everything I need to workout including extra workout clothes and shoes. Also, a small bag with extra contacts, underwear, water, canned food, anti-biotics, and a spare change of clothes in case I need to run away randomly (it happens.)

Meanwhile, my room may look either neat or like a tornado hit it. I'm the most organized person I know.

 

[Geordie]

If I arrange the things the way I wanted things to be at my own way, I can find things easily.

if I arrange the things the way they are supposed to be because of their sizes, or other people's needs, though, I struggle to find them

 

[livinggreen]

As King_Oni said, I too find the bagging or boxing of groceries like a puzzle. I will never let anyone bag my groceries because I like the cold stuff with the cold stuff, the toiletries together and I like a bag that is full and equally weighted. I also like packing for trips, laying the shirts down one at a time and when the bag is packed I feel a sense of satisfaction.

In addition to those things, my career is all about arrangement (of art). I obsess about placement of art, furniture. When people move something in my house after looking at it, I have to put it back where it was. When I go into an office and a picture is hanging on the wall crooked, I fix it. You can imagine how much time I take to hang a show of art, but in the end, I feel that same sense of satisfaction.

Also, as a child, I would rearrange my room every couple months. Sometimes it would end up back the same way, but I loved trying my bed in a new spot, etc.

 

[ColorfulDreams]

Yes,I am somewhat obsessed with arrangement,but not as much as i was when i was younger. I enjoy cleaning and organizing-for me it is calming,as I have severe anxiety issues. We had Cuisenaire rods for math,and I would organize them by size and pretend they were a little family,the biggest one being the father and the smallest being the baby.

 

[Geordie]

I would organize them by size and pretend they were a little family,the biggest one being the father and the smallest being the baby.

This is a good tool to teach children about order and family. Would do that to my nephew

 

[Aalo]

I have somewhat dirty apartment. I washed dishes in last November, and took paper garbages out since idk so they all lay on floors. But I do keep my essential items carefully at their place, I need to find them when I want. That doesn't mean they're in perfect row. No, their places are quite bafflingly here and there, and those places seem to be hard for others to realize. That is not to confuse anyone (thou I hardly get visitors), it's mostly my own humor or just to easen my everyday activities. While some might think items have to be on appropriate places in certain rooms, for me they are where they are easily fetched to tasks needed. So I keep flours at living room bookshelf and shampoo in a kitchen. Don't ask.
(I'd love to get authorities searching my home for some reason.)

Also assembling stuff nicely in public, I like that kind of order.
But isn't efficient way of bagging groceries just plain wise? Who would want to leave some dead space :<

 

[_Josh_]

Yes. I'll just say yes since if I start explaining, I'd be writing for an hour probably. I believe this is due more to my OCD tendencies rather than Asperger's though.

To Aalo: That would drive me crazy (Flour in the living room, shampoo in the kitchen) If I visited you but I do find it very amusing (in a good way)

 

[Perkinsj88]

Couldn't help but grin a little at the groceries. It takes me forever to unload my cart, frozen stuff all together, boxed, bags, cans, meats, and finally breads, fruit, and eggs. I lucked out with the store I shop at, there's a courtesy clerk on the spectrum, only bagging job I have ever approved of! He often takes longer but I would much rather take an extra 5 minutes than have squished bread or broken eggs.

When I was still employed as an automotive technician organizing my tools inside my tool box was a weekly thing. I hated when I bought my first big snapon tool box, I had to put the contents of 3 smaller ones in the one big one...took me over a week to finish.

I don't clean at home often enough but when I do I go frickin nuts on it, its an all day no lunch break affair for me. I've never seen the point in halfassing anything so I wait til I want/can fullass it.

This is likely why I was as good as I was repairing cars, I was super anal about where I placed disassembled parts, I would lie them in order on top of my tool box with bolts/nuts in the belonging holes/studs. I would have new parts laid out and prepared prior to starting work on any car. I would even number or letter bolts and match to original spot if it was a large project, this helped avoid stripped bolts due to miss-matings. I always hated having dirt/grease on me or my tools, I made extra efforts to stay clean. Unfortunately all of this extra anal retentiveness cost time. I would likely still enjoy restoring classics at my own pace for resale, no collateral to get started in it though. I have vowed to never work at a repair shop again.

 

[Laughingowl1975]

I have a thing for putting my CD's, DVD's and books into alphabetical order, it just looks right and tidy too, sadly I have so much stuff I am running out of room to be tidy. I find putting things in order satisfying even if its writing up a list, I find it annoying when things at a shop are messed up, at the classical music shop in Auckland city I had to fight the urge to put all their DVDs into a better order (lucky for me the owners kind of know me and tolerate my quirks). I am always typing up lists on my computer such as one that has all my detective novels sorted by author, title and chronological setting , another lists my CD's and another birds of the world (I'm still working on that one), its not a mania but my mother and the psychiatrist I saw pointed out that arranging things is a common trait among aspies.

 

[Judge]

Obsessed with arrangement? Weird hang ups? Of course not.

It's just a way of life for me. I don't know any differently.

Oddly enough I'm able to tolerate most everyone who is quite the opposite. As long as I don't have to live with them more than a matter of hours....it's fine.

 

[tridianprime]

This is why I do mathematics. To find some structure and patterns in this seemingly chaotic pile of s#*?! we call a universe. So, yes, everything is in an order and has its place.

 

[Thea]

I arrange things within their arrangement. So I'll have things arranged into separate categories and then within that I'll have sub-categories. For example my DVD's are arranged by genre. In the Comic Book movies genre I then have sub categories of Marvel and DC. Within the Marvel subcategory are the Avengers universe movies, then the Spiderman, and so on.

 

[ExplosiveTMT]

I used to arrange the PS3 games on my shelf by genre.
And same goes for DVDs as well.

Actually, I think I still do it.

 

[Raggerty]

I try not to get into arranging stuff too much.
It would just take over my life.
But i do have a general rule which makes life easier.
There is someone else in my life and they just leave stuff anywhere which does my head in.
I tend to have a photograph in my head of where something is so when they ask where so and so is,i go to the photo and it's not there!!
All my stuff is where i put it unless someone else has used it.
Aaarrrggghhh!!!

 

[Judge]

That's my formally diagnosed OCD. It's normal for virtually everything in my own environment to be parallel, perpendicular or at a 45 degree angle relative to another object.

The good news is that it's only an obsession for me relative to MY environment and not anyone elses. But yes, over a matter of hours being in a disorganized place can at times become uncomfortable.