• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Organized or messy?

epath13

the Fool.The Magician.The...
V.I.P Member
I've been wondering how many of you prefer everything perfectly organized and how many aren't able to maintain organized environment (or maybe even don't want to do so). I'm one of those people who absolutely needs organized environment (actually not only at home but everywhere) but personally I have hard time maintaining it. I believe the main reason is problem with categorizing things, and then when I finally do that I start questioning what to do with all the categories. My husband (and my parents in the past) kept telling me, "just do it, don't think about it". The problem is. when I "just do" it once without putting any thought to it the organization system might stop making sense to me tomorrow and everything will end up lying all over the place again. The problem is - I function much better in organized environment (unlike my husband who can function fine in absolute chaos...I guess that's the ADHD thing :) ), kids are also much calmer and happier in organized spaces...
Anyway it appears that lots of people on the spectrum (unless they have been well trained, not necessarily by specialists but let's say, by parents) have problems with organization. It might be true not only for spaces but also for lives in general.

Would you agree or disagree? and how is it for you?
 
I'm pretty messy. I don't intend to be, it just happens. One moment, I'm putting items on a desk or arranging my items in a room, next thing it looks like a bomb has hit it. Eh. I really don't know why that happens.
 
I'm quite messy... but that's the kind of messy I'm used to and to other people looks like total chaos. Also, I have a really, really hard time finding comfort in something not being kinda "messy". It gets on my nerves if stuff is all tidy and all. But in a way, I feel the same about rules as a guideline for something being messy or not... and it's not just the physical part. It's kinda black & white though, but if there's rules either have them pushed to the extreme or just don't have any at all. And given that adhering to rules to the extreme creates unbearable situations, I found comfort in being messy.

I've was at a supermarket once with a friend and they pretty much changed the entire lay-out, got everything new and tidy in it. I didn't like it... so anyway; I told this friend of mine "this looks clean, but, with this kind of extreme organisation, only a single misplaced product messes up the tidyness." The next day, it was "a mess", as costumers did'nt put products back the same way the took em out and misplaced products out of, probably, sheer lazyness.

In a way having a mess is easier to maintain... making more of mess looks more deliberate. I always pictured that if you have a pile of clutter somewhere, you'd rarely, make that mess double the size, but if it's clean, making a mess is as easy as putting even a pencil somewhere. Also; if I tidy up, I just keep wondering, why do I put my pens in the top drawer? Why not in the 2nd? And what about say... my socks? And what if I have more socks to fit in? Do I throw them out? Do I buy a bigger drawer? Do I change my socks twice a day so they end up in the laundry basket? And a final note; I found that always getting up, putting stuff in a drawer/closet is way more time-intensive than having it within reach. Example; I have pens and notepads around my computer. Sometimes, if I'm rebooting, I have some odd idea and scribble it down... I'll probably get either a. a lost idea because I'm not effectively writing it down but first getting up and looking for something and b. even if it's just a pen... either have it tidy or don't at all.

Also, tidy to me, also feels "uniform". With all cables running around here, I can't even get this tidy in my mind. In my mind, tidy is clinical, with cables cut to size, everything being perfectly aligned and totally spotless. In a way, something tidy to me has no room to evolve or expand. I see it a bit like buying one of those iMac computers and buying the minimal amount of deskspace needed to accomodate it. Tidy to me is effectiveness in utilizing space and form. And I can't begin to start with an entire process of that kind of utility in my place. Even more so because I'm ever so expanding anything I have, be it my computer (Oh, look I have a new drawing tablet... darn it, need to buy a new desk where it fits) or new instruments or even a new jacket.

So I'm comfy with my mess... at least it looks like someone is living there.
 
I'm messy but unintentionally so and some have said previously. Been that way my whole life. In fact, my 5th grade teacher told my mom that I'd "need to either have a good secretary or a good wife or he's not going to make it." Fortunately, I have an excellent wife who can keep all my affairs in order. I've tried to be organized on my own, but never lasts. I have tons of datebooks that may have 2 or 3 weeks written in, but the rest is completely blank because after that short period I forget that the book ever existed in the first place. However, I will say that I am perfectly content in my organized disorganization.
 
Whenever someone comes in my room they always seem to comment on how organized it looks.
Everything has it's place, I make my bed, I have little systems for everything, I fold all my clothes as neatly as possible, etc.

But I think I'm often messy. I have candy wrappers around, I sometimes forget to put laundry in the basket. But I guess that's relative. When my boyfriend came over and unpacked his bag, he just dumps it out and generally throws everything around the room (and leaves it there). It doesn't bother me at his house, but I pretty much freaked out when he did it in my room. (He also commented that I'm a terrible host)

I'm also very particular about people using or borrowing my things. I notice every detail that's different.

But that's sort of why I kind of require my own space in some way. I like my own world to be predictable, and that's generally the foundation of all the organization. My mess is okay. When other people change things in my room or do unpredictable things in it, it makes me really anxious.
 
I'm organized but not in an OCD overkill type of way. I like to keep things neat and tidy but I can put up with some mess.
 
But that's sort of why I kind of require my own space in some way. I like my own world to be predictable, and that's generally the foundation of all the organization. My mess is okay. When other people change things in my room or do unpredictable things in it, it makes me really anxious.

I was like that when I was younger no matter how much I tried to convince myself that it's OK, it's not going to kill me if someone changes something but it still bothered me. Now I know why it was so important. Unlike with obsessive compulsive disorder, where keeping things in a certain way is an attempt to control the environment, or even a situation in my case it was like that: it took me long time and a lot of effort to make sence out of things and my environment, every time someone changed something I felt confused again and it felt like people who made changes didn't want to understand my struggle and/ or didn't appreciate my effort. In reality people didn't do it intentionally, that's just the way they are. Nowadays I just try to adjust as well as I can to any changes, if it's hard I just let it go, I know I will adjust eventually. As for others making mess, I have to deal with it every day, and I guess in a way it became a part of my world so most of the time it makes sense and doesn't bother me as much as in the past. Reorganizing things - that's a completely different story...
 
Although I would prefer my living space to be organized, I just don't have the motivation to make it so. So (much) more often than not, it is quite messy.
 
I live in an oxymoronic state of organized chaos. My life may appear to be disorganized, but I know where everything is. I also don't use calendars or lists; all the information I need is in my mind.
 
I also don't use calendars or lists; all the information I need is in my mind.

Same for me. I have a notice board in my room which was intended for schedules and appointments but the notice board has always been empty. I just store all the information in my head. I've never had the need for a dairy or calendar either.
 
Both.

My cupboards are organised but I can't put anything away unless it has it's own place so things tend to get left out until I find them a place and that makes the house messy. I can't just throw something in a draw or cupboard!

My life is very organised.
 
I'm pretty organized at school and around my computer desk, but my room is not quite up to those levels.

My room isn't too bad, but I leave stuff all over the floor that I plan to put away and I just forget about it. Every few months I pick it up though, I'd say my room is normally so-so.
 
Organized.

Room looks like a picture in a magazine. Car is fully detailed and with that shiny stuff on the dash. You could eat off the floor. Looks better than show room new. Obsessive about clean and organized. If one thing is move slightly I know it.
 
A place for everything, and everything in it's place was a favorite mantra for my grandma. She raised my mom to be organized. My mom knew every cupboard and what it contained and where to tell us to look "In the cupboard over the sink, right side, second shelf, behind the peas"
She taught me how to search if I couldn't find things and while I was searching to memorize whatever else was on the shelf. She told me to put a mental picture in my mind.
Ever since I was on my own I adopted this skill in my own life. I know where everything in my house is. However, I had one major downfall the first 10 years. I was obsessive about throwing things away. I would accidentally throw away things that were important like bills, and even once one of those envelopes the bank puts your money in when you go through the drive-thru, with money still in it. I guess it's still legal tender even with a smear of spaghetti sauce wiped off, right? I have organized myself so that I don't do that anymore, but methodically going through papers, each one gets a glance and a thought. I also give in to my urge to throw things away a couple of times a year going through and donating things I haven't used in a couple years and probably won't use.
As far as housecleaning goes, clutter is ok for a few days but gets cleaned up when I clean the room. I am pickier about my dishes. I can't go to work without doing the dishes to make sure the boys have something to cook with and eat off of. I also have to make sure that the cat box is done every morning too. I feel bad that my kitties have their indoor outhouse that they cannot flush.
Anything else in the house can wait until after work or the next day, or the next day.
 
A little bit of both. I appear very messy to others but I place things according to how I categorize them, so I usually know where most things are placed.

In terms of scheduling and time, I keep a routine but sometimes I have a sudden urge to do something whimsical and spontaneous so I modify my routine day-by-day. I pretty much have my daily schedule memorized since I need some sort of direction to my day even if I modify it as the day goes on.
 
I also tend to be a little bit of both. In my work place everything needs to be in the same place nice and neat nothing on the floor. Now my own personal space is a bit messy though I know where everything is. I tend to be very neat and organized.
 

New Threads

Top Bottom