is messiness related in any way to any kind of aspergers?

Page 2 of 5 [ 68 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next

FishStickNick
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Apr 2012
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,284
Location: Right here, silly!

17 Apr 2012, 3:30 pm

I clean once a week or so to keep things under control; I'd consider my way of operating as "organized chaos." I can stand piles and clutter as long as there's some semblance of order to it. Work areas (kitchen counters, desktop, etc...) need to be reasonably clean, though, or I'll get distracted/flustered. I don't know what this says about me...



Joe90
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,492
Location: UK

17 Apr 2012, 3:37 pm

A lot of people can be messy. It really depends on the personality. Disorganisation can be common for people with ADHD and AS, but it is not a unique trait because I know quite a few NTs (especially men) whose houses are disgusting. My uncle always has dirty dishes all piled up by the kitchen sink, and his whole house is filthy dirty, and he's got a grown-up son at home who doesn't do it, and I sometimes can't go round there because of the mess. I hate washing dishes and cleaning up, but I would be able to handle it if I lived on my own or with just one other person because I'll just do it as I go along and there'd be less to do at a time, rather than piling it all up then having to spend ages cleaning the whole lot up all at once. You just use your common sense (OK, I know Aspie/ADHD people can lack this which is why disorganisation is common in them).

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being completely disorganised, 10 being perfectly organised, and 5 being just average) I would say I'm 3, perhaps sometimes 4 (depending on what mood I'm in). I'm not completely messy, I do like to keep things tidy, like I put my dirty clothes in the laundry bin as soon as I take them off before I go to bed, if not I'll put them in the laundry bin first thing in the morning. I can always remember roughly when I last had a bath so I'm good at keeping clean, if I can't be bothered to have a bath I just have a strip wash at the sink (we don't have a shower). I wash my hair twice a week, which is enough to keep it from going greasy, and I have set days to do this, so that I can prepare, because I know I hate doing this chore.
I am a clutterer, because I've always spent a lot of time in my room so I've hoarded a load of stuff over the years because I use it a lot, so I can't part with it. But I do keep it in reasonable places, but untidily, if you know what I mean. Like I keep it hidden away under my bed but it's all messy under there. Every shelf and drawer in my room is full of stuff, and I boxes full of stuff, and my computer desk is in a bit of a mess (I tidied it the other day), and I have tissues lying about everywhere (because I cry a lot, and also my sinuses are bad). My wardrobe is in a mess because I can't be bothered to hang up my clothes, although I do keep them neatly folded and in a neat pile, but not hung up, there are just piles of clothes piled on top of eachother.

But at least I manage to keep my floor tidy. I just have clutter everywhere else, sometimes it panics me.


_________________
Female


glider18
Supporting Member
Supporting Member

User avatar

Joined: 8 Nov 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,062
Location: USA

17 Apr 2012, 4:18 pm

I have so much stuff everywhere that I really do need to straighten it all up. There are a lot of things I can donate to the church's ministry for the needy. I find it hard to throw things away.


_________________
"My journey has just begun."


RLgnome
Raven
Raven

User avatar

Joined: 25 Jul 2011
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 118

17 Apr 2012, 7:14 pm

I'm messy to the extent of needing people to come by and clean up after me. I don't have personal assistants or anything doing that (except a short period many years ago due to depression), but my parents usually help me out once in a while. Once, my dog was sleeping by my feet in my bed, and I woke up in the morning from her standing on the edge of the bed crying and sounding completely lost, because she couldn't find a place on the floor where she could jump down without fear of hitting something. I had to carry her down. At least I got the hint and cleaned my bedroom... My executive function is horrible in most aspects (remembering to pay bills, paperwork, appointments etc etc), and keeping my place clean is pretty much the thing I'm worst at.



raisedbyignorance
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Apr 2009
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,225
Location: Indiana

17 Apr 2012, 8:04 pm

Messiness usually happens when there's too much stuff for me to organize than I have the means to sort out. I try to clump it together but it usually lays forgotten. I'm constantly obsessed with wanting to organize yet sometimes it just never works out.



Meow101
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Feb 2010
Age: 61
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,699
Location: USA

17 Apr 2012, 8:48 pm

I'm horribly disorganized but I always thought that was more my ADHD than my AS.

~Kate


_________________
Ce e amorul? E un lung
Prilej pentru durere,
Caci mii de lacrimi nu-i ajung
Si tot mai multe cere.
--Mihai Eminescu


lostgirl1986
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Feb 2012
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,418
Location: Ontario, Canada

17 Apr 2012, 8:52 pm

I'm have an organized mind by nature but when it comes to cleaning up at home, it just comes down to plain laziness I'll admit it. If you see me at work though, I'm extremely neat and organized. One thing that I do keep organized at home are my DVD's by title and my clothes by type and colour in my closet...when they're not strewn over my floor that is. :P



MiatheMutant
Raven
Raven

User avatar

Joined: 16 Apr 2012
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 109
Location: Hogwarts, or Vegas maybe

17 Apr 2012, 9:05 pm

I've been wondering about this for a little while, too. I am extremely disorganized, which is great because it keeps everyone else out of (and ten feet away from) my room. I have piles of clothes, piles of books, piles of papers, you name it. Even the trash can turns into a pile every now and again. There's no doubt that my mess stems from a combination of overload and laziness.
The only thing that really bothers me about it is when my dog starts shedding and it collects in two inch clumps on literally everything, including up the side of the wall by her crate. Her biannual shedding is just about the only thing on the planet that can get me to clean anything. :lol:


_________________
I know that, when I finally get my dream job, my patients won't laugh at me or call me a mutant.
AQ: 159/200 NT 50/200
EQ: 14 SQ: 85 AQ: 43 Other Test: 71/72
Undiagnosed: marginal costs > marginal benefits


Ravenclawgurl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,274
Location: somewhere over the rainbow

20 Apr 2012, 11:53 am

i am extremely diorganized



jhighl
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 18 Apr 2012
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 126

20 Apr 2012, 2:02 pm

I am one very messy aspie!



Australien
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 17 May 2011
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 301

23 Apr 2012, 4:53 am

I am constantly thinking about organisational systems for my room, but I lack the time and space to implement them. And even if I did, that would mean confronting the idea that I had been so disorganised as to allow it to get that way, and why didn't I do it years ago, maybe I'm not really as organised as I think I am otherwise I never would have let it get this far, etc. and it stresses me out. Another thing worth mentioning is that whenever I have an object that doesn't fit whatever system I have implemented, I do not just "put it anywhere" within that system, it must be outside that system. And I definitely do NOT subscribe to my mother's idea of "neatness" or "organisation", which is to just throw a whole heap of unrelated objects into the same box and put it away behind 3 other boxes where it can scarcely if ever be retrieved again :x It either goes in the correct place or it doesn't go "away" at all.



y-pod
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Apr 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,643
Location: Canada

23 Apr 2012, 5:09 am

Well, I encountered this question when I was first trying the AQ test. I didn't know if I was organized or not so I asked everybody else what they thought. They were all like "You need to ask? Have you ever seen your room?" :D I was saying "But I know the general location of everything, it just takes some digging."

But I guess if they were asking about messiness, yes I'm messy, as well as everybody else in my family. If we don't have therapists coming to our home weekly we'd never be inclined to clean. As of right now our mess is in our bedrooms only.


_________________
AQ score: 44
Aspie mom to two autistic sons (21 & 20 )


ValentineWiggin
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 May 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,907
Location: Beneath my cat's paw

23 Apr 2012, 7:25 am

Executive dysfunction ftw.


_________________
"Such is the Frailty
of the human Heart, that very few Men, who have no Property, have any Judgment of their own.
They talk and vote as they are directed by Some Man of Property, who has attached their Minds
to his Interest."


chiastic_slide
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 14 May 2012
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 206

06 Jun 2012, 3:41 pm

It feels like a constant battle between my inherent messiness and my need for a clean and ordered living space. A lethal combination of devoting a lot of time to my interests and studies and feeling totally wiped out from working and interacting with people during the day. I use a planner to divide up house cleaning and self-cleaning into smaller tasks each day, it works - mostly - although I do feel a bit stupid for having to set reminders to shave and cut my nails, etc. I know that if I don't do this things can very quickly get overwhelmingly messy and spiral out of control because it feels like I don't know where to start and then I end up just walking in circles around the mess talking to myself and not doing anything productive.



Sweetleaf
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 34,461
Location: Somewhere in Colorado

06 Jun 2012, 4:11 pm

Well I do not find myself very organized at all, however I do like things clean and not too chaotic. So take my room at my moms house for instance I have rather important papers in various spots I have this little file box thing full of random crap...while the important documents are in my desk drawers, boxes and a couple may be in the little file box.

So basically if one walks in it will look clean but one should not expect it to be organized in any rational manner...If my room gets messy then I can't help but clean it. Messy rooms seem to make me more on edge because its like all the clutter kinda jumps out at me(not litterally my mind just seems to focus on it so thats how I feel). Its weird I have a perfect mix of disorganization and cleanliness. Too much organization confuses me and then I can't keep track of anything since I am too focused on trying to keep it organized...but too much chaos and mess makes me anxious.


_________________
We won't go back.


Ark
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 13 May 2012
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 51

06 Jun 2012, 4:14 pm

I bet some people on the spectrum are messy. I'm not personally, I am extremely clean. I cannot think clearly unless my room is clean.