Are all AS people slobs?

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Hi Colton
I guess I am the oposite aspie that has been mentioned here but not yet heard from. When I was younger I had a messy unkept room. My mom was always on my case about it. We eventually came to an agreement that I would keep my door closed so she wouldn't have to see it. I did always draw the line at food in my room. That grosses me out to no end.

As I grew older and moved out on my own I began to clean up my act because I need to find things plus I did not like the smell of an unclean house. You know that old dusty smell.

At work I am very clean. I am a visual person so I use my desk as an exterior mind. Everything on my desk are jobs that have to be organized and completed so at the end of the day when all of the parts and papers are cleared off my desk I know I did not forget to do anything for the day and can go home.

PS- In regards to hoarding, I think that is caused by events in the persons life. There is a hoarding TV show that I have watched many times. I find the human mind very interesting in how it deals with situations and stresses.

PSS- If you decide to live with someone with AS, It would be a good idea to discuss cleanliness of the house/apartment beforehand.

I personally am a clean person and keep my self clean an such as that but I am totally unorganized and all over the place with my room and other places.

I tend to not be clean. I find it hard to start cleaning. I often need to be prompted and helped.

I have routines so I can count days when I last did a particular cleaning job and do it. There's no motivation otherwise (other than 'if I put it off it'll be twice as hard next week').

I find the whole thing a grind.. A cleaner would be nice, but to hire one to do everything is beyond my means.

Hmm. I would probably look into hiring someone to come help me clean once a week if I have my Aspie move in.

Disorganisation and cleanliness are not ''Aspie traits'' nor ''NT traits''. They are just personality traits. I know NTs that are disorganised or messy, and I know Aspies who are very clean and tidy and organised. I even know an Aspie who is just inbetween, not too messy and not too tidy.

When I was a teenager I kept my room as neat as possible and everything in it perfectly organized on shelves, dressers, and on my bed. And if someone (my brother) came in and messed anything up it would give me anxiety, like someone with OCD. I've never been diagnosed with OCD but it was pretty bad during my late teens to late twenties. Maybe that's because I couldn't have cared less about the rest of the house which in my eyes was not mine, not even where I lived. My mother and I were always arguing and fighting about my doing chores around the rest of the house, especially now that my brother had moved out and my parents were at work all day and expected to come home to a clean house with a meal I'd cooked for us. When I was 21 I was sent to live in a group home for the first time and suddenly not only did I have no real privacy and had to live with 10 other people who mostly suffered from chronic schizophrenia but we always had tons of chores to do every day and there were long lists of chore schedules with every last detail on how to do them properly. I could not for the life of me understand why I had to dust and vacuum a room that was hardly ever used every single day. And there were the night lunch dishes, where you had to wash all the dishes used between supper and bedtime and the sinks would be full of dirty coffee cups. And the kitchen floor cleaning which you had to do at night. You could be tired and just want to go to bed or relax but instead you had to drag all the dining chairs out of the kitchen. Then you had to sweep and mop the kitchen floor. Then you had to wait for it to dry, and THEN put the chairs all back. And you had to do this EVERY night for a least a week until was someone else's turn. I remember being expected to do chores daily even if I were sick (I would get bad colds every other month during my stay at the home) unless I were almost dead. You had to get up early every morning or you would be threatened into doing MORE chores that the staff normally did that were really difficult or unpleasant, like cleaning up cigarette butts dropped everywhere outside (most of the other residents were heavy smokers and were actually encouraged to smoke to calm their schizophrenia) or clean up the bird droppings. I was in a near-constant state of rage from having to do all these chores although it's understandable that a home with 10 residents and at least two staff members needed a lot of care. However, almost a year later I had become used to all the housework and did chores with little or no trouble. Then I moved into a smaller home with only two other residents, but my troubles didn't end. But that's a whole other story. Today I have a large apartment that isn't easy to keep clean all by myself, but I often feel embarrassed when I think about the staff at the group home and what they would think. I don't usually wash my dishes until they pile up or vacuum until the carpet is visibly dirty. I seldom dust and only sweep the floor once in a while. Once a week I do my laundry but I don't usually put it away right afterwards, I just grab what clothes I need, take them to my room and dress. Once a week I empty my cat's litter box but don't usually dig out the little "treasures" they deposit before then and once in a while I clean the bathroom sink, tub and toilet. I hate mopping because most of my floors are hardwood and I've tried a million things to clean them without leaving streaks or a film and nothing works, not even what my mom uses that keeps her own floors perfect.
While my apartment isn't really that filthy, it's embarrassing when people come over and I still have a pile of dirty dishes or drips of tea on the counter top or empty rolls of toilet paper stacked next to the toilet because I'm too lazy to just put them in the recycling. I often have papers and pens on the floor from drawing or lint and felt scraps from crafting and my two cats line everything with cat hair while I'll sometimes clean up with the lint roller or vacuum. Around this time last year my mother came over and then had some cleaning ladies come over to clean everything up. I wonder if she'll do it again this year? I'm sorry if this is so long but it feels good to get all those feelings out.

Like this?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgfB6M1CRr4[/youtube]

No, probably not like that.

heh.

With me it's not slobbishness in the traditional sense, it's more more I'll only do what's necessary. I see no point in doing something I don't have to, just 'because' (which was my parents favorite reason why I had to do things when they hadn't got a clue themselves why they were telling me to do them). So I'll keep clean dishes because food poisoning is unpleasant, and I'll keep fresh clothes because my workmates get upset if I don't, and I'll clean the rabbits out because it'd be unkind not to.

I also love order, but it has to be *my* order, which may look like a mess to everyone else. I'm actually always moving things to the right place but you probably wouldn't guess. So yes that pile of junk on the spare chair *does* belong there and I know exactly what's on there and how to find any item on it. Tidy it up and It'll be weeks before I can find anything.

I shower everyday, I hate feeling dirty. I also hate mess as I can't think straight unless everything is in order. However when it comes to clothes I'll always choose comfort over style, so I tend to look fairly slobbish when I'm at home.

Well, our "special interests" get us distracted from doing things like cleaning. I suggest getting a cleaning lady and some sort of laundy service. It pretty much solved my problem. But, if you can't afford it, you may need "to crack the whip". I tend to do nothing, then go OCD and clean everything in one fell swoop. It might just take a month to get to that point.

So, would Aspies make good parents?

That's way too complex to say. I don't think Aspies are bad parents in general, if that's what you're afraid of.

Exactly. There's no point in cleaning, no productivity whatever. I'm sure I'd need a "laid back" type mate, otherwise there would always be friction between us (as it was during the time I had a girlfriend).

I observed that many here don't like washing dishes either. I have no problem with it. Perhaps the way I was brought up plays into my utter dislike of vacuuming and mopping. My mother forced me to do them, so I gladly neglect both (for months).

Cleanliness is only one factor that makes a good parent. There are many others. Cleanliness is not the most important of all.

GUYS don't like to clean. In fact, most guys don't even know how to do their own laundry.