Why Aspies are disorganized

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I'm very well-organized. My DVDs are in alphabetical order, my books are in order by series and/or author, and my closet is color organized as well as by what type of style the clothing is (I have five different sections for my shirts alone).

I am very organized at work. I know where to find everything at the library and work from a list. At home, I am not as compulsive, but I do know where to find everything.

totally me

Lately I cannot even seem to organize the thoughts in my own head.

I'm usually disorganized because I don't stay focused long enough to organize myself.

I'm more organised than disorganised. I'm not TOO organised, I'm just averagely organised, if that makes sense. And I like other people around me to be organised too. I feel much more relaxed when I'm with my mum and one of her sisters because they're so organised, the day usually goes as planned, and there's no rushing about. But her brother and other sister are not as organised. Her sister thinks time stands still for her, and would do things like take her time looking in shops when she's got a bus to catch at the other end of the town in 5 minutes, then ends up running in order to not miss it. And my mum's brother is disorganised in a different way; has no routine, is very random, eats at all different times, (sometimes at midnight), and he does a regular shift for work (normal daytime hours) so it's nothing to do with having odd shifts.

This goes to show that NTs can be disorganised too.

It seems the opposite for me...I am always so 'overstimulated' its hard to be organized, so I tend to be rather disorganized.

I can relate to the understimulation thing, but I do have an ADHD diagnosis from childhood. It's not the only reason though. Sometimes it's that I get overwhelmed by what needs to be done and so I have an anxiety related shutdown that can last for months. Other times depression creeps in and keeps me from even getting out of bed unless it is absolutely necessary. Still other times it's about projects that need to get done which there is no money to complete. So, they stay where I left them when I stopped doing them. This can be anything from a broken geiger counter probe to an automotive engine. In fact, I have the engine from my parts car sitting on a stand in my front porch, right where it was when I took it apart nearly 2 years ago.

Wow, if I had to write one sentence to define why I feel different and disconnected from everybody else, it would be this. I feel really guilty about how little I care about what most people have to say, and that I'd rather just listen to myself talking to myself inside my head than reach out to them.

Back on topic, this would also explain why I don't care about my messy living space at all, even though it bothers everyone else.

It's hard for me to move period sometimes, and if you have no get up and go, how can you get your stuff organized? I just stop sometimes and ruminate because I get so overstimulated by things, it's like I can't manage my own energies properly or something.

The way I organize looks unorganized to people. It is like for most NTs that organization has to look pretty. When I had work, I had about ten stacks of paper on my desk. Each stack had a purpose. One stack was for new policies, another for reports, another for updates and so on. Each stack was sorted by date and if multiple sheets had the same date, then by alphabet. I remember taking a week off and coming back to work to see that someone had f°cked with my desk and my usual react was: "Which f°cking assh°le touched my sh!t?" I didn't care in the end, if I would get fired or not, because I was sick and tired of the menial labor, the colleague who complained about conditions and didn't do anything about it and that I was bullied by some people because of how I am. Luckily I had the upper hand legally as every time the boss said: "I don't want to see you anymore." I replied with: "I would like to have that on paper."

Some truth in that here, though I don't think it's the whole story. Keeping my living space organised isn't very stimulating to me, either it's too easy (e.g. washing dishes) or way too tricky and time-consuming (going through my entire house, deciding what to trash, finding good places to put what remains). I have more interesting things to do, even bumming around aimlessly has more appeal to me than tidying up.

But chiefly I blame executive function problems and fragmented thinking.

Sort of for instance I am very disorganized and kind of scatter-brained I guess...and getting PTSD certainly did not help that issue. And yeah it annoys me a lot at my house when I accidentally leave a cupboard open, or like a tea wrapper on the counter and my moms boyfriend goes through a big lecture of how I should learn to pick up after myself though I've told him repeatedly I make my best effort and still mange to miss things so if that happens just to tell me rather then being all condescending as if I need to be taught how to pick up and throw away the wrapper or close the cabnet.

I also misplace things a lot which is very frustrating....even more so if I try to look for that object, so I try to just not worry about it and stay calm and remind myself its likely to turn up if I move on to something else rather than getting all worked up about it since all that ever gets me is a messy room I've torn apart looking for whatever it is, to clean up again.