Order/chaos

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So, apparently many Aspies like order.

In my case, it's a bit weird. On the one hand, yes, there's a desire for order. As a child I used to sort pens by colour or put things exactly parallel to each other, and sometimes I still do. At the moment I'm playing Skyrim (a roleplaying video game), and whenever I use something, like potions, I always leave a number of items in my inventory that can be shared by 5, because it feels weird to me to see something like Potions(6) or Potions(11).

On the other hand, my room is absolute chaos. I rarely clean, and there's clothes all over the floor and bed. It's not smelly or anything, but really messy. And I kind of like it that way.

How do you act when it comes to order and chaos?

Like you, I kind of have two sides on this matter. I used to be very, very much into order as a child; I used to apply it to everything, especially my own stuff.

Then, ever since I hit adulthood and life kind of went crazy for me, I dropped the whole order thing in my own personal space. I was just no longer feeling happy about the concept of applying order to my life at all, and so my room has been ultimate chaos for the past 3 years or so. Exactly how you describe it: clothes lying everywhere, I also have random books and CD's lying around everywhere, my mail administration is a mess.
In the face of the outside world, however, I maintain my old 'ordered self', and I'm known for being something of a neat freak. But barely anyone knows how I live in private.

It depends, really. This is one of those areas of my life that tend to be either black or white. I had my house completely organized a few years ago and then took in a roommate to try and raise money to fix the rest of the house. Unfortunately, he didn't respect my home and left me with several messes, including a bathroom that probably wasn't cleaned the entire time he lived with me. The chaos from that living situation (which included him being a severe alcoholic and of course not paying the rent some times) left my mental state in disarray and I haven't been able to bring order back to it.

As I went a bit off track there, I will try to say it a different way. There seems to be two separate issues at play here. First off, we like order and seek to keep our lives running in a certain, predictable rhythm. However, Aspergers also comes with what is called an executive functioning problem which leads to motivational problems. These motivational problems make it harder for us to initiate things and more likely to leave things where they lie. Once you get past a certain threshold of sloppiness, this dysfunction may make it impossible for you to get back to a clean normal until you decide to obsess over it again and it gets done. So while you may always shop at the same store and eat at the same place at your normal restaurant while parking in the same place you always do, that doesn't always translate to a greater sense of order everywhere in your life. Remember that there is a difference between the things you habituate into your routine and those that are not a part of your routines.

I have always been a slob, big time, but I like some things in order; my video game collection is sorted alphabetically, chronologically, by system, and also by the color of the case (only for things like "greatest hits" titles, where the system name is in a different color, like for PS2; normal- black, greatest hits- red), they all have to face the same way. My drinking glasses are sorted by size and color, and the bookcase I use as a pantry is organized by type and packaging. My closets (I live alone, and have 2 closets in my bedroom ^_^) are sorted by color, type (dressy or not) article (pants, sweatshirts, dresses, etc) and frequency of use.

For all that, I can never put anything away, or find anything, and I've tried keeping rigid order; too hard, and didn't help with losing things..

I love order. I am much less anxious in an orderly environmnet. However I am so flaky and preoccupied with my interests that it is nearly impossible for me to acheive and maintain order. My desk is a mess. My house is fairly cluttered.

A BIG problem I have with cleaning is that I seem to have an all or nothing policy.

For exmaple: If I am cleaning up my kids toys, I MUST put all of the parts of a toy together. So I end up spending an hour searching for a missing puzzle piece instead of actually picking up. I realize that most people would just throw everything in a toy boy, but that is really hard for me. It is something I have been working on, but I'll still get sidetracked looking for all the pieces in a set. As a result I tend to avoid ever picking up their toys. It causes so much anxiety I just don't do it unless I have to.

I go both ways with order. My desk is cluttered and my toys are all over the bed, I also always leave things lying around, yet all my clothes are in order, my ornaments and dolls are in order, when I play MMORPG's my inventory is always ordered. In some areas it seems I dont mind the mess in others order is essential.

My desk at work is the epitome of order but it's not quite the same back home. I tend to get sidetracked doing stuff other than programming and definitely lose my focus so rooms are always halfway done. Sometimes I think a cleaning-related OCD might not be such a bad thing

I love order! Order order order order order order order!

I like the kind of order in which I set it and forget it.

I definitely prefer order over chaos, but to me "order" and "cleanliness" are two separate things. I can tolerate clutter so long as there's order to it. On the other hand, randomly stowing stuff away to give the illusion that the house is tidy drives me nuts because there is decidedly a lack of order to that and it makes it more difficult to find things. I do need to keep work surfaces free of clutter, though, because I get readily distracted and frustrated by messy work areas.

As a child I was very unorganized according to my mom. As an adult I am extremely OCD about everything having its place. Every item in my possession has a place and if I don't see the item there I start to have what I call a pre-meltdown freak out and if it isn't found quick enough it can turn into a full meltdown.

I'm either super clean, or super messy.

When things get too messy, it's easy to give up.

When things are clean, it's easy to get all OCD and over-do the cleaning and organizing.

We should do room tours/house photos here. That would be interesting.

Yes I am both ordered in some ways and appear to be chaotic in others. However even though for example, my room may look a mess to other people, many things are in a certain place, if that makes sense, so I think to me it doesn't really seem unordered although it may look messy. Probably partly to do with not liking change. I like the idea of living in a serene, less cluttered space but don't seem to be able to achieve it.