Either Super Organized And Tidy Or Messy.

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nothing seems to work for or with me.

I do have a way of being super tidy again and that is to not have things... But then I would be bored.

The problem is though that I would find that I would miss having things to tinker with. I like making things to relax...

even in the army barracks when i had nothing but my wall locker and its contents, i was still a slob. getting ready for inspection was a bear.

I find I am clean and tidy when working for others, but not with myself. It is strange.

A one-person workspace can be most efficient when messy, but if two people are trying to share the facility, more tidy-up time pays off.
When I sweep or clean, I want to be able to see a distinct difference.
Uncovering and resuming a project is a bit of a hazard when tidying up.
When I moved to the country, I spent years shopping for a pocket flashlight, only to find what I wanted in my old camping gear, previously salvaged.
I hoard bits of material and hardware because they can be so hard to replace, both in time and money, but organizing them is a challenge.

I suppose back in the day, if you were poor then you had no stuff, you were lucky if you could afford to eat. Meanwhile the middle class had servants to keep everything neat. These days we can buy mountains of stuff but there's only us to tidy it up.

Oh yes, "in a nutshell!"

Recently, I set the guideline (a rough guideline at that) to clean-up my sink on 'even numbered dates.'

This discussion thread proves to be a rather novel "nudge" to clean-up my sink - and today (as of this writing) is an 'even numbered date!'

RELATED: Executive-functioning discusses organizational habits related to the Autism Spectrum.

A couple of rules I try to apply, with some success, are:

1. Don't let it get any worse (make that a way of life, and anything else is a permanent bonus).

2. Do a little bit to make it better now and then.

The mistake I often used to make was to decide I had to have a damn good tidy up and fix the problem once and for all. But that was too ambitious, so I failed and just damaged my confidence. Aspies are sometimes said to have a habit of tackling problems full-on, which can be advantageous for problems that can be solved in an hour or two, but not when applied to tidying my home. Even tidying up one room would likely be too much.

so far i have avoided leaving any more dirty dishes piled up, and also my stovetop has remained clear except for food prep [no other horizontal surface in my tin can]. my back door is still clear and i can see out the window now. no more goat paths

It's a constant battle in my head between wanting to get things despite the executive dysfunction and the OCD like behavior that's disturbed by the chaotic mess. I have seen other aspies where the mess wins out big time .

I'm like that too. I'm only organized about things that interest me.