Is disorganisation a symptom of Asperger's?

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Im either extreme tbh. At this point in my life im anal retentive about order ot the point where my food shelf and cosmetics are alphebetised and everything is filed and stacked neatly and carefully. This gives me the most delightful sense of ease. I'll clean my room stand back and smile. I might even make a picture frame with my hands to savour the moment.

Once my room gets into a mess however the stress is constant. I would think that due to the ADHD comorbidity (I personally have a load of ADHD traits) alot of people of aspergers could quite easily be quite disorganised to the point of chaos. I suppose a sign of comorbidity would be the presence of both extremes in the one individual. A tendency to be either extremely organised or the converse

For me if I do not have a system of organization, things become a mess very quickly.
The thing is, someone with AS might be so focused on one thing, that everything else
gets neglected. An Aspie might have a house that is a complete mess, but there will
always be something that is getting full attention and is very tightly organized in some way.
So I think that notion that all Aspies always keep everything in its place and everything is
neat as a pin is pure stereotype. Usually that is the way it is for me, everything is structured and organized
but it has to be that way because... it is instant disorder and disarray otherwise.
That usually happens somewhere in the middle of summer vacation when 100% of my
focus goes into a couple of things and my room becomes a disaster. Them my mom comes in
and tells me my room is a pigsty and asks me when was the last time I took a shower.

Last edited by EzraS on 07 Jan 2014, 3:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've never been well organized. Dad's workshop was a mess, and it was the most interesting place in the house. Richard Feynman remarked on how the Princeton Cyclotron felt like home to him, after MIT, and that it was a far better investment, running half in chaos.
I go on a tidy-up binge occasionally, but usually, I can't decide if I should sort something by topic, color, shape, association, or what. That slows down the filing, and really complicates retreival. Life was OK until I got too many things to have one corner of everything visible, and by then, it was too late to learn another method. Chronological works pretty well for papers.
However, creativity in the mind arises from trying out novel combinations, and finding their merits, so physical disorganization isn't all bad. I heard of one scientific discovery that was the result of a field worker using one table for every function. It turned out that a triple-beam balance could easily show an interesting periodic pattern in a bathroom.

I am a disorganized person. I have always thought it was because of ADD.

I tend to organize things in a way I can get to them quickly. It looks like chaos, but there is a method to the madness.

Thank you everyone for your replies, it's really helpful to hear other people's experiences.

I can relate to this as I have too many things and I don't have a place for everything in my flat at the moment and it makes it harder to clean. I have too many possessions and a lot that I don't need.

I'm very sentimental about possessions. One small example, I have some antivirus software from 2003 which is of no use to me now, but I bought it when I was happy and optimistic and it reminds me of that time. I was persuaded to get rid of my cassettes a few years ago and I still mourn them even though I don't have a cassette player.

I also tend to anthropomorphise my possessions and think they'll be hurt if I throw them out, Sometimes I think I care more about the "feelings" of my things than people. I know logically this makes no sense and I just need to throw some of it out.

Does this sound like ASD or just weirdness? Even if i had less possessions I'd still be disorganised but it may help.

There's information associated with feelings, and I like to learn about that before giving up the feeling.

My room looks pretty messy, but I know exactly where everything is!
There are certain things, like my toolboxes and stuff like that, that I keep very organized. I LOVE organizing things into a toolbox.

I just got a large toolbox for all of the tools and spare parts for my RC cars. I spent nearly 6 hours figuring out how I wanted it all organized, even though it's not a huge box.

Humans, and perhaps animals in general, have notoriously crappy visual memories. Organization is a way to hack this. It is much more efficient to find and get things when they are alphabetized, categorized, and/or put back in the same place. People also tend to work faster in less cluttered environments. When I see a person that doesn't have a system of organization, my first thought is that they are either a dunce or have no pragmatic skills.

I think it depends on what way.

I am generally organised. I'm not obsessively organised, I'm just neutral really. My room is quite cluttered, but that's because I don't like throwing stuff away. I would maintain a tidy room if I forced myself to throw away more stuff. I don't intensely line things up in order on my shelves (like books and DVDs), I just keep them tidy and make sure all the discs are kept in their cases, etc.

Also, I always get my stuff ready for work the night before and keep it all in one place. That's probably because if I left it all til the morning, I would be rushing around and then I'll forget something.
So if I don't get organised when I have the time, I am very forgetful when I don't have much time to get ready. I don't know if that's organization or disorganization.

Sometimes I forget simple tasks (not all the time). Like if my mum tells me to lock the back door, I will accept the task but then go out of the room and forget to lock the back door. But that might be normal because I don't normally lock the back door (usually someone else does it). If I was at home on my own, I probably would remember to do all those small things.

So no, I don't think I'm that disorganised.

At one period, I noticed that almost every other time I headed out on my bike, I'd do a U-turn within a hundred meters for something I forgot. At least I was consistent about reviewing the trip early. At the same house, I finally learned to keep my helmet and jacket hung up for easy finding.
OTOH, when I see a need and an obvious method of organization, I use it, and like planning for trips. I love doing enough design work to jump ahead two or three prototype's worth at once.
I was quite put off by school, where i always had to clean up in the middle of a project to change classes, and have only recently learned that putting things away just after finishing a job is less drudgery than doing it later. Mess is like a sink full of dishes that gets worse with time. I'm also getting over the frustration of sometimes getting something out just minutes after putting it away - I always was unhappy about my foresight when that happened.

If I'm the only one at the office or the house and I leave for a while, I check the stove, the refrigerator, the freezer, the doors, and make sure the toilets aren't running. More often than not, I'll turn back within a few miles and double check everything.

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Persig describes a motorcycle shop belonging to a visual memory user. He anticipated the ease with which the owner found some tiny, obscure parts, but remarked that if he'd moved a wrench six inches through the clutter, it would have been lost for a long time. This sort of thing can only flourish in a one-man shop.

To avoid returning to re-check that things are off, take a tip from aircraft pilots and use a checklist. If you have "done your list" you can make yourself a one-item note and be OK.

BTW, I don't lose keys, wallets, papers, etc.

I have learned to not use built-ins for storage systems, lest I have to move. I'm very glad I bought portable storage units that remain the same after a move.

This is me. Having a calendar program has been a huge help with scheduling

I have no idea (whether disorganisation a symptom of Asperger). I tend to keep my stuff (books, receipts, statements, etc.) organized – either in a filing cabinet, bookcase or in a well structure set of folders on my computer.

With that being said, I do have a “work in process” stack of papers on my floor (in a neat stack, but on the floor) of things that needs my attention. I eventually file it or throw it away, once done.

My wife sees this stack, and calls me disorganized. But...ask me to retrieve a utility bill from 2010 or the manual to the toaster oven or last year's car repair bill , and I can find it within 10 seconds.