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I *LOVE* looking at certain types of things--organized shelves, alphabetized lists, shiny things, large piles of a particular object (like coins, beads, jewelry, shiny rocks, etc.).

I could sit in front of my book shelves and feel very happy just looking at them all lined up and abundant, running my eyes over each spine and seeing how perfectly alphabetized they are. If my arms were long enough I'd want to hug all of them at once.

Is this an AS thing or an OCD thing? Or am I just crazy? LOL

My AS makes me want stuff organised but I suck at actually making it happen. Instead I enjoy knowing where everything is, despite how disorganised it looks. It's like my brain makes up for my sh***y executive function by being able to invent a fluid new categorisation for everything. If someone messes with it, it messes with me no matter how messy it looks to them.
Hope that made sense

i organize everything, all my toys, all my movies, books, items all of it. i LOVE organization.

I knoe NT's that are pericular about this stuff also, I agree with both posts though. I like my special intrests collections and the more complete the better. I love looking at other's collections of stuff also, maybe it goes back to the autistic intrests of lining/stacking stuff up only in a more mature adult form?

Me, too. I love it when things are organized. I personally think it's an OCD thing though it could be both.

My problem is that I'm an all-or-nothing kind of person. So when the organized state is lost, then it turns into a complete mess because I can't be bothered to keep things just semi-organized. It has to be perfect. Otherwise there's no point.

When I was young I was terrible at keeping myself organized with anything at home (chores, responsibilities) except if it pertained to school. I hated the way my mother was OCD about keeping the house so clean, as I wished I could be messy and relaxed and not get her so mad all the time when I messed her things up. Although I did line some things up, they were just some odd things here and there. However, as I grew up I still had trouble managing my time and responsibilities, but in my late 20's when I realized I had to really buckle down to get my life together, I made it a priority to learn how to be on time to things, to take better care of myself, to not live in chaos. Working in offices helped me learn various systems as to how others kept things organized--I absorbed knowledge of these systems and became a super organizer! So now I'm at the opposite end of the extreme from where I began. I realize how much work it takes to stay organized that I really get bent out of shape if my organization is messed up, because then it's back to chaos. Especially because I tend to collect so much stuff, it can really get out of hand. When my husband starts taking CD's off the shelf and doesn't put them back in the right slot, I go berserk on him. I've learned to let some things go for sake of sanity with three kids, but it's a constant daily challenge. When I lived alone I didn't need to have to be as organized because nobody was around to mess up my mess.

Yes, I am very obsessive about organization.

More AS than OCD. AS obsessions tend to be 'happier' overall than OCD obsessions. Though OCDers can have AS style obsessions in addition to OCD obsessions.

I used to be very much like that, now it is less pronounced but is still there. When I was little, I used to arrange the crayons in my drawing set in a specific manner so that every colour would make the transition to the next (e.g. yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green) and then stare at it for hours. Now give me an alphabetical list of names and it will keep me happy for quite some time. I can actually keep myself amused with the white pages of the phone book.