Anyone else incredibly messy and disorganized?

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I find it impossible to keep my apartment neat and tidy and to keep my schoolwork organized. It's like it's physically impossible for me to do so. It's very frustrating. I'm not a horder or anything like that, but the mess level can get quite bad. I read that this is a common issue for people with Asperger's.

Is it like this for you too, and does anyone have any advice on how I can better organize myself and keep a clean(ish) apartment?

I have this problem. I hate it. It causes a lot of problems in marriage and relationships.

I have this weekly planner with no dates and no lines. I find that if I write say in Thursday's section "clean bathrooms" it makes actually getting it done less overwhelming because I know for a few days in advance that I am going to do that on Thursday. Often I am running a few days behind but it feels good to be able to cross things off for the week even if I didn't do them the day I had set out.

As far as disorganization goes, that underlies messiness and is at the root of my messes and it seems no matter how I try to organize and "make nice" it fails. My latest tactic is to get rid of stuff.

Another habit I keep forgetting to form is whenever I leave a room to enter another room, is to take something from that room that belongs in the room I am going to and actually putting it where it is supposed to be in the new room. Sounds really good in theory. Very easy to forget in practice.

I'm pretty messy whenever I don't have enough room to store everything. When I have enough room, I'm generally fairly neat.

At one company where I had plenty of storage space, several people thought that I had one of the most organized offices in the entire company.

*raises hand


Yes, I'm an incredibly disorganized and messy person.

No

In my teens and 20's I had to organize my things on an OCD level. But now I'm more "relaxed". It's hard to keep your things organized when you're actually using them.

I am not naturally good at organizing. I have had problems all my life in this area.

Thankfully, my level of mess does not bother my family. However, it bothers me. I find cleaning & organizing difficult, and I don't like it, but I like to HAVE things clean & organized. I would greatly benefit from some help.

I don't mind cleaning IF everything else in life stops. I find it hard to stop or put aside other things I have to do in order to clean. It is not something I have learned how to integrate into the rest of life, if that makes sense. So, my house tends to get cleaned all at once, then slowly (or not so slowly) disintegrates into mild chaos. Then it is time to CLEAN EVERYTHING. Repeat the cycle.

One of the problems I have when cleaning is my "detail filter" comes down and I see everything that must be done, all at once. It makes it overwhelming to start, and it makes me feel like a failure as I go around cleaning/organizing what I can and having to leave all the rest undone.

Feeling like a failure is definitely NOT good motivation for doing something!

Yes I have the issues and these Executive Functioning deficits are common in Aspergers.

I fail to understand why the link I mention does not mention Autism but it's description of whit executive functioning is, disorders and coping mechanisms are useful.

I am an all-or-nothing kind of person. When I'm tidy and organized, it has to be absolutely perfect. However, when I lose the motivation to keep that state, I become disgustingly messy. Currently I'm in the latter state. I haven't vacuumed my place for 5 years and rubbish is piling up everywhere. You can hardly see the carpet because rubbish is covering it.

My messiness is my organisation. If I clean up I can't find anything.

It's called organized chaos

I am very messy - stressful at the moment because I live in a co-owned house that has to be sold so I have to sort it out ready for sale in a short space of time. Second skip due soon. Thankfully I can afford a cleaner for maintenance once I have finished the initial sort out.

I sometimes clean one area to perfection but not the bits around it I can't seem to get the hang of putting stuff in good places.

Also I have to settle into a newly sorted room as the sense of space freaks me out for a couple of days.

Unlike most people who wrote, I am extremely strong at executive functioning. I differ from most with ASD in this way. I can also relate to one writer who says they lose things when they keeps things tidy. I can be a wreck at times but know exactly where everything is at the same time. Yeah, keeping clutter can repel people but I don't care. I want people who I have a relationship with to accept this aspect of me.

Nerdygirl, EXACTLY! Have been that way ever since I grew tired of arranging everything with a measure tape - at 8 years.
I didn´t know, that it had to do with ASD.