Just wondered if there are any tidy adders here.
While I know I'm ADD (awaiting official dx) - I am tidy and undisorganised (organised is not quite me) because it's the only way I can avoid forgetting things .... but it's taken time and effort.
Otherwise, my absent-minded forgetfulness becomes a REAL problem.
I have to use 'external memory' like lists in MS Excel and on paper/corkboards or stuff just gets forgotten. Most of the time this works, unless I'm too lazy to write it down at the time I think of it (doesn't stay in short-term memory too long).
I also use solid-state voice recorders, although I'm not greatly fond of them because speaking is frequently something I can't be bothered to do (for my own benefit, at least).
Although I have big problems with motivation, I do discipline myself about getting chores done - which for me, is better than the guilt and wastage of procrastination.
Anyway, I prefer staying ahead of the chores (most of the time) as it doesn't take much of a build up before they become major pyschological hurdles.

Ever read Daniel Amen's Healing ADD? He describes a subtype called overfocused ADD. People who fit this description force themselves to be very organized and tidy, because they know they can't handle the chaos that results if they don't! He has specific treatment recommendations for each type. I'll post more about this later (if someone doesn't beat me to it) ... I have company coming soon! ;)

BTW, I envy your organizational ability!

Hehe ... thanks Krispie.
Don't feel too envious, though - it comes at a heft price.

Your tidyness may also simply be your coping mechanism. For example, I am certainly not overfocuses. I am hyperactive, inattentive, but I am obssessive-compulsive about my work and home areas. No, I do not have obsessive-compulsive disorder ( I was checked), I simply must have everything neat, tidy, and properly arranged inorder to get anything accomplished. (Down-side of this is that I spent so much time keeping things organized and tidy that I ran out of time to work on any goals or accomplishments) This was a coping mechanism I developed while in Highschool to cover up the fact that I was ADHD. My guess is it could be the same for you. Mine worked for me for a while, but eventually my symptoms caught up with me and although I was organized in my work/home-space other areas of my life stayed very disorganized.

MM

Yes, I can roll with that as an explanation - except it wasn't conscious behaviour .... I too, hate clutter and untidiness and am quite house-proud.
But that may go back to my institutional upbringing, which was almost like a military training regime - lots of discipline, a strict regimen and TONS of cleaning (just like army grunts).
But my mum was tidy, too - though like me, not obsessive about it.
A simpler explanation may be that some people enjoy the aesthetic appeal of being somewhere nicely presented.
I suspect that this may be more relevant perhaps, than the more psychological explanations, ie - you don't have to have ADD to be un/tidy, people simply fall into a natural spectrum.

It's true you don't have to be ADD to fall into the 'untidy' category, but research and observation definitely suggests that ADDers have a harder time keeping environments organized and clean due to constant attention shifting. If this is the case then and if one has ADD/ADHD, then their must be some type of underlying reason as to why he/she is straying outside the normative behaviors for the disorder. Yes. It could be as simple as you have stated, that is one possibility. However, I think it would have to be something stronger and less arbitrary than that to overcome a natural tendency toward disorganization, especially if one leans on toward to opposite end of the spectrum, which is tidy.

MM

PS. It could also simply be a case of potato vs. potato or tomato vs. tomato.

Interesting topic. I never really analyzed why I'm so messy but it just dawned on me that if I put something away, I 'll never remember that a) it even exists or b) where I put it. I like everything out where I can see it. My counters are cluttered with stuff because I have to "see" it so I can use it. I have drawers I haven't opened in months (maybe even over a year) and when I do, it's like Christmas!! All of these things I've forgotten about.

Sometimes I clean my desk up at work. I come to work the next day and think that I obviously have nothing to do since my work are is so clean. Then about 4:00 PM I realize that I wasted a whole day doing nothing and that I'm further behind. I decided to just keep my desk messy. It reminds me that I have stuff to do. AT home, it's the same thing. Even if I do start to clean my house, I'll find that electronic Yahtzee game behind the couch that I haven't seen in months (and forgotten about) and then sit down and play it for over an hour. By then, the urge to clean has dissappeared and I'm back to square one.

Thank goodness cars have trunks. When you are going to give someone a ride, you just empty everything in the front and back seats into the trunk. Voila! Clean car. But then my trunk is packed with stuff I don't remember exists.....

I've decided to not be so hard on myself and I just clean when I have company coming. I have other things to worry about. Like balancing my checkbook....but's that's a whole other story.

Andrea

P.S . I really love paper plates, disposable tupperware and paying bills online. Anyone else love things that make their life a little easier??

Here's a brief explanation of overfocused ADD. In Healing ADD, Amen goes into more detail about how overfocused ADD differs from OCD and from "classic" ADD. No doubt there are non-messy ADD people who don't fit into the "overfocused" category, too.

http://www.mindfixers.com/amensub3.html

Hi, ADDled, You said:
. . . "A simpler explanation may be that some people enjoy the aesthetic appeal of being somewhere nicely presented."

This may be your take on when/how you achieve a level tidiness that suits you, but I'd bet the farm that most of us on this forum have highly developed "aesthetic" standards, and nearly faint with pleasure each time we find ourselves somewhere "nicely presented."

We can tell "scum from shoeshine" just fine (just to keep it clean; we just can't routinely achieve that elusive "nice presentation" in our own personal surroundings.

Good for you, though. ~applause!~ That you "discipline [your]self about getting chores done - which for [you]-is better than the guilt and wastage of procrastination."

-Just another one of those "some people."

Absolutely

i'm a fairly organised adder. but like you said, it comes at a price. i have to make lists, post reminders, always put things in the same place or risk losing them.

i finally got the bill paying system under control - it only took 3 years and lots of late fees!

now that i'm back at work, my "rituals" have increase, because i have to get everything done be 9:30 at night so i can get enough sleep not to be dead tired at work the next day.

i also like my house neat and not cluttered and messy - but it's a daily battle. which reminds me, gotta go - it's trash night, gotta clean out the fridge...

because i have to get everything done be 9:30 at night so i can get enough sleep not to be dead tired at work the next day.
You sound just like me.
If I don't get seven hours, I'm wasted ALL day - not just in the AM.
If I'm after midnight, I'm useless - if I'm before 8AM, I'm useless.
Anyone without apnoea find the same ?

If I'm going to get anything done it has to be by 9:30PM also or I'm draggin my tail at work. Of course for me I many times "don't" get anything done because I either don't feel the desire to do it or I get distracted with something else. I start to clean and like another poster said I find something I forgot I had and forget cleaning, I'm done. Something I wonder is how tidy people day after day can keep everything tidy. I try to start a routine and never wind up doing anything the same way twice, it's nutz. I'm at the point where I just feel so ashamed of myself when my house is a mess that I sort of, and I use the words sort of, keep it up, at least for a while. Some days I really enjoy cleaning and I'm so into it. Sometimes this lasts a week, but then I get so bored with it I quit and just can't make myself finish it. Lots of times I just don't have the energy to keep going. How do you force yourself day in and day out to keep a super tidy place. My one sister is a total clean freak. She never stops cleaning. Where on earth does one get the energy and drive and plain desire to just CLEAN and CLEAN and CLEAN again. Please lend some of that gumption to me. I sure could use it. Dee

Err .... don't get the impression that I do what your sister does - THAT'S pathological and I can't understand it either. I've seen alotta people like that, it's like their lives depend on it !
Trust me, my cleaning involves minimum expenditure of effort for maximum result - life's just to short to spend as a skivy.

ITA. Who looks back at life from their deathbed and says, "Gee, I sure wish I'd spent more time scrubbing the kitchen floor?" :p

OCD's? haha

no one is OC here right?

me and my big mouth again :)

I think it was Bertrand Russell who asked on his deathbed, what regrets he had - said "I wish I'd had more sex".
There are quite a few of these such.
One of the big problems weather scientists have in simulating accurate weather models is that they still don't understand the fundamental nature of turbulence.
Science's foremost fluid-dynamics (fluids include g****es) theoretician's (forget his name now) last words were "Why turbulence ?"
Hehe - haven't got round to thinking what mine might be, but "Why me ?" seems like a strong contender.
Can't imagine very many people utter "Why not me ?" - I mean, how philosophical can you actually be about life ?