Are you organized? Do you need to be organized or is your organization just a big mess? What are your thoughts of people on the autism spectrum and organization?
Let me tell you how it works in our house. I am extremely organized not because I want to be but because I have to be. My husband is organized only in his “messy, unorganized” way, if you know what I mean. When you look at his home office, there are piles of papers and things strewn across the desk. He doesn’t even own a wallet, he just has a bunch of cards tucked into his pocket. One time when I had to get into our older vehicle, I literally couldn’t put my feet on the floor because there were coffee cups and receipts and whatever on the mat and you couldn’t even see the floor.
Well both of our children take after each one of us. Surprise, surprise. Remember that both of our kids are on the spectrum and I don’t know if that has anything or not to do with being organized.
In our house, living with autism, requires one to be organized. You cannot even begin to imagine all of the paperwork that goes along with having autism. I am meticulous about files and keeping things properly labelled because if I don’t and I need to find something, I will never be able to retrieve it. It is super-important to be organized.
Another thing when living with autism, is that organization makes things easier for the person with ASD. They need to see things more visually. This is how they will process things. They need to perhaps have lists of things they can check off or things need to be labelled so that they know where these things are located. For example, our daughter has a label maker and the drawers of her dresser are labelled as to where the clothes go – not our idea but hers. It makes things easier for her. She also has bins on her bookshelf and they are all labelled with what is in each bin so that she can easily find something.
Our son is not necessarily focused on labels, but he does have a place for everything. His clothes are neatly in his dresser and his backpacks go in the same place every single day when he comes home from school. He likes to ensure his cutlery is properly placed before he starts eating his dinner.
Both of our children are different but they both function very well with some type of organization. For me, I have lots of things labelled in the kitchen – like spices, flours and lots of other things to make it easier to cook. I find that this helps me as well as helps all of us when we are looking for things.
No matter what, if any, type of organization works for you, it seems that the brain of someone on the spectrum demands something that makes sense for that individual.
As for my husband, well, I think I will just leave him be……….
I would love to hear what works in your house.
Shelly Wedge 