Published on 12, July, 2020
my therapist has suggested i try doing this. so far, i haven't, as i've never felt any interest in sorting or arranging things in order. however, she suggests it is a calming practice.. i'd like to no if anyone does this to relieve anxiety, emotions, etc.. and what do you arrange? i guess i could arrange maybe all my tools, which are scattered here and there, but that's always seemed like work. there are my paint brushes, but that's kind of pointless. but i have a number of brushes, and some are nice. i may try that.
the only other calming thing i do is lying on the floor and just lie there. sometimes i listen to lectures; but that's sort of work. i would try books, but most books don't interest me. and how many things do you need to arrange? i'd imagine the more the better. my therapist suggested papers, but that just seems frustrating.
Yes it is sorting everything out keeps my anxiety down.
I often tidy my room when I am on edge. Equally, jigsaw puzzles really soothe me; I sort all of the pieces into whether they are an edge piece or not, and then what colour the piece is and the completion of a puzzle is very satisfying - I guess this could help!
ok.. not sure about basement. that's like... rearrange my upper living space, almost, which is a disaster.
ok, so i'm working on fishing lures, sinkers... uh... so that means putting them in plastic boxes, according to type. . sinkers probably in another box, cause they're big and heavy, along with hooks and things for bait fishing. then have my lines relatively neatly spooled.. but then also i need to oil a couple reels, which is pretty fast. i clean out my bag (dumped out the sand).
i'm learning more about my aspie-ness... a number of habits were unknown to me before... actually, when i smoke pot, a number of habits popped up - what a surprise...! so, this putting things in order is something i am exploring. i'll hold off on the basement. ...
I'm the same, it's hard to resist, I've one friend who is happy me tidying his kitchen.
Yeah, I'm worried trying to bring order to the house may be too much and will cause stress. Of course it would bring benefits if you do small bits, slowly. But maybe better to find something as Plastic suggests.
Two of my aspie friends have poir executive control and their houses sound like yours, and ordering the house wouldn't help them, though I love it. Aspies aren't all the same.
I'd forgotten about ordering marbles. I loved that.
Oh gosh, that's why we line cars up as kids, order postcards, arrange stuff, it's cos it's soothing! Kinda hypnotic, or a state of flow!
hi,
you are new ? there are a number of Hampshire people in here !
Welcome to the forum
LOVE LOVE LOVE arranging things! And, conversely, feel a very 'noisy internal stress' when things aren't orderly. When I see others' stuff non-orderly, it fascinates and slightly terrorises me - and I find myself wanting to arrange, sort, systemise, tidy their stuff - out of pleasure. For me, it feels great to do, a real groove to get into. :)
I used to be pretty organised. Now my brain's a mess.
I was once called a 'Trainspotter' by a drunk bird at a Chippy in Portrush on a Monday night when I was first year at Uni. That made me ditch the Nerd Persona.
We've sold all our Hornby stuff - my wife is more into all the Lego trains - they're digital remote control too now.
I'm a member of the local model engineering club - I've just donated all my model boat stuff to them.
The shunting or fiddle yards are where you can automatically re-arrange the trains - you can separate al the trucks and carriages and send them down different tracks so an engine can go around and collect them up into the right order - it's a brain challenge and sorting job all in one - with trains!
i can't do something like my desk or kitchen. that is work. that's not relaxing, to me... i was going to do a bunch of books - but then i have to decide on each book. i guess it's good to take deciding and thinking too much out of the activity. i guess i'll try tools or fishing lures, or just objects in my basement. it's spacious, there's kind of easy to categorize things, and i will be able to see the result. i'm hoping that will work out and relax me. this year has been so hard, in the usa. really messed up.
do you guys belong to clubs for this, or do it on your own? sounds like you let go of your shunting yard... i think i may be too practical and anxious right now to even explore my more arcane interests. i'll see how the sorting goes in my basement...... i took photos before, so i can compare
f have a complete digital train set to sell OO gauge, hornby ,,, two digitial trains about 15 wagons , one off which is metal ! , 2 loops of track one inne and out and one dead end. digital controller of course.
I did have - endless hours of fun! I'm currently collecting vintage airfix models - especially if I built them years ago when I was a child - right now I'm building a little 1975 Matchbox Blackburn Buccaneer. I have a little squadron appearing.
I do that; it was one of the questions the assessment centre asked me. I have a collection of retro consoles and I need 10 games for each (I keep them recorded in a spreadsheet).....I also have collections of wrestling figures and LPs and am currently thinking of getting another 2 pencil cases for my crayons and colour pencils....I digress, the question was "what would you do if you saw another game but you had 10 already?"...I said swap one of them as 10 is the perfect number. Organizing them is definitely soothing.
do you have a hornby shunting yard?
Treat yourself to some small sets of things like marbles or crystals or Lego where you can play with and sort and arrange all the little bits and make patterns - it's quite therapeutic. .
we played marbles in school I loved it
tysm for the suggestions. i've always HATED arranging, and so everything in my house is just cluttered. desk...cluttered. living room? there's a tv in it, per normal, but also.......... a stand alone freezer? my dining room.......... my bed is in it, along with god knows what. i'm glad i'm not a hoarder (that would be even more difficult) but nothing is where it should be, and everything is where i leave it.
hopefully it's not too much, but i *guess* i'll try my ........... basement? it's large, but there's lots of things there that might be easy to put in order... so, there's a lot of empty space, a maybe reasonable amount of stuff, large amount of shelf space.. i guess i'll try it. i'll bring music or mp3's. altho it's bigger stuff, i'm hoping it's easy to categorize. even -- by shape. jeeze - will i be able to look at all that and pheel good afterwards???? never experienced that before.
since i got diagnosed in my sixties, i have been finding certain aspie-ish behaviors and things that i never new i had in me. yeah, my therapist said when she gets upset, she arranges her son's toys.