Neat and Organized
I sometimes ask myself, why can't I be neat or organized as INTJ should be. Am I an INTP instead of INTJ?
After a whole three years of thinking (yes, I am not exaggerating it. I got notes about it), I finally come to an answer. I (or INTJ) have a whole different idea of keeping things orderly/organized and have a definition of neat.
It's really a deep an thorough thinking with a lot of experiments. The subject: me and my bedroom.
I am not considered as neat, but most of the times I am the only one who remember every single thing in my room. Sometimes I got lost when my brain was kind of restarted (or reset) but sooner or later I will find that particular thing anyway.
In my heaven - no, bedroom - everything should be ordered like this: the most interesting things must be placed as far as my fingertip, the will-be-thought-soon ones must be placed at the strategic places, the will-be-thought-later-when-I-got-time ones must be placed in the shelves, and the uninteresting ones must be in the deepest and darkest places. Why do I keep the uninteresting ones? The main reason is because I believe what I took is interesting enough by the time I decided to keep it, but it turned out to be uninteresting due to lack of time and occasion (and holiday). So, it will be interesting, later.
"As far as my fingertip". I am sure I am not exaggerating it. Literally -- as far as my fingertip. I must be able to touch, access, see, recognize, control and think about it as fast as possible. It should be placed as intriguing as possible but not annoying. Those are tasks to be done immediately. When it's done, it goes to recycle bin immediately as well.
Strategic places are the places a little bit further. I might recognize it easily, but I don't easily access it. I have to open something or I have to stand up to reach it. Those are things that need to be done not quite immediately.
I think the third and fourth category are both self-explained.
In each category, things should be connected to each other. Paper A is related to B, so it should be placed next to each other. B to C, C to D, D to E, etc. if E is related to A, so it'll be close to A (I've gone full circle).
That's why my bedroom seems messy for others.
--
Then I rearranged things. The places are more humanly organized. The major point change, I considered the "neat" trait.
I started to forget things more often. I forget where I put my things. Those are not related come together and I couldn't find a pen. Things are being uncomfortable. I left it for a month but still uncomfortable for me to not being able to access important things easily.
--
What's the conclusion?
I get to understand this trait. INTJ (me) tends to think orderly and organized in his own way. "Neat" is not what people might think. Neat is the most comfortable arrangement for INTJ to access everything in their possession. Still, INTJs tend to think deeply about how to arrange things, and THAT is what organized means.
Neat is defined as the most possible arrangement so it's close to the people's "neat" standard. Still messy? It's been thought thoroughly.
(It's not an excuse for someone who's real messy and KEEP LOSING THINGS. INTJ do think deeply to place their belongings..in their own way. 99% of the time they don't lose their belongings or forget where they put them.)
p.s.: This is why I get really annoyed if someone rearrange my things. INTJ may feel the same.