I don’t have an engineering job, but I do have a hobby in electronics, which is pretty much the same thing (most of the stuff I make is entirely designed by myself, so that is engineering) and my work area is kind of messy. Well, more than “kind of”, including a pile of guts removed from various electronics in one corner of the room (better just putting it into a pile and not a box, though I have boxes and drawers to hold parts that I removed beforehand; when I buy parts, i just leave them in their original bags). I also do programming, but my computer desk has nothing on it that isn’t part of the computer (my computer desktop itself has only a few frequently used programs on it, and in programs, I make them neat and easy to read), so in that way I am the opposite. Of course, with electronics you have physical objects while programming is just a bunch of bits on a computer.
And in my mail today is this link to a slideshow of messy engineering desks. There is also a link to an older slideshow. We are not alone!
One of my closest friends and frequent partner on projects is an EE like me; he has a drawer with the printed label “LABEL MAKER”, which–logically enough–contains his prized label printer. This is completely typical of his approach. Everything is sorted and labelled.
I’m more clean-but-cluttered. I have piles of things, but not dirt, and I mostly know which things are in which pile. I’m making an effort to sort things better, both to make it easier for other people to find things and to make more efficient use of space. (Over the past few months I’ve managed to compress two garage spaces full of costumes and props into one. With help from my OCD buddy.) I will admit to a cavalier disregard for dusting.
Hey, me too! Specifically, I have a blue t-shirt that says, “All of my other t-shirts are black.” 
(I’m not actually completely clueless about such things. I’ve got a decent eye for color and style. I just don’t care to apply it to my own wardrobe.)
cripes, are you me?
I think it’s because engineers are trained to go beyond the surface level and understand how things work, they care more about how things perform than how they appear. With fashion, as long as it’s comfortable and covers all the socially appropriate areas, it fulfills all the specifications. Similarly, a messy room can be perfectly functional, even if it’s aesthetically unpleasing.
I also think engineers tend to be more bimodal. I’ve found the engineers who are foodies tend to be excellent cooks as they’ll analyze and optimize each part of a dish. The engineers who are not foodies try and figure out how to pack the maximum amount of required nutrition into the minimum amount of cost, effort & fuss, regardless of taste and come up with horrific amalgams of rice, beans and eggs that they eat every day.
No, he can’t be because he’s me.
Except I can’t get by with just jeans and a T-shirt anymore. I’ve been relocated to a cold cubicle and now I have to wear thermal underwear and heavy sweatshirts.
I am getting a little tidier in my old age, though. I only had to move one pile of paper to get to the other keyboard to type this. At home, I also have the urge to be a little more organized, simply because I get tired to wasting time looking for things. Notice, I said I have the urge. I haven’t done anything about it yet.
I do, and it’s exactly true. I lay awake at night sometimes. I don’t want to be guitly of a (to use Frank Borman’s words in regard to Apollo 1) “a failure of the imagination”.
That’s one reason that I don’t worry too much about whether or not the laundry is folded and put away or whether or not my desk is neat. That external tidiness does nothing to help me organize my thoughts.