Requirement: Because things are so higgledy-piggledy, my client couldn't find a particular file in amongst the godforsaken mess. When I showed her the 'Arrange by Kind' option, she hated how "...inflexible and un-Mac-like" it was. So I needed a one time way to arrange the files in some order (so she could find what she needed), and then go back to letting her move them about without constraint.
Solution: You may think: "Oh, just choose 'Arrange by Kind' then 'Arrange by None,' and things will be fine." No, they won't -- when you do, the icons will go straight back to their original disorganized state when you do. The trick is to arrange by kind, then by grid, then by none. So here's how to do it.
In 10.4.x, go to the Desktop and press Command-J, tick the box next to 'Keep arranged by,' and choose your method. Then tick the box next to 'Snap to Grid' ('Keep arranged by' will automatically untick), then finally untick 'Snap to Grid.' In 10.5.x, go to the Desktop and press Command-J, pick one option (other than 'None') from the 'Arrange by' pop-up menu, then choose 'Snap to Grid,' and finally set the 'Arrange by' pop-up to 'None'. Using these methods in 10.4 and 10.5, the icons will stay in their newly-arranged order, but they will be freely movable again.
A word of warning. If you subsequently choose an 'Arrange by' option (in either 10.4.x or 10.5.x) then unset arranging without going through 'Snap to Grid,' the icons will fly back to their original manic positions. Let me just end by saying there's really no substitute for a tidy desktop -- not just because your Mac will run faster (to an extent), but if you organize your files sensibly, you'll run faster.

