When saving files to Desktop on Mac OS X (Lion), why are they placed in an erratic order? This is really bugging me on Mac OS X (Lion): 

When I save files to the Desktop (for example downloads from Web browsers, etc. -- which in my workflow happens a lot), they are placed in a seemingly erratic order: sometimes at the bottom left of existing icons, sometimes in between existing icons, etc.

I'm often having a really hard time finding the files I just saved. Seems to be the behavior in Windows is more consistent and predictable.

Is there any way to improve this behavior, more precisely, to specify that the files be placed in e.g. a left-to-right, top-to-bottom order?
This is normal behavior when the desktop has no particular order or arrangement specified.

Try going to the Finder and setting a "Sort By" option.


Go to the Finder and click on the desktop.
Click View > Sort By from the menu bar 
Then try selecting an option other than "None" with in the "Sort By" Menu.