When I was but a wee lass, I rearranged my mother’s entire library by book color, Roy G. Biv-style. She was not impressed. A few years later, I took it upon myself to overhaul her kitchen cupboards. It was reckless behavior, but I couldn’t help myself:
“I have always been a woman who arranges things
For the pleasure and the profit it derives
I have always been a woman who arranges things
Like furniture and daffodils and lives”
- “I Put My Hand In There”, Hello Dolly!
By the time I hit adolescence, I was sorting pens by ink color and nib width, hanging my shirts according to length, sleeve length, and degree of formality. I longed for file folders, silverware sorters, baskets, shelves, cubbyholes… Order and organization fascinated me.
Ten years later, I still enjoy putting away laundry, groceries, and clean dishes. “A place for everything and everything in its place” is my idea of erotic poetry. Ooh, goosebumps.
So you won’t surprised to hear that I keep a mental inventory of everything I own; how much toothpaste is left, when we’ll need more parsley flakes/rat food/dish soap. And not only do I use a day-planner, I use it to chart haircuts, toothbrush replacement, opening new contact lenses, and girly-times. Compulsive? Possibly, but it feels so right.
Scrubbing and mopping don’t speak to my soul; it’s the sorting I like, creating systems and weeding out excess. For me, scrubbing is the means to a neat, orderly, ecstatic end.
Boy, it’s a good thing cleanliness trips my trigger. Otherwise, I might be horribly depressed by the knowledge that the whole world LOATHES neat freaks and I can never live happily with another human being! Ha ha!
Ha!
~sniffle~
As I recall you arranged the books by color AND size. Very orderly mind.
The Whole World Loathes Neat Freaks?????
It is Neat Freaks that Save the World from being buried in it’s own squalor!
It was Neat Freaks who invented “cross at the crosswalk”, “refrigerate after opening”, “close cover before striking”, and “remove key from ignition before locking car”.
Neat Freaks everywhere-feel free to neaten whatever needs it. It’s your gift to humanity.
[Reply]
ehhh, I don’t know that we exactly “loathe” neat-freaks – just find them a bit annoying at times. But I would far rather deal with a compulsive organizer than a compulsive litterbug/messy-pup! u just gotta strike a balance and know when to take a deep breath and let something go – and that goes for BOTH sides!
Now, here’s an interesting situation for you to rumenate over: I used to be _terribly_ OCD about many many things… (umm, okay well I guess i’m still a compulsive counter and pattern-finder, but typically I can do that without bothering other people, or them even knowing!) things had to be organized by size, color, hung up “just so”, etc. I even went so far as to mark my white socks with letters at the cuff (A,A, B,B, etc) so I could match them up after they came out of the wash, not just with another identical white sock, but with the EXACT SAME sock that it had been last worn with and hopefully would remain its partner until they both fell apart and were past use…
yes I was excessive. Plates had to be a certain distance from the edge of the counter or table, and all the same, etc, etc. HOWEVER I find as I age these things have become increasingly less important to me… socks now no longer matter just so long as there’s two of them (gasp!) underwear can be washed in the same load as jeans and shirts perfectly well, and so long as they’re all in a findable place, i have come to discover that most things really don’t require order, organization, or even a designated resting place…
So what happened? I’m not altogether sure, but I attribute it to the general phenomenon of, like so much else, realizing as I get older that much of the stuff I thought was sooo important, well, just isn’t. Or at least not worth getting stressed over.
So for those around you who may find your neat-freakishness a bit much, tell them to hang in there – there’s hope! And in the meantime… ehhh, flip ‘em the birdie and tell em where to go. lol. As your mum pointed out, we all probably owe neat-freaks much of what we enjoy in our daily lives!
[Reply]
I was once told by my German landlady after cleaning up my rental apartment (as in q-tips in cracks and washing the tops of doors and under picture frames), that I cleaned better than a German housewife. Realizing that I would never again reach this absolute pinnacle of polishing, plumping (pillows) and prissing praise, I have collapsed to levels of merely moderate and occasional tidiness. Ah, but I had my moment of shining glory!
[Reply]
Sierra-my mom was thrilled when they came out with those colored ball point tube paints for crafts. She promptly used hers to put colored identifying marks on all my dad’s and brother’s identical white tube socks, to keep them permanently paired. She marked them on the underneath side of the toe so it didn’t show. I thought she was the only person on the planet who did this ; )
[Reply]
I’ve always been really impressed and somewhat envious of people who can organize stuff so neatly and precisely. I’ve always admired individual, lovingly decorated binders for each class, or a special box for writing tools, an immaculate schedule book with assignment due dates etc. but I just can’t do it. I’ve attempted numerous times to be more organized but I can never stick with even the slightest form of orderliness for more than a week. My assignments throughout college were always wrinkled when I handed them in, for lack of a folder. My notes for every class were randomly mixed with each other on looseleaf paper in my backpack, undated and out of order for even the same lecture. And illegible at any rate.
But I guess as time passes you stop trying to change yourself and get used to your own personality quirks. I managed to graduate, after all, so something must be working.
[Reply]
mum – Size! Of course! These days, I sort books by TOPIC and size…. which is probably how you had YOURS organized before I came along. Eep!
Neat Freaks everywhere are lucky to have your respect and moral support.
Sierra – VERY interesting! A lot of people seek therapy for the degree of compulsion you describe, but yours faded away. Hmm!
I was more compulsive back when I had more time/ fewer responsibilities… reality throws a wrench in a girl’s obsessive hobbies, no? I’m ALWAYS behind in cleaning and sorting now. It rankles my soul, but I haven’t died yet. =)
Andrew – Damn, that’s high praise indeed! But when you know family will trash the house before sundown, it’s hard to stay excited about polishing doorknobs.
mum – Sierra and Grandma have BOTH outdone me. Looks like I’m downright flippant when it comes to sock-mating.
Pravit – That’s just what I was about to say— you didn’t have to color-coded your class notebooks to learn and move on with your life. For some of us, sorting and tidying is a hobby, just like soccer or chess. You have other hobbies. =)
[Reply]
Rebekah’s mum – that’s funny. I’d never heard of anyone else who did that with the socks either – I used those permanent fabric markers, wonderful things! That’s cool, now I can say I know of at least one other person as obsessive at me!
Rebekah – yes, being busy most definately DOES get in the way of perpetual cleaning and tidying. One can only worry about so many things in a day…
[Reply]
If I were going to be OCD, I would pick the counting kind. Less work.
[Reply]
Sierra – If you’re ever feeling compulsive and raising kids simultaneously, I’ve heard of using fabric marker dots or x’s to mark children’s clothes: Put one X in the biggest kid’s shirts/socks, add more x’s as the garment gets handed down. Should work nicely if one had a flock of similar-sized children who all wore similar clothes.
Jen – Good call! If I were OCD, I’d be the kind who… uh… cleans medicine cabinets for fun. Aaaaand we’ve come full circle.
[Reply]
good suggestion Rebekah, but unfortunately from all I’ve seen and heard, raising kids never works out quite that easily and simply. My sister, for instance, could very rarely use hand-me-downs from me, even (or especially!) as an infant, she was always bigger. My mom had to buy almost all new baby-stuff for her. (and yes it’s very annoying when your “little” sister borrows your clothes and you get them back all torn at the seams cuz they were too small but she was determined to wear them anyways. Not that I’m bitter or anything… LoL)
No it’s ok, these days I am resigned to simply counting and/or finding the symmetry or repeating patterns in everything. Very unobtrusive and makes sitting around in waiting rooms significantly more entertaining! LoL
[Reply]
Rebekah Reply:
December 17th, 2009 at 9:35 AM
Sierra – hand-me-downs were pretty straightforward in my clan, which is how I ended up in menswear for so many years. =)
Now THERE’S an upside no one ever mentions; compulsive folks have no trouble entertaining themselves! I like it that your habits don’t interfere with other people’s lives… … unlike like the time my old roommate caught me cleaning HER retainer. Hey, SOMEONE had to do it, I couldn’t BELIEVE she’d put that filthy thing in her mouth. Control issues, hmmmm?
[Reply]