MrZ is taking the day off to get started on some of the home improvement projects he was looking to get done this summer. I called him to check on how things were going and he informed me that every inch of the equipment in the storage bin in the screened-in-porch was covered in mouse poop. So, since the first step was going to be to trash the bin, he had to clean out all of the crap first. Literally. He opted to throw a lot of the stuff away, which I think was a good call since I can’t even recall what was in that bin to begin with.
And we’ve only lived in the house a year. Imagine how bad it would have been in two or three years. Yep, I think that’s a good rule to live by, if you can’t even remember what is in a storage unit? Chances are you don’t need it. And if it’s covered in rat poop? Definitely trash.
How is it that I can be so incredibly anal about some things around my house, but not with others? I can’t stand if there is anything just sitting on the island in my kitchen. I obsess over cleaned off countertops. I don’t even like keeping appliances out on my counters, and I only leave the ones there that we use daily, like the coffee-maker and microwave. If you leave something on a counter? Give it less than an hour before I’ve snuck up and moved it. And I scrub them incessantly.
But - I have no problems with letting rats crap on all of the toys in the storage big outside. Toys my kids might play with. I also don’t care about shower mildew or dust on shelves I can’t see. But the DVDs must be alphabatized, the toothpaste lid must be clean, and the TiVo must be organized.
What are you anal about? And how pissed would you be if I moved your stuff everytime you laid it on the counter? Because that drives MrZ crazy.
SInce having the baby I have become a lot less anal about things. All my towels have to be folded the same way and I will refold them if you do it wrong. I also can’t stand for things to be left on our dining room table. You would drive me crazy always moving my stuff off of the counter!
I’m anal about the silverware drawer. There are regular forks and there are salad forks; there are teaspoons and there are soup spoons. These should all be in seperate compartments - I hate grabbing for a regular fork and ending up with a salad fork because my husband doesn’t care about the forks being separated so he doesn’t do it. Drives me crazy, but I hate to complain too much because he IS doing the dishes so I don’t have to. He should just learn how to put them away correctly.
It wouldn’t bother me if you moved my stuff off the counter as long as you told me where you moved it to. I like having a clean countertop, too.
My kids must be clean, and have clean clothes on with NO stains and their hair neatly combed. I will yell at papa if he messes up their hair. im a trip at family gatherings….you can hug them but dont mess their hair up.
OMG! I thought I was the only one with the countertop obsession! I have a twenty year old step-son that has been sponging off of us for the last 3 months since he left college and EVERYDAY he leaves a plastic tumbler on my sink counter! He claims it is for water, but good golly miss molly PUT IT IN THE SINK! Or wash it, dry it, put it away or pop it in the dishwasher. WHY WHY WHY does he not understand? I am thinking I need to throw the tumble at him and bonk him on the head with it so he will remember!! Sheesh!! And the sweaty workout clothes shoved behind the door in his room….oops I am going off on a tangent, time to go blog on my site!!
I am not anal about a lot because my house is a mess, but I hate when my mom comes over and washes my dishes because she always does it wrong. I am very anal about the way dishes should be washed, the way the dishwasher should be loaded and the way the dishes should be put up. I have to beg her to not wash my dishes when she comes over. What is wrong with me???
I am also anal about the way people change my son’s diapers. I hate when the ruffles (trim? whatever.) around the leg holes are tucked in. I never say anything about it though.
Ok, I am anal about a lot of things because I just thought of one more: I hate when people touch the garbage can (inside or ouside) and don’t wash their hands. I have a can with a pedal to open the lid and my sister insists on opening it with her hands. Drives me batty.
Oh yeah. And I will refold towels too if they are folded wrong. Are you blind? Do you not see the order in my linen closet? Either do it right or don’t touch.
I have to have my email inbox, my desktop and my blogroll neat and tidy. I like dishes loaded in the dishwasher a certain way, and my shirts hung up all facing the same direction. The rest of my house is a disaster.
Oh, and like jomama, I’m the same way about diapers. My kids are all grown but I work as a nanny, so it’s not even my child - but I still have to have the leg ruffles out.
I share the countertop obsession, and can’t understand why my husband gets angry when he can’t find his stuff that he’s left all over MY countertops! Jeez! Also, they must be clean, as well as the stupid smooth top stove that’s in our new house.
SInks should have no water drops in them…tootpaste should always be capped….mail should be sorted and dealth with the FIRST day…..and I sound like a totally anal beeyotch.
I do not dust. Nor do I make my bed. ever.
I have lots of problems
I’m a …
towel refolder (come on it’s not rocket science)
Dishwasher organizer (if you put the stuff in there RIGHT more stuff will fit)
Silverware drawer organizer (again, it’s not rocket science)
Crazy Coaster lady (I don’t like water rings on my tables!)
Now, don’t open my dresser drawer… something may pop out and there goes your right eye or under my bed… isn’t that why they have bed skirts… so you can use it as a “storage area”… aka the place you put stuff that you have no clue where it should go!
I did an entry about this a week or so ago. Only I didn’t say anal I said OCD.
I can’t tell you how many cups and glasses we go through in a day because I put them in the dishwasher if I see them sitting on the counter, no owner in sight.
At Christmas a couple of years ago I tried to put Santa’s cookies and milk away before I remembered what I was doing. It only took 15 times before it finally sank in that they needed to stay on the table that night.
I’m not anal about a single gosh-darn domestic thing. Y’all are crazy! Although I’m sure your houses are much cleaner than mine.
“And how pissed would you be if I moved your stuff everytime you laid it on the counter?”
As pissed as I am when my husband does it
He’s all about neatness, I’m all about cleanliness. I’ll pick stuff up and clean under it, and put it back down. In my husband’s mind, this is still a dirty area since things are out of place. You’d think our house would be spotless between us, but alas neither of us really have time to honor our neuroses.
I’m anal about things that nobody sees but me…like my linen closet and pantry. My house looks clean but casual and laid back, but if you open my linen closet you’ll see lables on the shelf.
Yes, lables.
Oh, jeeez. The toilet!! The kitchen!!
I have the same thing with the kitchen counters. But the state of the floors, eh they don’t bother me as much.
I am the same way with the kitchen countertops and any table - kitchen, dining room, coffee tables. When people come over and they leave their glass unattended on the counter or any table, by the time they get back from the bathroom or wherever, its most likely already in the dishwasher or washed by hand and put away. My husband can’t stand this.
I love having everything in its place, but I do leave a lot to be desired with actually cleaning my house. I can’t keep up with the dog hair!
I’m anal about even numbers of things. And everything being straight–I’m constantly straightening other people’s pictures on the wall because it drives me NUTS if they are off. Even by a little bit.
I was going to say I’m not anal about anything and damn proud of it but after reading your comments I realize that I am anal about the silverware drawer and the toilets.
I”m sure we are twins. I will wait until some things are so bad it is easier to hire someone to clean it. But the little things, the picking up and putting it back where you got it, the clean sink (no dishes ever, load asap in the dishwasher) and stuff like that, makes me fuhreakin’ nuts.
As for the rat poop, if it is outside, I can cope. But when we first moved out here in this pasture and disturbed the big family of rats that eventually found their way indoors. I was a spastic washing stuff and scrubbing stuff and cleaning crap, literally, off of everything. We finally called pest control people to get rid of the critters. We now just live with a farm of ants.
I’m rambling but I’m sure you are the sister I never had…the cloned one.
i can’t think of anything i’m anal about involving domesticness. hmm. we’re both slobs, so that’s nice. if i happen to think of something, i’ll swing back by.
I’m anal about:
1. Linen closet. Sheets and Towels need to be folded right.
2. Closet. From time to time I actually sort my T-Shirts by color.
3. Bathroom counter, sink, and tub. Men are too hairy for their own good (or for my good?).
4. Spelling. I can’t stand it when people mix up they’re and their and there, and it’s and its. And it’s not “I would of,” it’s “I would have.”
Otherwise, I’m okay (or in denial).
You guys make me want to clean my house, in a “I’m never actually going to” kind of way.
Miss Zoot, you can clean my counters if you want to. *bats eyes* I’ll make you a martini, and you can put everyhing away afterwords, with no complaints from me! *rattles ice in shaker temptingly*
how about i just tell you what i’m anal about in my kitchen . . . it will save us all some time:
~ totally agree with audrey about the silverware
~ also totally agree with sunshine about the towels (and this totally applies because i have kitchen towels)(also, i love the word ‘totally’
~ the only things that go in my dishwasher are plates and bowls (but not the baby’s plastic bowls), silverware that we use to eat with (but not serving ware or anything plastic), and glasses. i handwash anything that does not fall into any of those categories.
~ the top shelf of my refridgerator must be arranged, from right to left, milk, water, soda, juice . . .
~ when i owned a microwave (i have no space for one now), unless it was cooking something it had to display the time. if it was left with the remaining cooking time of whatever was last in there, i’d lose it
~ thank god my fiance knows how to close cabinets - otherwise that would be on the list. wait - he never closes his sock drawer and that drives me nuts, but that does not pertain to the kitchen and i’m not really sure it’s all that crazy of something to be anal about
~ my cabinets must be organized just so - and if you don’t know where something goes when you’re emptying my diswasher, please just leave it on the counter
~ despite all of this, i’m not a freak about my counters (though i don’t just let them sit around dirty either) and my floor has been mopped twice in the year i have lived here.
I need clean countertops, toilets, and mirrors. I vacuum almost everyday. I mop with bleach at least once a week and usually twice. I change the shower curtain liner a few times a year when it starts to get mildewy.
But, I despise cleaning kitty litter.
What am I anal about? Ditto on your post. You kinda wrote it all down for me. Thanks! Except shoes - shoes must be taken OFF immediately upon entry and left in our kitchen area. Except my husband has trouble with that one - he takes his shoes off, but leaves them scattered wherever he happened to be when he took them off.
I will admit that having a baby has made me less anal. In the beginning of the Toy Parade, I would pick the toys up during every nap and then again after he went to bed. Now, I just try to pick them every evening, if possible. If not possible? I don’t let it bother me as much as it did in the beginning
I have OCD, so my obsessions are a litte um…obsessive. But my main things are clean bathrooms and kitchens. I can’t prepare food if the kitchen is dirty, and I hate hate hate using other people’s showers, unless they’re spotless. At my house I’m a little more flexible though, because I KNOW the dirt (if that makes any sense).
The most asked queston in our house is “Where did you hide (insert name of object in queston) I hate clutter, but normally can;t find a place for it so I hide it.
I hear you on caring more about certain things than other. I am the same way
Oh hell to the yeah… this post is right up my anal alley *ahem*… that sounded naughty!
Anyway, I have to organize EVERYTHING. My CD’s are in alpha order, as are the DVD’s. Everything in the refrigerator has its “place” (not alpha order, but like condiments go with condiments; salad dressings are all in one place; certain foods go in certain bins or on a certain shelf). Ditto for my pantry. All the soups are in one row; tomato products in another; beans in another; etc.). And I have all the plates, pots, pans, etc. in specific order in their respective cabinets. Drives my hubby crazy because he’ll be making dinner or something and I’m following him around putting away all the ingredients he’s using (sometimes before he’s even done with them!).
Bathroom cabinets are all organized according to type of medicine or whatever (all cold medicines in one bin; all headache type stuff in one bin; all prescriptions in one bin). I haven’t gone so far as to label them, but I’m tempted to because hubby just grabs whatever he needs and puts it back willy nilly… DRIVES ME BAT SHIT!
Ummmmmm… I’m gonna stop now, cuz I’m sounding crazy. But I will leave you with this scary thought… I’M MUCH BETTER THAN I USED TO BE! At least I don’t freak out about the baby toys all over.
P.S. I agree about the countertops. Things can only sit out for a little while before I get al itchy and need to put it away!
P.P.S. Okay, I really AM a nice person, not a freak like this post makes me sound. I swear!
I’m anal about things being “organized” rather than “clean”. I’m okay if there’s some dirt, but I don’t want STUFF everywhere!