Skip to main content

O: OCD #AtoZChallenge


I did not realize that I had OCD until someone pointed it out to me years ago. I liked doing things in a particular way and I thought everyone was like that too. Turns out, I was wrong. Some people are okay with the way things around them are placed and they don't care two hoots about it. But I am different. I like things arranged in a particular fashion and when that changes it troubles me. Some times so much that I leave all the other work and sit down to set the arrangement right. Hey, it is important to me. As far as I know I keep my OCD to myself and do not try to impose it on others. I do all the OCDish tasks myself as I know only I can do it the way I want it to be done. My husband was aware of this streak in me while we were dating, but he found out the extent of it only after we were married!

I'm listing a few things here that I'm very particular about.

~ Monday's are very important to me. I wear only white to work on Mondays as I need a clean start to the week. Also, I change the wallpaper on my laptop and on my phone every Monday.

~ I spend the first five minutes of my work day cleaning my laptop with a fresh tissue. Only when I'm satisfied that it is neat enough I begin work. I have seen some of my colleagues laptops where the screen is hardly visible thanks to the layer of dust and grime on them. No matter what happens I'd never touch their systems.

~ The desktop of my laptop should be clean and have no more than three columns of icons. Yes, I have a folder called 'Desktop' on my desktop that holds a lot of hardly used icons and files.

~ The folders and files on my laptop have to be neatly arranged. I do not like too long file names or folder names. I do not like to use abbreviations on file/folder names as well. I name them in a particular format starting with a capital letter. If anybody tried to change this then they'd lose their fingers.

~ Since we subscribe to two newspapers at home, I have a particular order of reading them. A hot cup of green tea is my only company as I sit at my spot on the couch to read. This spot is very important to me as it is the perfect distance from the table at which my cup is placed and right in front of the balcony that gives me natural light to read. Plus, the rest of the couch is free to hold the other news papers that I would read later, in an order.

~ The clothes in my cupboard have to be arranged in a particular way. First based on formal and casual, then based on the color and then based on the frequency at which I would wear them. After that they are arranged based on sleeve length and pattern. I know it sounds very tedious, but I have a perfect algorithm in my head for this and I can get it done under twenty minutes.

~ The hangers have to be arranged according to color and they all need to be pointed in the same direction. Mis-matched hangers are an eye sore.

~ My shoes have to be arranged neatly according to color and all need to be pointed in the same direction. This helps me take one look and pick the one I want to wear. I always match my shoes with my top. Or my shoes with my bag. No over matching for me.

~ My watch box is over flowing but I'm not complaining as I need to have at least one watch to match my clothes or at least go with it without clashing. Since they are really expensive I repeat my watches often and buy clothes that I know will go with them.

~ I do not like giving my clothes to the istriwaala for ironing. Piled up ironed clothes give me a head ache. I need to wear freshly ironed clothes that are still warm. I iron my clothes everyday just before a shower and re-do the entire process in case I find a tiny wrinkle.

~ Doing my make up is a ritual to me. It is done in a particular order and I never mess with the steps. Especially with my eye make up. It is always brows first, followed by kajal, kohl, mascara and eye liner.

~ Clothes drying on the clothes line should have the clips according to their color. First the set of green and then the set of pink and so on. Just like hangers, mis-matched clips hurt my eye.

~ I'm very particular about nail paint. The nail paint has to be the same on the toes as well as my fingers. When I see people with different color nail paint on their toes and fingers, I'm so tempted to send them to the nearest parlor. I also redo my nails every time it gets chipped. Even if the chip is only on one finger, I redo all of them. Redoing just one leaves a totally different color on one nail when compared to the others.

~ I change my wallet at the start of every month. Money from the new salary always goes into a fresh wallet.

~ I always pack the luggage while we're travelling. I have a particular order and format of doing it. I have my own tips and tricks while it comes to packing and I know exactly which side of the bag to open when I need a particular thing.

~ Fridge magnets. They need to be arranged in a way that the same color is not concentrated in one area.

~ Books. I arrange them according to genre first, then according to author and then according to size. Mess this up and you're dead to me. Thankfully the kindle sorts the books on its own.

~ The charge on my phone should never go below 60%. I have incessant phone charging syndrome.

~ I absolutely loathe unread notifications. Every part of my body itches when I see unread mails or notifications. No matter how long it takes I sit down to mark them as read. I read them if I have the time else I just mark them as read and come back to read them later.

These are a few of my quirks when it comes to OCD. I know you all might have at least some of them, so please do share it with me.

Also, don't you think OCD should be called CDO to have all the letters in the right order?

Comments

  1. i for some reason, loved reading this post. I don't have an OCD as big as you do but there are small things that irk me. I like things in to be kept from the place they are taken and I like my newspapers folded the way they had come home and stuff

    ReplyDelete
  2. My God! The list of quirks has got my head reeling. I am the exact opposite. I like things to be neat and orderly, but I do not mind a few mismatches. I do have to put things in a particular order as I forget where I put them. I recall my algorithm and I can find my stuff. We all have a bit of OCD I feel. The last line was perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow!!I mean really WOW!! you sound like Sheldon Cooper :P
    You will never be able to survive with me :P

    A Whimsical Medley
    Twinkle Eyed Traveller

    ReplyDelete
  4. Have you read the books in the "Camel Club" series by David Baldacci? There's a guy in there who has an OCD. It is pretty scary, because he has this obsession of keeping things at ninety degree angles from each other! After you read the books, you wouldn't want to consider yourself as a person with OCD, it's so scary! :O

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think I'm a little scared after reading this post!

    My ocd is more absent minded. I don't even realize I need certain things a certain way unless someone messes something up. I lose my shit then! Like the coffee table needs to be at a certain distance from the line between two tiles.

    While I do have a lot of these quirks, my laziness often conflicts with my ocd. It's a war really; one or the other wins 😆

    ReplyDelete
  6. Buhahahaha! Ok! So I knew about some of them - and you have company with some others too. In short you sound like the child of a 'Sheldon Cooper' married 'Monica Geller' scenario.
    But we still love you 😉😉😉

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hahaha.. I liked the CDO arrangement you spoke about. Cool, No but we cannot change it :) ;)

    Some people (including me) have this. I guess almost all of us have it. I had rather strange OCD which I tried getting rid of recently. But ordering things and stuff is way of life;I may not call it OCD. People like things arranged in a particular fashion. Keep sorder and looks neat when others see it.

    About dirty laptops, yea, in the office I would hesitate to touch unless it was really unavoidable. Oily keys...yuck!!!

    For some reason. I agree with Monica Gellar when she cleans her vaccuum cleaner with another one :P

    ReplyDelete
  8. Simply wow!!! But I would call you a perfectionist. Clinical OCD is a brain disorder and very scary.I personally know someone who is related to me who is diagonized to have OCD (of water). She goes days together without showering to save water.No guests are allowed to stay over coz it wud waste water.She has been even found to pee in the garden since water would be wasted flushing in the toilet.Gross as it may sound …its actually very sad that she is in this condition.

    ReplyDelete
  9. WOW! WOW!! You beat me hands down, Soumya! And I thought nobody could match my OCD. But that's for cleanliness. I am with you on mismatched hangers and desktop on laptop, I have only 2 rows and I have a Desktop folder which has sundry files. Impressed with your clothes line clips according to their color and clothes arrangement! Charan kahan hai aapke, Maate!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I also clean my laptop for a good 5 minutes as soon as I reach work. Can't see a spec of dust on it also.
    Buying a new wallet every month? Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think I have OCD too.I like doing things a particular way and I hate it when someone messes it up. Gosh how I hate it when people don't keep back the things in the right places after they burrowed it from me.
    I loved reading this post. I could see a few things about myself in the post.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This was a fun read. I don't know if I have OCD but I do like doing some things in a particular way. Sometimes because it is visually pleasing; sometimes because it just seems to be the logical way to do it.
    - I don't like any icons on my desktop. None. Looks messy. My folks have dozens of icons on their desktop and it makes me crazy. I have a few down on the taskbar. Everything else is in the Start menu and I look them up as needed.
    - I arrange my clothes by color and that's about it, although I do have many of them on matching plastic hangers - blue shirt on blue hanger, black shirt on black hanger, etc. I'm trying not to get to obsessive about this but I really like the way it looks.
    - Fridge magnets - NO. See desktop icons section above.
    - Ironing anything - NO unless extreme circumstances/special occasion.

    ReplyDelete
  13. You aren't serious. Are you?
    Oh man - I have never heard of something like this. I feel like the most messy, non OCD person ever ;)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Tiny? You call this tiny quirks!! Oops! I'm astounded! And I'm not coming anywhere near you :P

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Just like me, say what you feel. While constructive criticism is welcome, please keep it subtle and kind. Thank you!