A little OCD in many of us?

[finnmom]

Hi Paul the songwriter, my dad is quite much like your mom was. Auction´s are his passion....I dont even like to think about getting rid of all the junk he has got together. I´ve seen in my imaginary eye´s tima when I´ll get that big junkbox to get it all out, but it´s his house....

Ralph; I also find it very exhausting that EVERYBODY else is making the mess in my perfect order I cant stand it Oh why, oh why, oh why did I ever get married and had kid´s....Propably because live in my neat apartment would have been little too perfect to be true ;D

[SKay]

I've mentioned these two in other threads, but I have my spices alphabetized, and my draws and cupboards are fairly neat, but countertops etc. ARE NOT. If I weren't so indecisive, I would be a neat freak. I have the most problem dealing with papers.

I used to stack my silverware neatly in the drawer too--until I got married and had kids.

My kitchen storage containers are stacked neatly nested inside each other--with their lids. (I hate trying to find a lid to fit a container.) My pans are stacked according to shape and size.

When I clean the bathroom, I clean the inside of the stool first, rinse the brush in the sink, clean the sink, then clean the seat and then other parts of the stool. I can't stand the thought of cleaning the sink after having the icky stuff from the stool on the rag; that's why the order. (Shower is cleaned by daily shower cleaner.)

[Linda]

I can not go to bed at night with a sink full of dirty dishes...no no no...makes me nuts!!

[rosyred45]

Alright Linda, how much do you charge?

And my sister thinks she is going to get a dumpster when mom bites the big one so she can toss it all out.

I DON"T THINK SO>>>>>>PAUL I"LL SAVE YOU>>>>I AM A PACK RAT TOO ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[songwriter]

I knew I couldnt be the only one,Kaiti-
thank you, thank you , thank you!

(by the way, we had to get the largest size roll-off container possible when Mom died and we still filled and emptied it 3 times, not to mention several pick-up loads to the dump) And still her estate auction boasted 23 wagons full!

[rosyred45]

OMG I couldn't imagine that much stuff. Although we live in a 3 story (4 counting th ebasement) older brick house. OK, I could imagine that much stuff

[SKay]

Linda can't go to bed at night with dirty dishes in the sink? I guess I'm the same way: that's why I have so much trouble sleeping at night.

[Linda]

I hear ya girl ;D

[rosyred45]

I sleep just fine thank you It gives me something to do while I'm waiting for my coffee to finish dripping

But then again, when I do get the rare ambition to do the dishes before I go to bed, I always know there will be more to come down to since Mikey wakes up and eats a bowl of cereal as soo as he wakes up.

Then he has another bowl around 8 then another about 9:30, I swear he just poops it out like that

[mskris]

well, I'd love to be cleanliness-obsessed, but it just isn't practical in a house with 4 others and one with adhd.

I hate clutter, but am learning to live with a moderate amount. I hired a cleaning service, so at least once every other week things are picked up so they can do their job.

Bathrooms and kitchens have to be clean, but I put up with a little clutter. Hate everything on the floor, but somehow, my children have decided that's the home for every item they possess, whether clean or dirty doesn't matter.

I've tried threats, bribes, rewards, etc. with no success. If I let it make me crazy, then I'm just depressed at losing my temper with them all. Every now and then I blow up and say, "Why am I working my butt off to have a nice home when all you do is trash it?" but it gets me nowhere. Even when I was home over the summer, I could only keep control of my own stuff (oh, yea, and the baby's cuz she's too young to make much of a mess - YET). There comes a time when I have to say would I rather have a neat home or a happy family??

If you have any ideas, let me know. I've tried everything, including organization systems, throwing stuff out when they're not looking, having a "something comes in, something has to go out" rule, etc. and again, the only stuff I can control is my own.

Kris

[rosyred45]

No new ideas from me, BUT I am happy to announce that for the entire summer and since I have not had a bunch of JUNK under my dining room table.

That is where the kids designated the drop zone, why I have no idea, probably because I had the top of the table

[HooDunnit]

Regarding Anne's question: "Ah ha !! ... So looking at the last two postings by Dad2Brooke and Songwriter ... the question begs just what IS a compulsion or an obsession? Is it Ralph with everything well-ordered and organised and everything "in its place" or is it Songwriter's Mother who was buying everything she could and then finding she had nowhere to put it... ?"

From what I have read, Ralph is a perfectionist and Songwriter's mother was OCD. Both conditions are about control, and are both unusual in a sense, but Ralph's behavior is adaptive, whereas there is something kind of desperate about Songwriter's mother's behavior. Ralph does get on top of things, very powerfully, but the true OCD is forever running and never catching up. They are often collectors and are often obsessed not with what they have, but with "the one that got away." They will brood for weeks or months on something that escaped them. They will torture themselves mentally about how that disaster could have been avoided, if only their strategy had been different.

[eaccae]

Paul! AHDH pack rat coming out of the closet!!!! My Ralph like sister is visiting and she is cleaning my house! She wants to know why I have so much stuff? And I just threw half of it out! Of which I threw more than half out last year when we rented a dumpster (and filled it within a couple of days)!

I grew up in Rochester, NY - home to the Strong Memorial museum - a wonderful museum dedicated to a pack rat with money! They rotate collections - everything from beautiful pottery, to exquisite dollhouses - my goodness - you name it, it's in there! Because one very rich woman was just like Paul's mom!!! They said that when she died they could barely move in her house - everything was piled everywhere! But God bless her!!!

[rosyred45]

So that's what I live in, a muesum in the works