What Do You Do That Is Weirdly OCD?

[Dixie]

I can't change 'em
I can't fix 'em
But damn, I sure can pick 'em
I'm just picking up trash and callin' it treasure

[speeder]

My dad was seriously OCD and what people call, "a neat freak." His shoes in the closet were all lined up neatly and he had a virtual pharmacy in one closet with back-ups of nearly everything you use in the bathroom...Q-tips/toothbrushes/toothpaste/various ointments/dry skin lotion/you name it.

His car was always so clean that it was what we now call "detailed." He wore custom made suits and shirts that cost a fortune. He had a cleaning lady who came twice a week and ironed his Sea Island cotton pajamas. And on and on...you get the picture. His last job was being a judge in Minneapolis, (where he lived his whole life), it suited his personality in many ways but particularly being able to control everything and everyone in his courtroom. He was a bit of a control freak as well. I did not envy him.

I'm legions below him on the scale of OCD but still have my quirks. I have lots of automotive and other tools and I have to know where everything is at all times. It's just really important to be able to grab what you need when you need it. I'm also an extreme creature of habit and share the obsession with keys. I don't carry a wallet but have it in the door pocket of my car. I can't stand having things in my pockets, so I have a huge carabiner with all of my keys on it that goes everywhere with me and only have the key or fob to the car I'm driving in my pocket. I carry a credit card and a debit card plus a small amount of cash in my RH front pocket and one key or fob in my left.

I don't wear jewelry other than a Timex watch. I don't fault or judge others for their habits, (generally), but I know myself well and always have. I know what's not for me. I've never had to worry about pick pockets because I never have anything in my back pockets except my iPhone when moving from vehicle to building. I always take my phone and keys with me when I step out of the car, even to pump gas. Actually, especially to pump gas. There are few places better to steal a car than a gas station when someone is pumping the fuel or inside for a minute in the store. If you left your phone in the car, HTF are you going to call 911? I think about these things.

[oldE]

Compared to a lot of you guys, I am an Fn slob.
However, leaving the house, my phone, wallet, keys, handkerchief and little Swiss army knife are always in their proper places. When I first retired, I left my wallet at home a couple of times. Never again.
The knives have to be in their 'proper ' places in the rack. The three way switches should be in their 'proper ' orientation.
One weird thing: I count. Coffee for two takes 35 turns of the handle of our cast iron burr grinder. It doesn't matter, as the beans were measured. A count of 12 seconds puts the right amount of water into the kettle for morning coffee. Yes, there are volume markers on the side, but that's the way I do it. When we are loading hay, my wife freaked out one summer when the bale counter died. It never bothered me, as I always knew how many bales were on the wagon at any time.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

My dad's father always organized the paper money in his wallet by value. .

Doesn't everyone do that?

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Edit: Ok, one more. He also did not keep coin change in his cars, his T-Birds were immaculate, so nor do I, which makes either the clerk or the donation jar happy.

I used to throw away pennies when received as change (this was before penny dishes were common). My wife got mad. So now I just leave every penny in the dish.

[wdfifteen]

My ex-wife was episodically OCD. She could be a complete slob, and then get something in her head and be obsessed by it. Often it was cleaning the baseboards in the kitchen and bathrooms. She would scrub them until her fingers bled. Then completely forget about it for a month or so.

This is one of my worst memories, but this thread brought it up. When my dog Abbey was dying of a brain tumor, she was in terrible pain. I came home from the office one afternoon to hear the dog crying in pain in her crate. My wife was sitting on the floor not ten feet from her, sorting her nail polish (she must have had 50 bottles of it). She was totally oblivious to the dog's suffering. The next morning, I took Abbey to the vet to end her suffering. When I got home, my wife was still sorting nail polish, and asked where I had been.

[Flat Six]

Yup, I keep bills in my money clip (front left pocket, always) oriented in the same direction and sorted by denomination (smallest value up front).

Large bills go in my wallet (rear left pocket, always) oriented in the same direction.

And I hate wrinkled, crumpled, overly-folded bills. TMI, but on occasion in my past I used a steam iron to flatten the most ugly bills. Of course, once I started on the worst offenders I had to iron all of them. Don't do that much anymore.

Playing card games at the casino (blackjack, 3- or 4-card poker, pai gow, etc.), I don't touch my cards until all the dealing is done. Using my right hand only, I straighten the pile of cards I've been dealt then tap the stack 3 times with the right index finger. I peel off the top card (still face down) and slip it under the stack to pick up all the cards at once to look at them. Don't know if this is OCD or gambler's superstition. I always looked at this as, well, quirky but now that I see it in writing it feels much higher on the weirdness scale . . . .

[LWJ]

When I had a 911SC in the garage, I used to walk into the house from the garage and would always tap the front fender three times as I walked past. Never done that before or after. Odd.

[KFC911]

I can't stop checking in ... then posting random nonsense on an obscure web site full of bots

Some of y'all will think that's perfectly normal

I don't know what clocking a torx is all about, but faceplate screws must be straight up & down if installed properly. Some that aren't ... I just have to fix ... but not ALL of them ... that'd be OCD!

[turn9]

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Nothing weird. I have developed an almost manic need to have a place for everything. Too much of my time is spent looking for things. My wife is more like, "Sure there is a place for everything, and everything is someplace." Drives me nuts.

That's a good one. Funny as hell.

AFA OCD, I used to...

...used to wash under the wheel wells and backside of rims if you could see through on every car wash. I did the engine the same way. Top to bottom. Interiors were like showroom new.

You just can't do that as you get older. I saw that classic Mercedes 280 SE coupe maybe mentioned here and I thought, "I could do that."

link




Not anymore.

[Paul T]

Interesting thread, got me thinking….I’m a pretty neat person, especially in the garage and my office, but I don’t think anything that gets to OCD level (I’ll ask my wife if she agrees..), but one thing came to mind - I’m big on having consumable items “in stock” around the house. I have an entire cabinet full of different lightbulbs, filters for various appliances, etc. I’ve always been this way - if I go to replace some consumable thing that has worn out, I just buy a couple years worth and pack them away so I know I’ll have it on hand next time I need it.

[ted]

Originally Posted by turn9

agree, always index screw heads on face plates.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by turn9

I hope you stopped payment on the check to the electrician until he replaced the screw on the top left (slot is grossly off-center) and the screw next to it (slot is not perpendicular)

Other than that, it'll do.

[Brian 162]

Originally Posted by 70SATMan

Years of traveling for work made me compulsive about personal belongings in the hotel room before I check out. I’ll literally make the rounds three or four times while packing yet, I open the hotel door, wedge it open with luggage and then have to make one more final round before I can leave the room. Even looking in spaces and drawers that I never use and know that I hadn’t used.

Can’t stop myself from doing it, even when traveling on an overnight stop for pleasure.

Other than that, nada.

I do that as well, when we go on vacation I turn the water off in the house, unplug the water heater and turn the water softener off. I check all 3 at least 3 times before leaving the house.
I also count stairs, an old habit from when we replaced commercial water heaters/boilers and had to lug them up and down stairs

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Edit: Ok, one more. My dad's father always organized the paper money in his wallet by value. I can remember eating with hm at a diner in Castro Valley and I watched him do it: I may have been 10.

I thought it was cool, so I do it, have since my first wallet.

Edit: Ok, one more. He also did not keep coin change in his cars, his T-Birds were immaculate, so nor do I, which makes either the clerk or the donation jar happy.

If I have cash whether it's carried, in a drawer, or whatever, it's all in order and faced. Small bills on top to larger bills on the bottom, all with the front up and right side up.

Change? I think there was a time that I kept change in a car, but that was decades ago. These days, all change goes into a jar. Eventually I'll go through it and then cash it in.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by KFC911

I can't stop checking in ... then posting random nonsense on an obscure web site full of bots

Some of y'all will think that's perfectly normal

I don't know what clocking a torx is all about, but faceplate screws must be straight up & down if installed properly. Some that aren't ... I just have to fix ... but not ALL of them ... that'd be OCD!

I don't care as long as they are either vertical or horizontal and all the same, but yeah, they should be lined up. Maybe I should start putting them all at a 45. That would be "edgy", LOL!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

My wife is more like, "Sure there is a place for everything, and everything is someplace." Drives me nuts.

I do put certain things in specific places. My wallet, keys, and pocket knife are always in the same place if I'm not carrying them. My phone is generally with me.

I swear, my wife never seems to put her stuff (keys, phone, etc...) in the same place twice, so I'm always being asked to help her find stuff, and it's almost never hard to find which is the benefit of being in a relatively small home.

[A930Rocket]

Washing my hands.

Do not step on a crack (break your mamas back)

When I go into a store to buy something, I pat my left front pocket to check for my phone, as I keep my credit card and drivers license on the back of it. I don’t want to shop, get to the register and not have my CC.

Keys in the same place when I come home, so when I leave, they are there.

I don’t carry a wallet anymore, but I used to keep the bills facing the same way and smallest denomination to largest.

When I leave the house/hotel, I check the door is locked, by pushing and pulling it several times

When I’m leaving the driveway, I’ll look in the rearview mirror to make sure the garage door is down, then the side mirror, then the rearview mirror again as I get a little bit down the street. Sometimes I’ll check on Blink, to make sure the garage door is closed.

All tools in the correct drawer and specific location, in toolbox where they belong.

I like to think I’m not OCD, but thorough. 🤪

[look 171]

Rattles in my car. Drives me fooking nuts. I will tear everything out to get after it. If anything loose in the back of my 4 runner, I have to pin it against something or tie it down on trips longer then a couple miles.

My mirrors. If they are just slightly out of place, I have to get it perfectly right, exactly where I always have them on all my cars.

When I was a kid, I purposely step on every expansion joints on the sidewalk with one foot then the other. If I miss one, it would drive me nuts and found myself having to go back and jsut to step on it. I out grew that by about high school.

Gaps. Gaps on anything must be even. You know what I do for a living, so my men know when they see me with a stick on hand. They don't complain anymore because now, everything is done to my standards. Clients seem to like it.