Confessional

I got a kick out of a lot of the emails I got, but mostly I got requests for me to post my own answers. So behold, the daily grind of an OCD mind:

On a typical day, the first chore I think about is_____making the bed___. I usually bypass this by __I don't bypass it, I do as soon as my feet touch the floor.__. I finally get to it immediately _. It takes me ___two blinks___ before I get into cleaning mode (which also involves organizing/arranging mode. The two are very different.). Normally I go at it with ___80___% motivation.

My top five priorities, regardless of whether or not I get to them, are, in no particular order:
1.___the kitchen, including dishes, sinks bleached, appliances wiped down, floor swept/Swiffed, garbage emptied, top of refrigerator bare and wiped, counter de-cluttered.

2.___laundry.
3.____all floors, swept and mopped, with clean dry mats.
4.___bathrooms wiped down, especially toilets, everything stocked, fresh towels, plenty of SOAP.
5.____the final task is sort of a mixture. a walk-through de-cluttering, dusting, tossing things out, into place, whatever. This is just the beginning.

The one task I'd sooner eat slugs than tackle is __shampooing the carpet, though I'm a Nazi about it getting done__. The one task I dream of someone coming to do is___dusting every single object or secretly getting rid of things I'd never notice were gone.__.

The thing(s) I try never to let slide are_____the wiping down stuff, and dishes__. I do the following everyday:____all of it, except the vacuuming is more like every three days and aside from daily maintenance, the bathrooms get scoured every three weeks, unless I become possessed (every nine seconds or so) and insist it happen more often__.

The tasks which I find to be the easiest are:___everything really, though there are things I enjoy less than others. Crawling under the computer desk to dust cords is like, not my favourite. Laundry is EASY, wiping down the kitchen I can do with my eyes closed. Really, I don't mind any of it, it's stopping that's hard for me.

Some things that might motivate me are____coffee, guests, and not having enough time. When someone is waiting for me, I suddenly have to scrub the grout.

On any given day, a reasonable, satisfying, non-insurmountable routine would look something like: -making the bed, starting the coffee, feeling perplexed that I cleaned everything before I went to bed and awake feeling like I must clean it all again, get laundry going, sweep all floors, take out garbages, wipe down everything we own, have a bleach party, do windows, mirrors, get chore lists and lessons ready. Keep laundry rotated and folded, sink empty, counters wiped, and when time permits, pull things out do see what sort of dust and shit is smirking behind there. Ack.

Repeat. Repeat.