I think it's safe to say that I've always been somewhat OCD. As far as I'm concerned, everything has a place to be and it should be in that place, no matter what. My clothes hang in my closet by style of clothing and by color and my planner is color coded, too. My t-shirts are divided by sorority, fraternity, sports teams, or other. Nearly everything I do on a daily basis is on my to-do list and I feel a great amount of joy when I get to mark things off. But until I moved out of my parents' house and began living with other girls my age, I never realized how unusual my particular tendencies were. With that being said, to my roomies: thanks for putting up with me and the following tendencies of mine.
1. Locking the front door.
For me, I don't think constantly locking the front door is that crazy... I mean safety first, right?
2. Decorating the Christmas tree... symmetrically.
The Christmas season is supposed to be happy and full of joy. If I was to come home everyday and see a lopsided Christmas tree with fifteen ornaments up top and seven down below, I might cry. Ornaments are supposed to be equally spaced and particularly placed so that they somewhat randomly placed, but definitely are not.
3. Picking up dishes.
Dirty dishes go in the sink or in the dishwasher. Clean dishes go in the cabinets. I thought everyone knew this. Clearly not. Dirty dishes don't get left on the table when you're done eating and cups don't get left on your bedside table for days. If you're incapable of putting the dishes in the right spot, use paper ones. They always go in the trash and it can't get any easier than that.
4. Picking up shoes.
Who wants to come home at the end of a long, tiring day and kick off their shoes? Everyone! Even us particular, OCD, organize-loving people do. However, who wants to come home and trip over a mountain of shoes when they walk in the door? No one! Shoes go in a basket or some kind of non-hazardous shoe container or in your closet. I'm not talking about rocket science here, people.
5. Picking up makeup.
Ah, makeup... the saving grace to us college girls on the days where finals create black, puffy bags under our eyes. Makeup is great. Makeup bags are great. Cute little makeup organizers from Target are even greater. Some girls accumulate massive amounts of makeup, understandably. But unless you have a MAC counter in your bathroom, put it up!
6. Re-folding blankets and fluffing the pillows.
Fluffy blankets and fluffy pillows -- everyone loves them. And some days, they are vital when you come home, can't fathom the thought of walking upstairs and pass out on the couch. But when you wake up from your much needed slumber, don't you want the next person to enjoy theirs, too? Duh. If they can't make it up the stairs, they definitely can't untangle the blankets or fluff the pillows. So you must do it. It can be fun, see?
7. Organizing the pantry and the Tupperware.
FOOD. YAY. We all love it. We all want a lot of it. We all want to avoid become hangry. And what's the best way to do that? To know where your food is! Good news: boxes are easy to line up in a pantry or in cabinets! More good news: tupperware is stackable! Don't be like this lady.
8. Picking up "backpack crap."
College is stressful. It comes with a lot of papers to write, a lot of books to carry, and a lot of things to print. And while most of the time we all want to burn our books and shred our papers, we can't afford to burn the books and don't have the time or mental capacity to re-write our papers. Unfortunately, at this stage in life, professors no longer believe that our dogs ate our homework. So, you don't want to lose that paper you shed gallons of tears over and lost hours of sleep writing! Put your papers and your books in your bookbag to avoid catastrophic, college-induced meltdowns.
If Barney can do it, you can too.
