22 Things People Who Are Semi-OCD Think Are Totally Normal
1. Pining for your college planner. There were always the exact right number of lines and it was perfectly sectioned. You miss it dearly. It was the perfect organizer.
2. Doing things with symmetry. As in, you could never just clean the right side of the stove and leave the left untouched. If you tried to walk away, it would bother you too much.
3. Having multiple to do lists. Then numbering those to do lists. Then color-coding the numbered to do lists. There are some organizational things that you’re just never going to back down on.
4. When you have severe anxiety over the fact that you haven’t written down every single thing you need to accomplish. Sometimes you won’t be able to sleep the night before unless you write everything down in preparation for the next day.
5. Getting equally concerned if you’re behind on a television show that has a new season starting soon.
6. Experiencing a certain high that can only come from crossing things off a list. There should be songs written about that feeling.
7. The need to put things (like showering) on the list just so you can cross it off.
8. Having a huge aversion to clutter, or specific things that mess with the aesthetic of your space. It doesn’t have to be perfect looking to everyone else, but you (and the people you share the space with) need to feel good about it or it will drive you crazy.
9. Obsessively planning. Then going over the plan with your significant other the night before. Then repeating it to them 5 times the next morning until they finally have to tell you to stop.
10. Being skeptical of technology. You would never just leave it up to technology to remind you of anything. If your phone goes into a dead zone that drains the battery, how will you remember your dentist appointment?
11. The need for an earthquake kit and/or hurricane kit depending on where you live. Your friends think you’re crazy, but if ever an earthquake hits, they’ll wish they were at your house feasting on Ritz crackers and seltzer.
12. Taking offense when someone says your car is messy. It’s an organized mess and you know exactly where everything you need is.
13. Getting very agitated about posters on your wall that aren’t straight but not necessarily being motivated enough to move them.
14. When your routine gets completely thrown off because something simple, but out of the ordinary happens. Like if you have to take a different route to work. Or if you run out of coffee, or some other essential grocery.
15. Obsessively fiddling with the A/C, the temperature of the water in the shower and the radio volume to get it EXACTLY THE WAY IT NEEDS TO BE.
16. Being confused by the fact that you’re probably two parts Monica and one part Phoebe. Is that incompatible?
17. Referring to yourself as “particular” because it just sounds so much nicer than “super anal about really random things.”
18. Willing yourself to not take over someone’s computer and clean up their desktop for them. Why. Do. They. Have. So. Many. Screenshots. Make it stop.
19. Stressing over the amount of notifications you have on your phone. That dreaded red number is taunting you and you need to check it because that’s the only way to make it disappear.
20. Picking up things that people drop, whether it’s in your apartment or on the street. You can’t just look at a piece of garbage sitting on the pavement right next to the trashcan. You have to pick it up.
21. When you find continuity errors on television and it’s the most gratifying thing in the world because finally your attention to detail has paid off.
22. Having a love affair with hand sanitizer. Your ideal world would have a Purell dispenser in every room.