View Full Version : Obsessive little details that drive you nuts
Are there little cleaning-related details that just drive you crazy until you fix them? I did something this morning to fix one of those things that had been bothering me for ages. We have a large wall of white cabinets along one side of our kitchen that have recessed panels. I have been noticing for some time that dirt was collecting in the bottom corners -- the recess makes it difficult to keep clean. Finally this morning I decided I needed to come up with a fix. So I went to the bathroom and got some qtips, and used those and a bit of water to clean out the corners. Looks so much better! Nobody probably ever noticed this but me, but it was bugging me a lot so I'm glad I did it, especially because it only took a few minutes.
My DH is crazy about the floors. If he sees one speck of dust or dirt, the mop is out and he's cleaning the whole house. I'm not as fussy in that area.
Just curious about what affects other people.
lhamo
A spot on a mirror especially a large mirror, a faded stain on shirt or tablecloth, any smell however faint to my sensitive nose.
We have a bank of windows facing the west. We get glorious views and the sunsets are spectacular, but, any little bit of dust or speck on the glass, or anything the setting sun sets upon just jumps out and taunts me. It drives me crazy! So those windows need to be CLEAN or I just can't enjoy it.
Also, the view is a long sweep of lawn down to a fen. The view is always relaxing to me, with the frequent visitor of deer, or turkey or geese, or other woodland creature, but for my husband, if the lawn isn't mowed to perfection, it ruins it for him. I love a lush, fluffy kind of lawn with clover and flowers, but he likes it manicured. So I guess everyone has their set point of good enough, or not enough.
oh lord my house is so messy no ONE little detail would bug me. I just give up and try to keep my head above water.
Wildflower
2-26-12, 3:55am
Dust and fingerprints really bug me somedays. Other days not so much. I think it is hormonal. Seriously. >8)
Kid clutter on my relatively small kitchen counter.
Really! How am I supposed to cook your dinner with that there?
Psychological havoc, is how I describe what you have done to me, Lhamo, in naming the title of your thread as you did! :laff:
Where to start!!! Hmmm... let's see now, OK, to open things up, kitchen sink basins have to be dried out after dishes are done, even though with a family of eight it never lasts long.
Dusting, can't live without doing it! The house can be spotless, but if there's a layer of dust on things, then in my world the house is dirty. (And it feels dirty, too)!
Beds have to be made!
As far as windows and mirrors go, there is no exception other than clean, shiny, and spotless. Window tracks have to be spotless, too.
Last but not least, impeccably folded laundry! Laundry, not folded to my standards, is laundry not folded. Then again, I have a folding fetish.
And that about scratches the surface. :)
Apparently nothing bothers me so much that I have to leap up to take care of it. Well, except I cannot STAND dirty dishes being left anywhere, though I can barely tolerate the kitchen counter (temporarily). I notice that when my DSD puts her glass or bowl down, I want to get up and move it. My own dishes can wait until I am leaving the room but she doesn't remember (so apparently this is something learned). I actually feel anxious about the dish until it lands in the kitchen.
Weird, isn't it?
I also have a peculiar aversion to sticky fingers and when I see someone in the family getting their fingers sticky, that even bothers me (much more than it bothers them). this appeared in my adulthood.
Maybe I am weirder than I realized.
I also have a peculiar aversion to sticky fingers and when I see someone in the family getting their fingers sticky, that even bothers me (much more than it bothers them). this appeared in my adulthood.
Maybe I am weirder than I realized.
That's funny.. my son is a sticky-phobe! I could never get him to eat honey, just because he hated the idea of getting sticky! I wonder if there's a DSM diagnosis for that!
My big thing is cabinet doors or drawers left open. If my DH gets a snack at night he often leaves the cabinet doors open and when I come downstairs and see them it throws my morning off (until I shut them and get my cup of coffee).
Bastelmutti
2-26-12, 9:47am
leslieann, I don't like stickiness on my hands either. When I am making food, I wash my hands after they touch anything that sticks. So, I can wipe them on a towel after touching wet carrots, say, but if it's flour or anything wet and sticky, I have to wash my hands before going on to the next step.
I am pretty relaxed in the cleaning dept., but bits of food left in the sink after the dishes are done drive me nuts. A certain person in this family does that, and it drives me crazy.
I'm normally fairly relaxed, but it really bothers me when my husband does something to cause ME more work. Like leaving the coffee cup /next/ to the dishwasher instead of putting it in, or not putting tools back, or leaving the box of crackers in the living room. Or his idea of cleaning the basement: take my nice neat sorted organized piles in the basement and moving them into a different corner of the basement in one big pile with some additional junk and debris included so I have to spend another few hours at it before I can take the stuff to the recycling center. Or his idea of cleaning out his car: throwing everything useful and not into a trash bag and throwing it into the back of the shed where it will sit for months because I don't know its there, and by then all the good stuff is ruined anyhow.
And my household pet peeve is floors. Must be swept and vacuumed.
Hmm I didn't think I had any until I went into the bathroom, towels. Towels must be folded in thirds. I have even 'fixed' towels at my former boyfriends place. They fit better on the shelves and they fit better on the towel rack and they look good.
Maybe also cabinents and drawers left open, but I pretty much got the family trained on that.
My DH is crazy about the floors. If he sees one speck of dust or dirt, the mop is out and he's cleaning the whole house. I'm not as fussy in that area.
lhamo
May I borrow DH? I have a white kitchen floor that needs constant attention.
One of my bugaboos is soap scum. We have really hard water here which forms a tough (and ugly) film when mixed with soap. I've tried every cleanser on the market and nothing works except scrubbing every inch of the sinks with a plastic scouring pad. I am tempted to try oven cleaner, which I understand is what the name-brand cleaning services do.
Tea stains in my mugs. I must have a clean mug and am particularly turned off by a brownish lip mark on the edge.
Hair on surfaces in the kitchen and bath. Keeping up with this is nearly a career unto itself since I have a cat with a thick, silky coat and the shed stuff just floats through the air and lands wherever. I've even found hairs on refrigerator shelves even though I don't store her uneaten food there.
Baseboards. Between cat litter dust and ordinary dust, there always seems to be a film on the very top edge of the baseboards.
HappyHiker
2-26-12, 6:10pm
I've got two: the dresser across from the bed cannot have stuff piled on it--I like to see a serene view of the painting and the conch shell...so I've got to keep that area cleaned off. The other thing that's important to me is to be greeted in the morning with a clean sink--no leftover dirty dishes from the night before...
DH puts used tea bags in the white porcelain sink instead of in the trash. WHYYYYY?
Once I threw a big fit about it, only to find that it was my MIL that had done it that time! So I guess he just wasn't taught any better. >8)
Are there little cleaning-related details that just drive you crazy until you fix them? lhamo
Yes. People walking over my fresh vacuum cleaner marks on plush carpeting really drives me batty. Who, oh, why can't they learn to levitate?
I am not a fan of plush carpeting, but have it in the living room, dining room and bedrooms of my current rental property. My next rental property will have carpeting in just 2 rooms and a hallway. I opted to pay extra to upgrade the limited carpet in our new rental prior to move-in, so as to have, well, new carpet from Day 1, and to have plush carpet that hides footprints and vacuum cleaner marks. I figure the upgrade will pay for itself in no time, what with the savings I will realize from not vacuuming the carpet daily.
Oh, and for those who may share my carpet mark obsession, I prefer to vacuum in a fan pattern, starting in the far corner of the room and working diagonally from left to right, then right to left to the opposite (diagonal) corner.
If/when I buy/build a home in the future, I will insist on having resilient flooring, such as stained/polished concrete, laminate, hardwood or tile flooring throughout.
I don't like dog and cat noseprints on patio doors and appliances.
I, too, like my towels folded in thirds. I prefer them folded in thirds lengthwise, then folded again in thirds for the linen cabinet. If they are hanging over a towel bar in the bathroom, I like them folded in thirds lengthwise, then folded precisely in half (so the bottom hems line up evenly) over a towel bar.
You know what drives me nuts about OTHER peoples houses? When they have dogs that sit on the furniture or god forbid the pillows. Here comes that happy little doggie, wagging his tail. He jumps up next to you and...lifts his tail and sits his...um..bare butt right on the sofa or PILLOW! The sofa or pillow you are supposed to sit on or put your head on! Right after he's been outside to potty! :0! (where is Mrs. M's throw up icon?)
Okay, I am not the only one with weird "stuff." This is kind of fun. I never really thought about dog's bare butts but my dog sits on the floor...and I was only worried about footprints!
Dog nose prints don't bug me. Dog hair DOES bug me but mostly it is the mystery of it. How does it get everywhere? Like Jemima's cat, my dog's hair is on every floor of this house and he can't climb stairs. It is in the refrigerator, in the bathtub, in closets, on clothing. We do clean up, we do! But he just keeps making more.
I did splurge on a Furminator and that has helped a lot. Winter also helps but I know that May and June are coming, days of the twice daily vacuum just to keep from suffocating in undercoat. In the meantime, I just marvel at the dog hair...inside books, for crying out loud!
I have no carpets but if I did, I would also probably like my family, including the dog, to levitate. That made me laugh.
i don't like to get my hands dirty and i don't like a dirty kitchen; probably left over from growing up in a house that was dirty
cattledog
2-29-12, 10:52am
I have to have spotless counters and tables. It drives me nuts to see a single coffee ground or crumb.
Blackdog Lin
2-29-12, 9:23pm
Leslieann - oh I'm laughing and commiserating with you on the dog hair thing. You have described our household to a T. She's worth it, but how does one small dog produce SO MUCH HAIR? And what laws of physics demand that said hair show up in the most unnerving places? (a cheese ball I gifted to my best friend for Christmas years ago, for instance? I used to do much more in the way of homemade food items for Christmas, but that one turned me off of it for years.....)
Back on topic, I have to have a clean kitchen (dog hair notwithstanding!), and clean hands. With anything I do around the house, if my hands feel any sort of grody in the least I have to wash them. A simple 2-course supper can cause 5-8 hand-washings with me.
I'm not really a clean freak, but certain things definitely drive me nuts. I don't need the house to be especially clean as such, but I'm very much a 'place for every thing and every thing in its place' kind of guy. SO is not. He's a "do a serious clean once a month and the rest of the time just put everything on the nearest flat surface' kind of guy. So, while I'm not overly concerned about serious clean, I'm constantly putting things 'in their place' for him. I've developed systems to make this a quick and easy process of where to put things (like the day's mail) so I no longer get annoyed, it's just a habit I've acquired. Although I have to ask, why or why do dirty clothes end up on the floor beside the hamper instead of in it??? Can someone help me understand why he does this? Please? :-)
One thing, though, truly creeps me out. He uses the hand towell in the kitchen both for hands and for wiping down the counter. Every time I see him wipe the counter I feel compelled to grab the towel and throw it in the hamper because in my mind it's now unusably dirty.
This thread makes me remember how my mother, a total neat freak, full-time housewife, was constantly trying to train the rest of us to help make her job easy. One of the things she did for several years was to put a post-it on each kitchen cabinet that said "Use handle". Apparently she couldn't handle fingerprints on the wood itself. I laugh thinking about it since fingerprints like that are a minor minor detail compared to the 'dirty' factor that always exists in my home now.
Psychological havoc, is how I describe what you have done to me, Lhamo, in naming the title of your thread as you did! :laff:
Where to start!!! Hmmm... let's see now, OK, to open things up, kitchen sink basins have to be dried out after dishes are done, even though with a family of eight it never lasts long.
Dusting, can't live without doing it! The house can be spotless, but if there's a layer of dust on things, then in my world the house is dirty. (And it feels dirty, too)!
Beds have to be made!
As far as windows and mirrors go, there is no exception other than clean, shiny, and spotless. Window tracks have to be spotless, too.
Last but not least, impeccably folded laundry! Laundry, not folded to my standards, is laundry not folded. Then again, I have a folding fetish.
And that about scratches the surface. :)
Making a mental note to self that if I ever have the opportunity to meet Mrs-M in person it will be at a coffee shop with petite sandwiches and scones......not at my house. :)
meanwhile:
I can't find my little hard hand-held broom. The one I use to sweep the edges of the carpets next to the walls so the vacuum can pick up the dust/dirt/doghair. I was just noticing this morning how 'dirty' the edges of the hall looked.
Originally posted by Float On.
Making a mental note to self that if I ever have the opportunity to meet Mrs-M in person it will be at a coffee shop with petite sandwiches and scones......not at my house.LOL! I've been needing a laugh for days, and you just gave me that laugh. Thanks.
yet again, those grody wadded up dishcloths in the corner of the sink!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the dishtowels that keep getting used instead of the wet dishcloth. The worst peeve I have. DH and DD like to cook and use 4-5 each meal!
Freakin' white dog hair in my food and clothes. (it is DD's dog and doesn't even come in my house!)
Hair in the bathtub! Just rinse the tub, already..............:(
Sippy cups dripping around all over my carpet and furniture (DD strikes again. She's grown, but GD is 2)
Dirty finger prints on the ice maker tray. Can I just say, ewwwwwww?
Sticky cabinet doors and counter tops.
Those are just a few and I am not a neat/clean freak at all.
Mrs. M, don't call me, I'll call you, lol!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL, Sissy! My days lately have felt overcast, but you and Float On, have managed to open up a ray of light into the picture, and it feels good.
DH has a bad habit of hanging his shirts inside out, and he flips the hangers the wrong way. It drives me crazy! I leave the cap off the toothpaste, though, and that drives him crazy. ;-)
Ahh, yes, this was fun to read. I feel SO much better knowing about BlackDog Lin's dog hair in the cheese ball.
I hired a cleaner. Yes, I did, and she comes every second week and so I am trying NOT to freak about the dog hair in between. But if I don't manage to vacuum tomorrow, we'll all be suffocating soon.
I am trying to be more relaxed about the cleaning now that someone else is "responsible" at least twice a month. It helps!
I like things done on schedule. I have a morning routine that I really don't like to be altered. I feel completely off kilter when things get my orderly progression messed up. Part of it is that I get more done by staying with the routine and it gives me more time to quilt, read, or tend my roses.
I also am a believer in a place for everything and everything in its place. The main reason for this is that it simplifies finding things when you need them.
Finally, I hate clutter. I can't stand having too much stuff around. I regularly clean out closets and give unworn clothing away, donate books to the library and recycle everything that I can.
rosarugosa
3-27-12, 7:24pm
Florence, I read your post out loud to my husband. He asked "did you write that?" Enough said! :laff:
Bastelmutti
3-28-12, 1:45pm
Nice to see that others also have folding issues. I do the towels a certain way so they fit in the cabinet & DH and I agreed a long time ago to each fold our own laundry (actually we each wash our own, too) because the way he folds clothes drives me bonkers! I just ignore the kids' drawers unless I have folded their clothes for them to put away because it's usually a jumble.
Leslieann. We share so many "like" traits it's not even funny! Like anxiety over dishes left in other parts of the house, and gooey fingers! I trained each of my kids early-on, that after a meal where we get messy, gooey fingers, we have to go wash right afterwards. And as far as dirty dishes go, I go on dirty dish patrols (too often for my liking), because the kids bring dishes and glasses and cups and things downstairs with them to watch television, and then they forget to bring them back upstairs again, and I can't stand glued-on messes/milk reside/stains in glasses.
These two things have become much more manageable now that everyone is older/getting older, but I remember going on foot-stomping tirades and elevated voice sessions, laying the law down as to what I wanted and expected, and occasionally, grounding everyone from eating/drinking outside of the upstairs kitchen area.
Bastelmutti. MAJOR pet-peeve of mine, balled-up, rolled-up, bunched-up clothing and things stuffed into drawers! I do not know how people can live that way... I remember giving my kids lessons when they were little, on how to pull-out a pair of pyjamas from the dresser drawer without messing up everything else.
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