I’m one of the least anal-retentive people you’ll ever meet, but I’m powerfully compelled to untangle that coiled cord on the phone between the handset and the base. I don’t care where I am, I have to do it. Some people freak 'cause they don’t even know that the cord is capable of being unplugged from the handset and they think I’m breaking their phone. But when I’m done, rest assured, they’ll have a nice, neat phone cord.
Wow, were we separated at birth? If so, my father is the common tie because he does all this and more. Paper money must be not only in the same direction and in order by denomination, but sorted by age/condition of the bill within denomination, so the crappy dollars are used first.
I do the towel thing, but he has a system whereby he makes sure no one pair of underwear gets washed more often than any other. Once, he had six pairs of socks for camping trips. When he lost one during my parents’ travels, he had to give all the rest to Mom, as the set was somehow ruined.
Where we differ is on the toothpaste tube. I must have all toothpaste pushed up to the front at all times, but I have gone into my parents’ bathroom and found a tube all randomly mangled. What the hell??!!!?
Ditto for me on the telephone cord and “inside” vs. “outside” t-shirts. It’s funny to have gradations within one ultra-casual wardrobe.
I do that, too! When I’ve worked in retail, I’ve been able to do the kind of folding that requires a folding board…without the board! It’s rubbed off on other people too. Mr. Rilch does it because of me, and a college roommates SO saw me doing it and picked up the habit, and another roommate did likewise.
<insert purile, flirty rejoinder about matt being anal here>
I’m anal retentive for a living - I’m a secretary. And I get paid for it! :eek:
Esprix
Silverware -MUST- be separated into knives, spoons, and forks separately. It’s just easier to find them that way.
He doesn’t even make the effort anymore. I’m hurt. 
<sigh> The things I do for love…
[NOTE: The information deleted from this post has been deemed too steamy, sexy, enthralling, enticing, lascivious, and {pant pant pant} erotic for anyone else’s eyes except the two hot n’ sweaty sexy men involved.]
There! Whew! Are you satisfied now, you sexy Canadien you! C’mere, time for seconds! {Leaps upon matt for round two}
Esprix
Ahh, laundry. I used to have the fluff-n-fold do it for me, but I really prefer to do my laundry myself. So that means:
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I use only enough washing powder to get consistent suds going - which just stokes my self-righteousness on environmental, economical and cleanliness issues (from my own experience, too much detergent means the clothes don’t rinse properly - and the residue attracts dirt). So I stand there until each machine starts agitating, and wait a couple of minutes just to be sure there’s enough suds.
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I avoid using the highest setting for the dryer, since it damages elastic. So it costs me a few quarters - big deal.
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Ummm… should I confess that I put T-shirts on hangars? Not undershirts, but t-shirts meant to be worn outdoors.
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Towels are folded in thirds, so they don’t have ragged edges to them. It’s the number one reason I don’t use fluff-n-fold anymore - I was always refolding the towels.
What else -
Oh, now that I clean my own bathroom I sit for all purposes, and actually bought a handicap toilet to make that more comfortable (they’re taller). I don’t find it any threat to my masculinity and it means the toilet stays presentable.
Good grief, I do pretty much all of these things. And I might add, of course. Jeez, we have to distinguish ourselves from other animals somehow.
And when I arrange my paper money, I do it in order of denomination, biggest in the back, smallest in the front; and in each denomination, the cleanest, newest bills go in the back (to be spent last), and the raggedy-assed ones in front (to be spent at the earliest opportunity, even if I don’t really want the thing I’m buying.) The way God intended money to be arranged.
If coins are dirty and ugly, I’ve been known to throw them away.
I do the phone cord thing, too. I cannot stand to see a tangled cord. Maybe this has something to do with my father working for the phone company all my life.
I own several pairs of white socks. It drives me absolutely nuts to wear two different white socks, from different pairs. It’s ok if they came in the same package originally, but if they’re different thicknesses, it agitates me all day. Lately, this has been killing me… I sprainedc my ankle a few months ago, and I have to wear an aircast, which requires me to wear a knee sock on my right leg. However, I don’t want to wear two knee socks, so I wear a normal sock on my left foot. AIEEEEEEEE. The agony of it all.
Phone cords - any phone anywhere that needs it. Same thing with a picture on a wall or a lampshade.
MrO: You have the money thing down perfectly. Old raggedy bills gotta be the first out.
When I get home from work, today’s clothes go in the hamper and tomorrow’s clothes are assembled.
Phoebestar: Safety pin your socks together when they go in the laundry. You use the safety pin from the socks you’re putting on tomorrow.
How did this trait get labeled as “anal-retentive”?
Oh, I try to match them up when I put them away. I’ll sit down in the floor with a huge pile of white socks, and match them up until I have a bunch of matches. It can be a painstaking process, but not one I often forgo.
When I was a youngster Poppa Toad would sometimes introduce me to his friends as, “this is my son, he’s a bit anal retentive”. When I had my first real health science class, about the 8th grade I guess, I learned what anal retentive meant. And I’m not. Next time Pop says I’m anal, I correct him. He says, “No son you are. The only way you have any retention whatsoever, is when I kick you in the ass”. Funny guy, my Pop.
So it turns out maybe Pop was right all along.
I’ve got that money thing. Face up, by denomonation, smallest on top, folded so the smallest bill shows.
CDs: Alphabetical by artist.
Then there is the pantry. Everything lined up by commodity, by size. Kinda like that movie. (Don’t remember exactly, but, Sleeping With the Enemy, comes to mind) Toad’s Princess likes to disorganize it though, evil wench that she is.
Beer must be served in the proper glass. (Don’t be puttin’ that pils in a lager glass) Wine in a wine glass.
Athletic socks, since they are all the same, are numbered by pair, on the bottom.
God, I’m worse than I thought.
I must confess… where else would you put them ???
Have I now reachd the realms of being unaware of my anal-ness ??? :eek:
Seriously, where else would you put a T-shirt?
Folded and stacked in the dresser drawer, of course!
Oh, and I have another - my bookcase. I have three of them side-by-side.
Hardbacks across the top. One bookcase has paperback novels. The first two shelves are for various authors. The bottom shelf is for King and Koontz.
The second bookcase is for anthologies only.
The third bookcase is divided into categories. Top shelf is reference - dictionaries, writing books, how to poison people type books.
Second shelf is for books I want to read. This shelf has overflowed onto the floor.
Bottom shelf is for magazines.
It goes without saying that everything is alphabetized.
Only horror books are on the bookcases; everything else gets read and put into a box since I don’t have room for every book I own to be shelved.
Maybe I’m a little anal.
Sheri
Two telling signs:
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people in the office snigger at you for sorting all your paperclips and double clips by size
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you get in a screaming match with a house mate and find yourself saying “The CDs have to be divided by genre, alphabetical within genre, and then chronological for each artist… what the hell is wrong with you?”