The display on the microwave’s timer should either be clear or the time or ‘0’, unless there’s something cooking in there. If something takes less time to cook than you thought and you remove it from the microwave, the countdown should be manually cleared. I do it at home and work and friend’s houses and relative’s houses when no one notices. Too many years of clearing the copier display on our old giant Xerox at my old job, maybe? I don’t know if that’s a habit, compulsion or an honest-too-goodness OCD behavior, but I feel better when the display is cleared, aggravated when it’s sitting on 28 seconds for no good reason.
I can’t stand dried water spots on chrome sink faucets. Especially in the kitchen. Dust? Meh. Water spots on the bathtub faucet? Whatevah. But man, when the kitchen sink faucet (and surrounding chrome doo-dah) gets water-splotty, I have to grab a paper towel and polish it up.
Oh, and P.S. It makes no difference if there’s a sinkful of dirty dishes, or if the rest of the kitchen is a disaster (which I also hate, but I can live with it more easily than the aforementioned water spots). I need the shiny chrome.
When I’m sitting in a room and I look up at a shelf of books, I have to mentally count the number of books on the shelf.
I’m the same as some others here: my banknotes must be all the right way up in my wallet, all facing the same way, and in order from highest denomination at the back to lowest at the front. Also, if a note has a fold at the corners, this **must **be straightened out before going into the wallet.
…**and **no more than one staple!
Whist typing on a computer screen, I can’t allow the mouse cursor/pointer to be visible on screen. It must be pushed off to one side.
All appliances with clocks must be set to the correct time. No flashing zeroes!
I do the “must check to see if I have keys before locking the door” thing.
I’m also pathological about whether I’ve closed my garage door. Unless I carefully note that I’ve done it, I’ve been known to turn around and drive back to make sure it’s actually closed. Once I did this twice. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true. I have to verify that it’s closed at night before going to bed as well.
I used to be that way about the stove before we got a new one, but for some reason I never worry about leaving the new one on.
When using my computer, the cursor can only be on a blank section of a color. It can’t be over text or a picture, and nothing can be popped up (like the thread previews here, for example).
I’m constantly moving it as I scroll down to read through threads. Right now it’s in the middle of the reply box. A nice expanse of blah grey… ahhhhh.
There are a couple of odd counting-type things I’ll do with my fingers and toes, but I don’t know how to describe it.
I also check my eyebrows for strays in the mornings, every morning. Even during basic training.
My eyebrow fetish is so well known that my best friend commented while I was in labour, “Your eyebrows look great.”
When I am driving my car doors are always locked.
When I turn my alarm clock on at night, I have to turn it off and on several times to make sure it “takes.” If I just slide the switch to ‘on,’ I’m not convinced it’s really on. So I have to switch it off again, and back on, and off and then on… no set amount of times, just more than once. Then I’m sure it’s on.
The sad thing? I’ve been using this clock since 1989. It has lasted a very long time for a cheap clock from a wholesale catalog. Imagine how much longer it might have lasted if I hadn’t been wearing down the alarm switch with all that extra sliding for the last 17 years! If it ends up lasting 20 years total, that might be impressive, but maybe it would have lasted 80 without the nightly “onoffonoffonoffonoffon… is it really on? Better do it some more offonoffonoffon” ritual.
I’m compulsive about whether the front door is locked when I’m going any distance away. I usually make the person I’m travelling with watch me lock the door, because I’ll get a little ways away and start wondering whether the door is locked or not. If I’m on my own, I’ve turned around to go check rather than spending the time I’m away wondering about it.
I can’t touch paper unless I’ve recently put lotion on my hands. I guess that’s more tactile defence than OCD, but it’s still something I’m pretty obsessive about.
If I wash my hands and then touch paper without the benefit of lotion, it feels like the skin will just peel off my entire body.
That’s 24 cans, silly 
I’ve stopped doing it now, but I used to always scroll back to the top of an internet page before hitting the X to close the browser window…
and I’d a habit of waiting till the song finished/DJ stopped talking before I switched the radio off, cos I thought it was rude to interrupt them
When I start work in the morning, I have to open up applications in the proper order, so that the items in the taskbar are in the right place. First my email client, then the project I’m working on, then other applications as needed. If I accidentally close one down and they get out of order, I have to shut down all my applications and start them up again.
When I’m surfing the web, unless I’m clicking on a link from one page to another, I always have to use the “back” button to go back to my home page (Google) before opening up a different page. I hate to have a lot of pages in the “stack.”
[ul]
[li]In general, odd-number quantities above 9 bother me mildly, unless it’s a multiple of 5. 27 of something (even if 27 is a nice cubic number) doesn’t seem right; I’d prefer that there be 28 (multiple of two even numbers) over 26 (odd number times even). Better yet, make it 30 if possible. Of course this doesn’t stop me from going into a Basin Robbins for ice cream (31 flavors), I just like even numbers or multiples of 5 if I have control over the quantity of something.[/li][li]Calendars must be on the current month. If I go to my Mom and Dad’s at the beginning of a new month and they haven’t turned the calendar page from the preceding month I’ll have to do it for them.[/li][li]Alarm clock- Is it really set? Yep, it is. Look again, yep, it’s still set. Is the AM/PM correct? Yep? Better check again… yep, still correct. It’s a wonder I get any sleep at all worrying about the damn alarm clock![/li][li]When I am seated in a small room or in a restaurant I have to be seated so that I can see the door and see who’s coming in and leaving. I don’t like hearing people enter a room without knowing who they are or what they are doing.[/li][li]Digital volume controls- If the scale is 0-100 the volume has to be set to a multiple of 5. If the scale is 1-64 it has to be set to a multiple of 4. If it’s some other odd scale, such as 1-30, I like it to be on a number that neatly divides into the total, for example, 9 or 12. Setting the volume to 11 (unless it’s “Spinal Tap”), 13 or 16 in this case makes me somewhat uncomfortable some reason.[/li][li]Flashing VCR clocks annoy me, too. I also thought I was the only one who gets annoyed by seeing unused time on microwave ovens. I see this[/li][li]I’m also a compulsive key-checker when it comes to locking doors. Similarly, I also have to double-check kitchen appliances such as the stove and the toaster to make sure they’re off before I leave the house. My sister is ten times worse on this one.[/li][li]Desktop icons- I can’t stand computer desktops filled with random icons spread around willy-nilly. How the hell do these people navigate through such a cluttered mess? My icons have to be in neat rows and columns. I also don’t like to clutter up the desktop with too many icons. Any more than half of the screen is too many, if you ask me.[/li][li]Here’s one from my dad- He has to open envelopes with a letter opener or similar device (i.e. butter knife). Any envelope that’s torn open with one’s finger just drives him batshit.[/li][/ul]
Oooh, yes. Hands. I can’t stand it if mine are too dry (I can’t stand to wash and then not lotion - interestingly, though, if I just rinse (like if I’m in the middle of cooking and just want to get the avocado off my hands before I start peeling potatoes), I can do without the lotion), and I HATE, HATE, HATE visible “crust” of any kind on 'em - hangnails, crusty cuticles, or just straight up ash. I keep nail clippers at work and at home, and can get a little obsessive about making sure my nails are clean and clipping the heck out of hangnails and jagged cuticles. If I’m away from my clippers (like in a meeting) and find a little hanging nibbit, I will pluck at it until it’s gone, because it’s too much to endure until the meeting is over and I can get to my clippers.
Oh, and I also can’t stand it when colored nail polish starts to chip. As soon as I see the first little chipette, the polish must come off, NOW, before anyone sees me like this!
Boy, I’m a little freaky, huh?
When I am reading a magazine with several interesting articles I sometimes get to the last sentence of a particular article and will read that sentence several times, sometimes out-loud, before I turn the page to the next article. I don’t know why this is . Perhaps I am making absolutely sure I have understood what I have just been reading.
Not to worry, dude. You are just having an Opal body experience!
:eek:
When I get upset or mad, I have this thing with my hands. Each corresponding finger on both hands take turns tapping each other (left index to right index, middle finger to middle, ring to ring, pinky to pinky, repeat). I do it about a hundred times until I calm down.
Also, when I lock my car door (using the remote/fob) I have to do it about fifteen times just to make sure it is locked. I even lock the door if I am stepping away for three seconds and still within arms distance of the car.