# Weird stuff you do habitually for no reason **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 24, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487 "2008-12-24T01:31:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/41 "2008-12-26T09:40:30Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > The clicking sound of a car’s turn signal sounds like a drum beat. When I’m at a stoplight, and I have my turn signal on, I invent songs in my head that use the “drum beat” from the turn signal. Different songs? Because the car I usuallyl drive always does the same song. Theme from “Jeopardy.” I think sniffing the milk, though, is a good idea. It doesn’t always make it even to it’s sell-by date. ---
**Author:** ![Sami41](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@Sami41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sami41)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/42 "2008-12-26T12:03:00Z")
I absolutlely must have the bathroom sink running while I brush my teeth. Sometimes I walk around the apartment brushing, especially during baseball season so I can see the TV, but the bathroom sink still must be on. I have no idea why. The only exception is when I brush in the shower, but I’ve been told that’s equally weird. ---
**Author:** ![History\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b19c9b/32.png) [@History\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/History_Geek)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/43 "2008-12-26T17:06:08Z")
> [@Sami41](#): > > I absolutlely must have the bathroom sink running while I brush my teeth. Sometimes I walk around the apartment brushing, especially during baseball season so I can see the TV, but the bathroom sink still must be on. > > I have no idea why. > > The only exception is when I brush in the shower, but I’ve been told that’s equally weird. I leave the faucet on when I brush too - after double-wetting the toothbrush. My wife yells at me for wasting water. Over the last few months we’ve been teaching the toddler to brush his teeth, and I just realized I must be perpetuating the double-wetting habit. He turns off the faucet though, so clearly mom has had equal influence. Other weird things I do include throwing salt over my shoulder if it spills. Always with my right hand over my left shoulder. The oddest thing has to be the door-guardian totem I established when we moved into our current residence. I put a Star Wars trading card over the door - it shows Boba Fett and Darth Vader standing together. Who better to guard the door, right? It falls down all the time, and I always put it back up. There have been a couple frantic searches (on my part) to find the totem card and get it back on the job following a disappearance. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/44 "2008-12-26T18:18:02Z")
I turn off the lights when I leave a room. Even if people are still in it. It was a childhood thing to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/45 "2008-12-26T18:32:30Z")
I’ve written in a journal every day since my 8th B-day, but I rarely refer back to it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/46 "2008-12-26T18:49:18Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > I cannot use the bathroom comfortably unless i get completely nude. (well, i can pee, but taking a dump? I gotta undress). I can physically do it, if needs be, in a public restroom, but I’ll usually hold it in to when I get home. Even at work. > > If I have to do it like normal people i feel awkward and icky. I can and have used entire rolls of toiled paper in one sitting. Because I cannot stand the idea of missing a spot. If i’m at home i’ll shower directly after using the bathroom. > > Its weird, I know. I can’t help it though. My boyfriend poops naked too. He’ll walk in the door and start shedding his clothes in a trail on the way to the bathroom. “Going to poop?” “Shut up.” “There’s a new National Geographic in there.” I also rewet my toothbrush, and my turn signal and especially my windshield washers are also singing to me. ---
**Author:** ![TheBori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@TheBori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBori)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/47 "2008-12-27T02:09:51Z")
I line up the seam on paper cups (McDonal’s, etc) with my fingertips, at the back. If I’m drinking coffee with a Java Jacket, both seam shave to line up. My friends have rotated my cup at the table, when I wasn’t looking, and marvelled how I unconciously rotate it back. OCD, harness it! ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/48 "2008-12-27T04:00:46Z")
I have terribly dry skin, so whenever I get out the shower and put moisurizer on I always do the same routine. I’ll put it on my hands, go up my arms, clap it on my face, then back to my arms. It’s hard to explain over type, but it’s the same thing every time. ---
**Author:** ![lucky\_henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lucky\_henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucky_henry)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/49 "2008-12-27T04:08:23Z")
> [@TheBori](#): > > I line up the seam on paper cups (McDonal’s, etc) with my fingertips, at the back. I thought I was the only one to do that! I will not pick up the cup any other way. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/50 "2008-12-27T04:08:50Z")
> [@Finally](#): > > ;Whoa. There are some really odd people here! 😉 You joined the SDMB _four months ago_ and you are _just now_ realizing this? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/51 "2008-12-27T04:31:59Z")
I’d mentioned this in another thread a few days ago: I highlight obsessively when I’m online. As I was going through this thread, reading all of the posts, I caught myself highlighting **olivesmarch4th** ’s post. I had no intention of quoting her or copying that post. I just. Had. To. _Highlight_. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/52 "2008-12-27T04:50:18Z")
> [@CaerieD](#): > > I’d mentioned this in another thread a few days ago: I highlight obsessively when I’m online. As I was going through this thread, reading all of the posts, I caught myself highlighting **olivesmarch4th** ’s post. I had no intention of quoting her or copying that post. I just. Had. To. _Highlight_. I sometimes do this. > [@jali](#): > > I count sometimes. > > If I were measuring distances I’d have a reason. I just find myself counting the steps I take as I walk, but I don’t remember ever deciding to count, I’ll be up to 50 or 60 before I realize I’m doing it again. > > Weird. I do this. > [@freekalette](#): > > If something happens to one side of my body, it has to happen to the other side. Joints cracking, muscles stretching, hell if I stub my toe I have to rub it to mae it feel numb, and then rub the other side. And this. Only I take them both to new extremes. When walking down the sidewalk, I must equalize the number of left foot-right foot walking over cracks that I do. I must also equalize the pattern. I also did this with licking my lips. I would start my tongue on the right side of my mouth and go to the left, and I thought to myself “This cannot be right, there’s an unequal amount of saliva on my face now.” I was _not yet five years old_, and I clearly remember having that sentiment. So I would go L(eft)-\>R(ight), R-\>L. But that wasn’t enough. It was then L-\>R, R-\>L, R-\>L, L-\>R. Again, that wasn’t enough. I did L-\>R, R-\>L, R-\>L, L-\>R, R-\>L, L-\>R, L-\>R, R-\>L. This went on exponentially until I was about 10 years old and it occurred to me how pointless the entire pursuit was, and now I cap it off ( **THROUGH SHEER POWER OF WILL, I TELL YOU!** ) at L-R, R-L, R-L, L-R. I count things. Many things. All things. The number of light posts, the number of white stripes on the road, the number of orange buckets in the construction zone; there have been sixty-two at the one two blocks from my house for the few months weeks, except last sunday when there were sixty one, but on the way home I saw where the sixty second was, it was in a ditch, dented. Someone had obviously hit it. Like some of the others, I line up seams on cups with their sleeves. There are numerous others, but they’re far too many to get into here, I’m an odd odd fellow. I am not OCD. My living area is a pig’s sty and I’m horribly disorganized (except my medicine, cabinet, I could draw a diagram to the inch of where things are inside of it!). ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/53 "2008-12-27T04:50:22Z")
Sure that’s not “restless leg”? (to **Markxxx** ) As for me, at work, I whisper to myself as I’m walking down the halls of my hospital. At home I talk to myself out loud. Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/54 "2008-12-27T15:25:56Z")
I count to 8, over and over again when climbing stairs. ---
**Author:** ![mauxlicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@mauxlicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mauxlicious)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/55 "2008-12-27T16:10:29Z")
I wet the tootbrush twice as well, but that just seems like good sense. When I answer my desk phone at work and am talking to a customer, I prefer to stand up. In fact I think I am a better salesperson when standing up. I also hate it when a customer calls me on my cell phone. I feel less professional. When I eat, I never mix. If I have three courses on my plate I completely finish one before moving on to the other. Not a bite of this and then a bite of that. Completely finish and move on. Like eat all my fries, then my burger…all my mashed potatoes then my chicken…etc. I do this because when I was 6 I read a Dear Abby (hey, it was by the comics) column in which someone wrote in that their child did this and they thought it was odd. Abby said it was a sign that they would be a success in business because they would finish one task before moving on to the next. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/56 "2008-12-27T16:47:01Z")
When I’m watching tv or listening to music, the volume has to be on an even number. I really prefer multiples of 4, but any even number will do in a pinch. If someone else touches the volume and leaves it on an odd number, I can’t let it go. I’ll have to click it over one more time to make it even. When I adjust the volume myself, I always move it four places at a time, and I almost always have it on 24 or 28 or 32, and so on. Oh, and when I bite on the inside of my lips, which is a bad habit in itself, I catch myself doing it four little bites at a time. And I’ll count in the back of my mind, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/57 "2008-12-27T17:00:45Z")
> [@mauxlicious](#): > > Abby said it was a sign that they would be a success in business because they would finish one task before moving on to the next. So how’s business? ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/58 "2008-12-27T17:03:16Z")
> [@mauxlicious](#): > > When I eat, I never mix. If I have three courses on my plate I completely finish one before moving on to the other. Not a bite of this and then a bite of that. Completely finish and move on. Like eat all my fries, then my burger…all my mashed potatoes then my chicken…etc. I do this because when I was 6 I read a Dear Abby (hey, it was by the comics) column in which someone wrote in that their child did this and they thought it was odd. Abby said it was a sign that they would be a success in business because they would finish one task before moving on to the next. If only I’d read Dear Abby as a child! I tend to do this even to this day, but as a kid I was far worse. If I had a bowl of Froot Loops I would only eat one color at a time. My aunt thought this was quite bizarre and told my mother I was weird. Whenever I have a sandwich or a burger, I’ll eat all around the edges and slowly work my way inwards. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/59 "2008-12-27T17:14:26Z")
> [@jali](#): > > I count sometimes. > > If I were measuring distances I’d have a reason. I just find myself counting the steps I take as I walk, but I don’t remember ever deciding to count, I’ll be up to 50 or 60 before I realize I’m doing it again. > > Weird. I do this too. Also, if I’m waiting somewhere (like at a bus stop) and am not reading I’ll start counting; usually I’m also doing a mental thing like “the bus will come before I get to…” I found myself doing this when I was flying this week, both while waitying for the plane to take off and while we were on landing approach. ---
**Author:** ![mauxlicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@mauxlicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mauxlicious)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487/60 "2008-12-27T17:20:48Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > So how’s business? Decent, given the circumstances. I think I still eat like that because I am very task oriented. Don’t get me worng, I can ignore stuff and procrastinate with the best of them, but when I set about to do something, I _have_ to finish it and it has to be done right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-stuff-you-do-habitually-for-no-reason/478487.md?page=4)