Sparkling Clean

On By MeghaIn Know me, Perspective

I was a normal child and a very normal teen until one day a bug bit me and infected me with a deadly disease. The disease of being a cleanliness freak. I would stay sad till all surfaces in sight were clean, spotless and sparkling bright.

In no time my fanaticism changed to an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I tried to cleanse my heart, my mind and even my soul of this tiring ailment, but it only grew with time. I can’t stand even a single hair lying lazy on a white tile or marring the glory of a wash basin. It has to go the minute I see it. Even if I were to spit, I’ll race to get hold of the brush, get the wash basin to a sparkling state, then go ahead and spit in it.

It’s a sad state to be in, but no-matter how hard I try I have failed to stop myself from getting mad about cleaning the house. The bathroom tiles don’t satisfy me with being plain clean. They need to shine and even sunlight should make them appear as reflective surfaces, else you’ll see me scrubbing them more than my own body while I am in the bathroom.

The other thing that irks me to extreme are creased sheets. I can’t resist my temptation to stretch and tuck a sheet ( even if it not in my own house let alone my own bed) that I have actually been spotted doing it even at my friend’s place and on a few occasions even in the hotel rooms we’d stayed in.

The best part of it is, I never wait to seek help. No, I can’t wait for even the next minute, nor do I expect our domestic help to clean up things to this perfection. If I have to judge others I am content with any level of cleanliness till cleanliness exists. It’s my personal liking and I love handling it myself.

Be it any hour of the day, if I am expecting guests in the house, I’ll make sure everything from furniture to crockery to walls,windows, robes, washroom and every other thing/place in the house is spotless clean. The outcome, I am often tired to extremes long before the actual event. But I simply can’t help it.

I don’t like mess. You’ll see me arranging things anywhere and at any hour of the day or night. I literally try to command my mind and hands to stop and to take it easy. But in no-time thoughts like, ‘come on it’ll only take a minute‘ ‘why leave the mess for others to clean up’ or worse still ‘ what if I’ll need something urgently and it won’t be available being lost in this mess?’ and the result, you know it well.

The worst case was the day I got back home from the hospital after giving birth to Pari. I went to the toilet and was taking longer than I normally should. My mum soon smelled something was wrong, she called out my name and asked, “Are you OK? Should I come in?” when I replied, “everything’s OK” without waiting she added, “don’t even think of touching any of the cleaners or brushes.” On being scolded and threatened, in no time I sheepishly opened the door, biting my tongue hard to resist from telling her that I was actually doing something on the lines she’d been dreading.

The song on my mind:

54 thoughts on “Sparkling Clean”

  1. I used to be a cleanliness freak but have become a little more normal now! But I can still go off the edge sometimes and when I do I start scrubbing everything everywhere. So I related to your post.

    P.S. Usually I run away from long lengthy posts, but your lucid writing is very inviting! 🙂 Happy to have found your blog.

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  2. so you are a cleanliness freak 🙂
    ahh well it is better than to live like hoarders 🙂 right ? but yes don’t do anything at the cost of your health…

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  3. ha haaa… this is a never ending topic at our home between the cleanliness freak (read as Me) and the yucky freaks (that’s how I call them for all the mess the father-daughter duo make at home).. No matter how hard I try on weekends to keep the house spic n span the other two at home will make a mess on the following day itself… I have left it at that now.. No more daily cleaning but I do clean every weekend at least for my soul to be happy and relax at a clean home for the two weekend days.. I can cook, wash or relax only if the house is kept clean. Come to my home on Friday evening and you can witness me with a broom stick and cloth.. 🙂 #neverendingstoriesoflife

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    1. I can so very well understand your point…when I was overseas and had working schedules demanding me to work 8 to 10 hours, I was still so sick of this OCD that I was sometimes spotted scrubbing the tiles and sinks at ten in the night or even before leaving for work.
      Extreme behavior it is…but at least it’s keeping the world clean 😉

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  4. Bikram

    Can you please give me a VIsit .. I got lots of work for you and since you love to clean .. it will do good for me toooo 🙂

    I jsut dont get time too much work 🙂

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  5. Haha! I have OCD towards cleaning my hands and in making lists and writing things down! I do want the place to be clean, but not sparkling clean! And to be honest, sometimes, I just let it go when I see S throwing away the pile of clothes, because I am too tired to do them!

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    1. Well, since you mentioned clothes, I’ll add (I didn’t mention it in my post else people would start considering me the real crazy nut;) ) I can’t see clothes not neatly piled up. You can see me folding, arranging and re-arranging clothes even at midnight if I am awake. I don’t mind stepping out of the cosy blanket if I spot clothes lying unfolded anywhere 😦

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  7. I am a little mad myself, but after reading you, I think I am not that far gone 🙂

    I am not tidy though – I clean, but tidiness is something I cannot muster 😦

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    1. I had thought having a baby will slow me down…but it hasn’t worked till now…though I am eagerly waiting for my daughter grow and force me to let things lie 😀

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  8. hehe..you surely will have a tough time in our house then! It is messy (from what some other people have mentioned). I think I never had the ocd for a clean house. I am perfectly at peace with stuff lying around, bedsheets un tucked and the house not vacuumed. My mom is just like you though, she keeps everything so clean!! And she often says that I have not even got 1% of her cleanliness habit! 😀

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    1. I was trying hard to avoid confessing it…but since you mentioned your mum let me add…I have inherited the OCD from my mum…though her fields of expertise in cleaning are more in seeing shelves well-arranged and the targets are mainly the dressing table and kitchen…so it sorts of balances out…and the outcome whole house stays clean 😀

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  9. Lol…you’d give my parents a run for their money. My parents are both cleanliness freaks and growing up with them was painful. Now, having a place of my own, I realise I’m a bit like them…except thankfully, not as bad as them! for instance, I’m ok with leaving the dishes undone for a day or two or cleaning the house only every fortnight. I think since getting my cat four months ago, my standards may have slipped even more because we have her toys strewn everywhere! 😛

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    1. I’ve had pets all my life, and you can see me cleaning the dog bowls twice a day just see them shining too…yeah, even after having a baby.
      I too inherited the OCD but only from my mum…my dad is normal on this front.
      My stay overseas has only added fuel to my already de-ranged state 😥 😥

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  10. Errrr…When you come to my house, please give me like two days warning will ya :):) *My mom would love to adopt you for this cleanliness streak in you :)*

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  11. You are like Monika Geller 🙂 I thought I had traces of this too. I can never leave a table dirty. Even at restaurants, I reach out to a tissue to keep wiping traces of spills. People sure think, i have an alternate career in hand 🙂

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    1. Talk about the dining table and kitchen bench…I clean it before I start working/ using it and even after I am done..that’s why I think it is a bit serious 😀
      😆 @ the idea of alternate career

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  12. Let Pari grow up a bit. I am sure you’ll get over this habit. My house is such a mess and I know its no use cleaning because it’ll return to the same state in no time even if I clean it, thanks to Cheebu 🙂
    With children around you can never clean enough 🙂

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    1. I am actually waiting for her to grow up so that I can get some peace of mind without actually running to to get hold of the duster or the broom or the brush 😀 😀

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  13. I sometimes have these cleaning urges but it’s not too severe. But you seem to have gone over the edge in this one. Maybe you should tell yourself to slow down and chill.

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    1. I am well aware of this fact Ash…hence I am eagerly waiting for Pari to grow up a little and be the naughtiest girl I have ever seen..maybe that will slow me down for sure 😀 😀

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  14. What? I find one more similarity with you! Studies, cooking and now cleaning… Were we sisters or what??

    I used to be like this. But now I have chosen to ignore and learning to let go of the OCD behavior coz some time back I had my right hand injured. Not due to any accident. Doc said it was due to stress on the right hand especially the wrist and the thumb. In medical terms, he called it ‘inflammation of tendons’. I was grounded for almost 2 weeks. I could’t take it after 2 days. I started using my left hand. So now, I take extra care while doing anything which exerts stress on my right hand.

    Don’t let the OCD take a toll on your health dearie. You now have Pari to take care of 🙂

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    1. We sure are sisters Seema…for I too have actually had this syndrome where it kills to make any movement of the right thumb 😥 😥
      I am sincerely trying my level best to get sane for the sake of Pari.

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  15. God ! And my husband thinks that I have an OCD. I should send him to you for a week. Maybe then he’ll relaize that my cleaning is “normal” and help me too :p

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  17. ajay

    You sound like Monica in FRIENDS! 😀 I am myself a notorious cleanliness freak at home so I can empathize with you. 🙂

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  18. I don’t know why people are so extreme. Take me for example, I am the reverse extreme case. Three people had to convince me that there was so much dust on the table I have my laptop on, before I even noticed that there was dust indeed!

    I think, there is a philosophy in this – I am extremely concentrating on what I am doing (working on the laptop) that I am not able to see the dust. Remember the Arjun looking only at the targets eye and just not able to see anything else example in Mahabarat? That fits me perfectly. Or I would like to think so 😉

    Destination Infinity

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  20. Err..I think you will give me one whack if you see my house or like celestial rays said make me kneel down,write impositions,the works. *gulp*

    But I must tell you this, I dream,dream and dream to be like you on this.
    And then I wake up.
    To mess,mess and more mess.

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  21. Living with all the filth around me, i thought i had successfully got over the OCD, but i still find the obsession coming up at strange times. Recently, when i was at a supermarket, i found some packets improperly arranged on the shelf and almost instinctively I parked my cart aside and started arranging those packets. I could not move until i was happy with the arrangement.

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  24. Hahahaha, I totally get where you are coming from. The day I came home from the hospital with DD, I vacuumed the whole house, upstairs and downstairs. I have been asked to consult a psychiatrist for my OCD. Hang in there. As Pari grows up she’ll demand that you clean less, and guess what, you will, because spending time with her will take precedence over everything else 😀

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