Cleanliness (or lack thereof)

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I like cleanliness too.

I like showers twice a day.

I like a clean desk that's organized and efficient.

I would rather spend time cleaning (to a responsible extent) than live in filth and squalor.

I don't understand why people live with dishes piled in the sink for a week (or more), or have boxes of crap all throughout their home as a regular way of life. That's not a very serene way to live. Sometimes it's flat out nasty.

I know a woman who lives with her mother. Neither are very old, and both are physically able to clean... but they don't.
Dishes stay in the sink and piled on cabinets for months. Their aged pets pee/crap on the floor and liter box and they don't clean it up right away as it happens. Pet hair is all over their furniture. Their ceiling is leaking (I get the ceiling repair not being fixed, as that costs money). Crap is piled everywhere-- dirty laundry, scattered collectibles, old books, movies. They don't take the trash out nearly often enough. You would think these people were lazy slob teenagers. I seriously doubt they own a vacuum cleaner. I doubt their sheets or furniture is ever washed/steam cleaned. They work normal hours, but don't spend the time to clean or sanitize their house. Dirty dishes for weeks in a kitchen can easily attract bugs.

With that said, the lady who's a professional organizer who posted a video on YouTube with every pencil categorized by color in pricey "cute" storage boxes all throughout her house... that's too much. She goes beyond the level of responsible and organized to super OCD. Her scrapbook stickers are organized by theme in separate "designer" container organizers. Her pantry food cans are alphabetized and sorted by height and size of can. I like organization, but spending thousands on "designer" container organizers and going that far is kind of a waste. Even so, it's much more sanitary than living in filth and clutter.

I live an odd middle of the road when it comes to organization and cleanliness. I have dishes in my sink for week, but they are all pre-scraped and rinsed to remove food particles. I don't want to feed any insects or vermin. I will go through periods of obsessing over cleaning up my house but they will be followed with periods of not caring very much. Right now, I need to start a new obsession with cleanliness again. I also need to finish some projects and sell off some cars in order to reduce the stress in my life. Sometimes, it gets to the point of being unmanageable and I shut down for a while.

As far as personal hygiene is concerned, I shower every day that I work or get real dirty or have somewhere to be. On my day off though, I sometimes don't. I see little reason to shower when all I am going to do is go to a junkyard or put together a project. Shaving is something I do daily when I work too as it helps with my image for the customers who then tip me more (I deliver pizza for a living). However, my work clothes get washed only once a week as I try to do only one load of laundry a week to cut down on utility costs. I do wear clean underwear and a clean undershirt every day though.

I also try to keep the exterior and engine bay of my car spotless but have a harder time dealing with the interior. When you spend as much time as I do in a car, it's not always easy to keep it neat.

I also shower twice a day, most days. I -loathe- the feeling of being unclean. I wash my hands extremely often - I cannot play any musical instrument without washing my hands first. It's all about the texture I have with freshly washed hands. There is logic behind it, for bass and guitar - washing your hands before playing will help your strings last longer - it also gives me the perfect skin texture for playing fretless bass.

I'm a bit middle of the road as well. I have to shower every morning, shave armpits (yes I know its odd in a bloke), brush teeth and use mouth wash, then moisturiser, scent free deodorant, foot spray then approved smellies (aftershave - one of 4 I've found that don't give me migraines) have to wear a clean shirt and undies every day, trousers I wear for 3 days max. Its a ritual and I used to take longer to get out the house in the morning than my ex girlfriend but if I don't do this I get paranoid (not sure why as I can still smell every one else even if they've showered). Only exception is my loose silk shirt I wear around the house and that gets washed weekly (so soft, smooth and baggy, I love it , the one concession I allow myself).

As to the house, my Kitchen is as clean as my lab used to be (cleaned daily, disinfected Friday), cupboards stacked/organised as its the place where I can play and experiment (substitute cooking for chemistry (same thing really) but the rest of the house tends to have books and paperwork all over the place and is dusty but never get round to hoovering but it has to be clean but messy.

Got to say though when I'm going through a bad patch (depression wise) I do get a worse as my AS symptoms get worse. Can't take running water on my skin, even scent free deodorant/soap smells too much and the kitchen gets into a mess but too overloaded to care/notice but then again I avoid other people anyway.

I shower everyday, wash my hands constantly, and my favourite pastime is organising my room. So yeah, I'm pretty funny about being clean.

I have a standard, but it is lower than most people. I don't tolerate food or anything that could rot. I don't tolerate lots of actual dirt. But clutter... it's everywhere. I have two kids so I have to keep somehwat on it, but it can get bad if I get into a routine where I'm working out a lot.

My place gets pretty messy and dirty because it's almost impossible for me to consistently remember and actually do anything on a regular basis. Literally the only things I can remember to do daily are eat, sleep, use the toilet, feed the cat (he'll cry to remind me if I forget), water the plants, and use the computer.

Typing this made me remember that today is the day I'm supposed to bring the paper in. It's 10:45 now and I looked outside for it and it's gone. Someone stole it.

I am usually very clean, and will often take showers just to calm down when I'm upset or have a migraine. Shower water works kind of like a whole body version of white noise for me. I can be pretty rigid about certain aspects of my morning/night hygiene routines. I can condense it, or lengthen it, add things to it, but if it gets cut short I'm probably going to be sullen/grumpy.
I can stand going without a shower for a little while though, as I like to camp and hike, and take wipes and washclothes for that. So I have my routine, modified. I don't mind getting my hands dirty, but I do mind them staying that way, and I can't stand having dirt under my nails.

My friends call my house the Zen Den because it's decorated in a way that's simple, tasteful, functional, organized, easy to keep up with, and isn't overstimulating. It can get a little surface clutter from projects being staged but it's easy to tidy. My friends and family have definitely noticed that I work off anxiety and upsets by cleaning and organizing my environment. One of the things I do is re-work problem areas so I have fewer problems with them, or fewer decisions to make if I'm spending too much time dwelling there on the options when they could be more obvious. Areas can get a little untidy especially when I've got art projects being staged. My dad has OCD, and I've been told I don't have it but I have OCD tendancies and that definitely shows up in my cleaning.

I am exactly like that, CaptainWill. I'm a complete slob- my kitchen is a disaster area and I need to excavate to find anything in my bedroom. But I'm very thorough when I shower, and that's at least every day. I love feeling completely fresh and new when I step out of the shower. ...I don't shower on time though. I'm always late for everything because I put off getting ready for too long, and then when I get in the shower the rest of the world melts away and I just hang out in there for like half an hour. I used to have a clock in the shower to help prevent that but it's gone now...

I'm like this too. It drives my DH nuts. And I'm like this with anything about my environment. I'll spend hours and hours shopping for clothes, always have to have clean things on, but I'd be happy with an empty room with a mattress on the floor.

When I was little I was the most disgusting child, everyone stayed away from me. I never cared about bathing, personal grooming, combing my hair (and I'm a girl who liked to keep her hair long, so you can imagine the mess), changing my clothing, or table manners. Yet everything around me was organized amazingly.

And now it's swapped.

Now I feel uncomfortable if I wear an article of clothing for too long, or if I've had the same pillow sheet for too many days in a row. Washing my hair twice in the shower is a must. I constantly get up to go wash my hands, because if they're even the slightest bit greasy I might as well have stuck them in a vat of vegetable oil and butter. And yet, my surroundings are haphazard.

I'm not sure why this is.

I'm extremely obsessed with cleanliness, especially in regards to personal hygiene, yet at times, the house looks like a war-zone. That's the result of having insufficient time to tidy up the place or a failed attempt at hyper-organization (organizing and reorganizing things to the point that you get utter chaos rather than the sought-after order).

Oh no! I'm sorry.

Why would someone steal your newspaper?

I was also quite a dirty child thinking about it, but then I also had this obsession about cleaning my hands/bacteria contamination etc. after I got threadworm when I was 11. I've been terrified of parasites ever since, it makes me feel so uneasy.