Member-only story
Being an Obsessive Neat Freak Is Ruining My Sleep
Not another nightmare about dirty dishes and rings around the tub.
Life is messy, and so is love — but that doesn’t mean I have to be. In fact, I might be the world’s most fastidious, anally retentive neat freak since The Odd Couple’s Felix Unger.
That said, I don’t think I’ve quite ventured into OCD territory. You’re more likely to find me obsessively organizing and tidying up than compulsively mopping the floor and sanitizing surfaces. I’m not a germaphobe either, so the pandemic hasn’t substantially altered my everyday tidying-up rituals.
But the considerable challenges of being a neat freak persist. When I’m awake, I’m constantly straightening up, lest disarray interfere with my thought process. When I sleep, I dream about the cleaning chores morning will bring.
At least these days I get to do my obsessing in one place. Living and sleeping on multiple continents and in multiple beds as I did between 2006 and 2019 sometimes made being obsessed with tidiness especially difficult. Staying in one Airbnb after another meant being at the mercy of someone else’s cleaning ethic. Still, I always put up a good fight.
