Rules For My Sanity:

Over the last few years or so, I have come to realize that I have, at the least, a tiny case of OCD. I am fully aware and accepting of the fact that not everyone operates on the same level of crazy that I do, so allow me to present

RULES FOR MY SANITY
The Laundry Edition:

Rule Number 1: If you aren't going to do things MY way, then please, for my sanity, DON'T do them.

This rule is pretty much the most important rule for my sanity. Period. There are some things that I can deal with as long as I don't watch. For example, I can't stand the way in which my husband makes sweet tea or kool-aid. As long as I don't watch, it doesn't bother me, but if I happen to catch him at it... it makes me twitch.

Laundry is not one of those things that I can just turn around and ignore while someone else is doing it. Your laundry? Do it how you want, but MY laundry? Ha.. that's a whole other story.

First of all: Do not wash laundry unless you plan on putting it through the drier. I would rather laundry get dried and not folded than to sit in the washing machine until I happen upon it and then have to RE WASH it because it got all yicky sitting in there. Washing a load of laundry is NOT the same as DOING the laundry.

Next, I have a certain way of folding things. All things must be folded to these specifications or I start twitching and get a head ache. I'm serious. I ALWAYS fold things the same way and it drives me crazy that after 5 years of watching me fold laundry and always finding his laundry folded in the same manner, that my hubs DOES NOT fold the same way I do.

Do NOT begin folding a load of laundry and then stop half-way through and pile it all back into the basket. Finish what you start or just leave it alone.

If the laundry is a load of towels then just DON'T. Just WALK AWAY. I will do it. I just RE-FOLDED an entire load of towels that the hubby "folded" and then re-folded every towel in both bathroom cabinets. I can't stand a sloppily folded towel. I just can't. It's a rectangle. It has corners and flat edges and for it to be slopped together is just intolerable. All towels should form a nice and neat square or rectangle once folded.

I fold towels in half short ways first, then long ways, then short to make a square. Hand towels get folded in half short ways, then long ways to make a rectangle. Bath cloths get folded into squares UNLESS it is a baby bath cloth. They are so small, they don't need folding. I just stack them into a neat pile. I do this EVERY TIME I fold towels. EVERY TIME. I stack them so that the rounded, folded seam is facing out, and if there are more than one of a certain color I stack them on top of each other. I told you, I like neat towels. I always divide the towels into the same stacks according to which bathrooms they go in. I put the SAME towels into the front bathroom EVERY TIME. I put the same towels into my bathroom every time. Based on what color they are. Our bathroom gets the neutrals. The front bathroom gets the bright kid colors.

BUT, no matter how many times I have shown the hubs my towel folding method, no matter how many times he has watched me do it, he still slops them all together. Long ways first and the corners all askew and cattywonkers. Folding up baby bath cloths into tiny little squares that won't stack. Shoving them into the cabinets any which way. Towels all in the wrong bathrooms.

And, also?! There is a difference between a wash cloth and a bath cloth. Wash cloths are what get used to wash things in the house. Like wiping down counters or tables, or for dusting, or for cleaning out bathroom sinks and tubs, for wiping up spills. Bath cloths are used for bathing one's body. If you cannot tell the difference between a bath cloth and a wash cloth, even after using them and pulling them from their respective places for years, just DON'T do the towels. PLEASE. I beg you, at least, not at my house anyway.

There is this one wash cloth in particular that keeps finding it's way into the bath cloths and the shower despite my having held it up numerous times and declaring it a WASH cloth. A DISH RAG. A PLEASE DON'T BATH YOURSELF WITH THIS THING!!!! So today I just tossed it. It's not worth the twitching and the headaches.

Now, as I mentioned, I understand that not every one operates at this same level of crazy. I am even able to see the humor in my worrying over such things. I get laughed at for it, and I can totally laugh at myself for it, so feel free to tease. I don't nag Tim to do the laundry and then bitch at him for not doing it right. He just has a tendency to be helpful and do things without my asking. I know, right? It's almost blasphemous to complain about such things, but all of this brings us back to rule number 1 for my sanity.

If you are not going to do things my way, then please just don't do them.