Often times there are people who say they are clean freaks but there is a big difference between being neat and clean. Neat is when you make your bed and most of your things are organized. But being clean is being neat AND also needing everything you own- the floor, your room, your fridge, even your sink- to be cleaned, and not just clean, spotless.
If you find yourself being borderline OCD about cleaning, this article is for you. If you're a normal person and clean much less than us clean freaks, then I would suggest reading it anyway. Maybe you'll learn something from this. Take some advice and inspire you to join this very exclusive, very CLEAN club.
Here are just a few signs to diagnose yourself of being a clean freak.
1. Cleaning is calming to you
When I find myself stressed, there are a few things I do to calm my anxiety or get my mind off of it for a while. Some normal things to do is maybe listening to music or writing in a journal, or taking a bubble bath. Nope, I take out some cleaning products, sniff the fumes for a healthy amount of time, and start my therapy.
2. You go to someone's house and notice how clean/ dirty their house is.
No matter how long you know the person or if you're just meeting them, you always look at the floors or take note of the cookie pans. Do they use Brillo pads to clean the stainless steel pots and pans? Do they say something about their house if it's "dirty"? If they do do that then that means they care, and they know that even if it is on the cleaner side, it isn't clean enough for them.
3. You absolutely cannot leave your house without making your bed
It's painful for you to leave your house if you don't make your bed. You always set a couple of minutes to do it so uniformly. It can never be done sub-par because you never do anything that relates to cleaning like that.
4. You are probably Italian and were raised by a mother who is also a clean freak.
Italians raise the best cleaners. That's a fact. There are obviously people that aren't Italian and are clean freaks, but so far in my life I haven't met any clean freak who didn't at least have a little Italian in them.
5. You can't help but to assist the host at a party
It's not only nice to help, but it's in your blood to do it and you're more than happy to help because you can't help yourself. Even when the host says that you don't need to help, that means nothing to you because you're just gonna keep helping.
6. You identify with Monica Geller so much
Even if you're not a girl, this is your character from Friends. You need to have things in order or else it physically hurts. Your friends are often scared of you when they make things go out of order. You love hosting parties because you get to clean before and after. Which brings me to my next post.
7. You excel at being a party host
You make things immaculate, organize everything, you get to make LISTS (so exciting), you get to cross things off your list, you get to clean afterwards, more than you clean on the regular basis.
8. You find yourself cleaning after someone else cleaned
If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.
9. You don't mind living with slobs (most of the time)
Sometimes, but not all of the time, living with slobs or people that are not as much as a clean freak as you is great because you get to organize things how you want them more times than if you were living by yourself or with other clean freaks. It's definitely more satisfying.
10. You get annoyed when you load the dishwasher and people put dishes in the sink
"The dishwasher is dirty", is what you find yourself saying everytime you hear someone put something in the sink.
11. When someone uses your cleaning products, you want to slap them
Do not touch or use my cleaning products. Last year I couldn't find my Lysol and I wanted to scream at my suitemates. I went to clean my floor and it was gone. So I used their Fabuloso instead.
12. Your friends have asked you if you have OCD
Well, not diagnosed OCD. But there is a difference. There aren't any patterns to what you do, it's just satisfying to be organized and clean.
13. You love lists
Because where there is cleanliness, there is a list somewhere. You love being organized, organizing your thoughts on a notepad, crossing things off said list and getting it done is such a good feeling.
14. You talk about people who aren't as clean with other clean freaks
This person is my mother, who I constantly go to to talk about the people who aren't like us. The people I babysit, she asks about their houses, the different people I live with, she asks about. And we talk about them like they're some different breed of person.
15. The PURE satisfaction of folding a fitted sheet the right way
The most frustrating thing in anyone's life is folding a fitted sheet and those very few times you perfect it, you feel such a sense of bliss and satisfaction in your life. So satisfied that you don't want to use that sheet ever again.
