How about how silverware is SUPPOSED to go in dishwasher? ALL points DOWN, making sure things are well spaced out so no stacking of spoons or forks. You only have to STAB yourself once (I hope) before realizing this is the CORRECT way to load!

I used to think Martha Stewart's near rabid proclamation over how toilet paper goes on was crazy... NOT literally!?! BUT over the top IS the way to go. The toilet paper iin the student bathrooms at school goes on however the janitor(s) put it on. I have made an observation after EVERY day the floors are littered with hunks of TP. First... girls can be pigs! WHY is there always TP on the floor? I have concluded that if a girl goes into a stall and paper (on the WRONG way) is touching the floor, they must be just pulling off the offending part that actually touched the floor and just letting it fall?? I haven't been able to convince the janitor to try putting it on the correct way and seeing what the result will be?!?

Not a quirk at all!

Neatness and cleanliness are signs of a positive, organized individual.

"Neatness and order support health--and oppose chaos."**

As an equity mortgage manager, housekeeping is a major determinant of whether I turn thumbs up or down on a deal.

When I was young and dating, a messy apartment stalled any future relationship --after a trial run perhaps--regardless how otherwise appealing was the prospect.

I'd say more, but time to clean a toilet or two.

Anne, you could be my sister. You'd think with my sister, I could pitch in and cook, clean in her kitchen just like I do with my SILs, friends, and they in return do here. She is so rigid as to where things go in her kitchen, if I reverse and put her salt shaker to the right of the pepper instead of her way, the next time she cooks she will pepper when she means to salt (and complain). Things are so perfectly, consistently placed in her cupboards she doesn't really even look at things as she removes to use. Unless I've surprised her.

My DH has a quirk about groceries: he will carry them inside for me, if he's home, and put the bags on the kitchen counters. Then, he takes everything out of the bags, leaving it all spread on the counters. And leaves the bags there too. It's like he wants to see every single thing I bought. But he doesn't put anything away. Not even refrigerator or freezer stuff.

I get really agitated if anyone comes in the kitchen while I'm cooking,probably because everyone seems to be a super know it all gourmet with a million suggestions. I also don't like anyone else cooking in my kitchen. Once, SO knew I was dead tired, I had just gotten home from my 6th 16 hour night shift in a row, and was knocked out. He came and woke me up to tell me he had cooked me breakfast. I was REALLY irritated that he cooked,and i knew i would he stuck with all the cleanup,but bit my tongue because it WAS really sweet of him,.and WAY out of his comfort zone. Poor thing took 3 hours to make "breakfast" which turned out to be 1 piece of bacon, half a hotdog,a biscuit cooked almost beyond recognition, and a huge pile of that knorr brocolli cheese rice stuff. I did end up having to clean up before I went back to bed, but I guess it's the thought that counts. It did improve my mood that he went out of his way. I never thought he would even attempt to cook anything. I wasnt sure he knew how to use the microwave. At least he always abides my "stay outta the kitchen when I'm cooking" command.

My biggest quirk is when guests stay over and use the decorative towels in my bathroom. I have decorative towels I don't want used, for display only and regular shower/bath towels. I'll even lay out the regular shower/bath towels for them, some people still prefer to use my decorative towels.

My parents did the same thing, we were raised never to use the ones hanging because they're for decoration only.

I've had a couple people ask first, are those for use? So I think they might do the same thing.

Anne

I believe almost everyone has harmless quirks of one sort or another. For me it is pillow arrangement.

Both sofa/loveseat and bed pillows have to be arranged in a certain way. It doesn't bother me when guests come over and mix up the sofa/loveseat pillows but after they leave I rearrange them in the original pattern.

JeCrigler, for bathroom hand towels I use cheap white washcloths, I have a wicker basket to hold them..I roll them up place them in the basket and have another small basket on the floor to toss them into. I really hate using the same towel others have used. I've gotton a lot of positive comments from guests, family, friends about this. I know there was one person that used my deco towels because they don't like us ing a community towel..this solved the problem. The washcloth is just big enough to dry once than toss in the small wicker hamper.

I admit I find the concept of "decorative towels" mind boggling. If I put out fancy towels for guests I would expect them to be used. If I didn't want them used, I wouldn't put them out.

"You only have to STAB yourself once (I hope) before realizing this is the CORRECT way to load!" Now, see, this is where we differ. _I_ think the CORRECT way is to put the business ends up out of the baskets so all the crud washes off them and they're not sitting in any undissolved crud in the bottom of the basket. But I won't insist you do it my way if you don't insist I do it yours :-)

My quirk is how the laundry is hung out- we generally line dry our laundry. I like it with all my undies together in a certain part of the line, all the socks side by side in pairs, all DH's undies in their section, my pants in a certain way... you get the picture. When DH "helps" me hang out the laundry for some reason, I have to fight off the urge to rehang it the "right" way.

The communal bathroom hand towel makes me cringe. It isn't a quirk. I think it is unhealthy. You visit someone, their kids have colds and next thing you know everyone is sick. I refuse to use that wet old towel you find in otherwise nice clean homes. I help myself to a clean towel or use a paper towel.

For the powder room/guest bathroom, I also have a wicker basket on the counter filled with white facecloths (folded in half and then thirds), for one time use for hand drying. I don't consider it a quirk though.

Presumably the person using the communal towel has washed his hands with soap and water, and the germs went down the drain. I keep a stack of paper towels in the public bathroom so people have a choice of what to use.

My mother had decorative never-to-be-used towels in the home as we were growing up. Family of 5, one small bathroom - what was she thinking? That and a decorative dish of small soaps, also never to be used. Even after they faded and the dust grew on them, they sat there unused.

It's interesting how one person's IT MUST BE THIS WAY is another person's I don't think so. I had to once explain to a friend why I felt it necessary to paint the wall area behind the refrigerator. The best I could come up with is that doing less than the whole wall makes you look like a lazy painter.

I think adults generally wash their hands well. Children? Not so much. I have seen quick rinses and kids who give their runny noses a swipe with the towel. As much as I love them...they can be gross.

I like the rolled "fingertip" towels in the bathroom with a wicker basket on the floor too.

I just told my husband the other day, "you can load and unload the dishwasher but leave them on the counter so I can put them away my way". So he does.

I think adults generally wash their hands well.

Having seen women in public restrooms barely wet their hands and then grab a (thankfully disposable paper) towel, I don't think this is always so. In addition, depending on the housekeeping skills and time available, one does not know how often those community towels are laundered. And I totally agree with you Elizabeth about children and their treatment of towels.

DH is now retired. Thankfully I will retire in a couple of months and can monitor his laundry habits more carefully. He does laundry on his own, and, bless his heart, he generally does great. What drives me crazy, is he sometimes doesn't sort like I do and my fine lingerie ends up in the wash with his jeans. And then he will go to the other extreme and not wash anything of mine with anything of his, even if it isn't a full load.

We also disagree about the dishwasher thing. According to what I recently read, fork tines should go up. Spoons should alternate, so they don't, well, spoon together. Knives down of course.

My dishwasher has slits for the utensils so one would assume they need to go mouth side up because there's no way to put them the other way. Knives, on the other hand, must be point down. People have actually died from knives being put point up in dishwashers. Of course, it would be a freak accident, but it has happened.

Towels exist to absorb water. A hand towel is intended to dry hands. Every guest hand towel is intended to be used by guests to dry their hands, whether decorated or not.

I expect at a guest to use a guest hand towel and discard it, crumpled, to the side of the unused guest hand towels. Sometimes guest hand towels are decorated for the purpose of clearly indicating that they are intended for guest use.

I'd be less concerned with a guest acquiring germs from family towels than the reverse.

My biggest quirk is I hate people in my kitchen when I'm working. Seriously hate it. Even after 40 yrs my DH forgets and comes up behind me (usually when I have a knife in my hand so really, not a great idea AT ALL). I whirl around because I'm going the proverbial 'mile a minute' and have crashed into him more than once!

Or I'm thinking of the best way to accomplish four or five activities in a short amount of time: I stand still and think about it, and he starts offering suggestions of how he could do this or that for me, or maybe we don't need to do so-and-so at all, put it off till another day, yadda yadda....

"Look, just go away and let me work it out on my own, and I'll come discuss it with you then."

Only I don't say it so calmly, LOL.

The latter happens when we need to do various errands, and I'm the one that does 98% of the driving. I remind myself that he's really just trying to help, because he's a sweetheart!

In SE Asia, it's not uncommon to see a communal cotton bath towel hanging in the bathrooms of small family run businesses such as restaurants and bars. They think nothing of it, but I must admit that I dried my hands on my jeans more than once.

Here is another option for the guest towel dilemma. While I have misgivings about how environmentally friendly it is to use these, I do have a box in my house that my sister purchased during one of her visits. We don't use them on a daily basis, but I do put the box out when I have company and they seem to appreciate it.

The box is designed to sit on the counter or to be hung upside down on a towel rack which turns the box into a towel dispenser.

Not as pretty as Dawn's box of paper hand towels (I may look for those ;0)), but I keep a roll of paper towels at laundry sink, kitchen sink, all three bathrooms. Garage. Guests can use hand towels, or paper towels, their choice and I'd never suggest one over the other. Guest seems like an odd description, we have people here often - several times a week. We have a lot of drop in company. It's nice that many of DHs friends will happily reach for a paper towel and put that in the waste basket, or, I'd be washing many, many hand towels.

Only hand towels we use in my house are the facecloths..I wash a full load weekly. Clean towel every time you dry.

I am pretty laid back about almost everything discussed here. I don't mind some clutter, I want my home to be lived in, it's not a showplace, just to be looked at. It needs to be inviting and comfortable.

I like to have pretty towels in the guest bathroom, and I expect guests to use them. Like Colleenoz, if I didn't want them used, I wouldn't put them out.

When I used a dishwasher, I loaded the silverware with the business end up, alternating spoons and forks, and knives with the blade down. Just makes sense to me. if someone else was helping, & did it differently, no problem. Now that I am hand washing dishes, I put the silverware in the drainer the same way as I did in the dishwasher.

I have one SIL that I dearly love, but I hate going to her house with a purple passion! EVERYTHING has to be just exactly so at all times! She even dries the kitchen sink with a paper towel any and every time she runs any water for anything. I am extremely uncomfortable there, I'm always afraid I might leave a fingerprint on something, or a watermark in her sink. Thankfully, I live almost 200 miles from her.

There is a fine line between keeping things neat and attractive, and OCD behavior. Personally, I feel life is WAY too short to spend it obsessing about how the silverware or pantry items are placed, or which towels are to be used.

Rusty

Yes Rusty, when everything has to be perfect, that is OCD behavior.

Funny, I can have dishes in the kitchen sink but my bathroom, the master, (my husband uses the other one), has cleaned counters with no makeup, brushes, or anything out. Everything is put away in the bathroom yet a not quite cleaned up kitchen doesn't bother me.

I definitely agree on the silverware in the dishwasher: My new dishwasher has slits for the handles to go in, leaving the actual spoon part and the prongs of the fork sticking up. The slits hold each piece apart so they can all get clean.

Knives, however, go blade-end down in the slit.

So when I load the silverware in, I put all the teaspoons next to each other, the tablespoons together, forks together, etc. Now that's quirky. :) But I figure it's easier and quicker to grab them together to put them away.

I would love to think while I am "quirky" I am not OCD, it doesn't derail my day but if others are OCD then I will not insult them. It bugs me but I do what I have to and move on. I am sort of feeling bad that I started this thread. ......

Don't feel bad, Anne. I find all of our quirks and foibles interesting and endearing. I think being able to recognize these things about ourselves and laugh at the things we do to be healthy behavior. Hubby is out of town working and just said to me over the phone the other night that he's missing my quirks. They are part of what makes us us. :-)

Anne, you enjoy a well orginized pantry and closets, since when is that OCD...its always been called orginized in my mind. I sure wouldn't feel bad..be proud of yourself as many don't have great orginizational skills. Regardless orginized cubbords or not...doesn't make anyone who they really are which is a good thing since my pantry often looks like a tornado went thru it. Lol. I would love to have the patience to keep my pantry orginized like yours..on that note I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

Anne these questions are a good idea. They help us to question our ways and then continue to do them our way , lol. :) ;)

My quirks have changed since I got better. I used to hate DH being in the kitchen when I was sick because any distraction had my concentration go out the window. In fact I could barely have anyone in the house if I wanted to get anything done. Now several of us converge on the kitchen at once. We love being in there as a crowd. :) We shoo the dogs out though as they're a tripping habit. The dogs are the floor inspectors after we're done.

Now I dislike when no one helps me when I'm doing a household chore. My new quirk is that I'm the greasy wheel. I'm kind but firm and make sure I'm heard when I need help. It's taken a while but my family is getting used to the new clear about my needs me. I like this much better. I'm keeping this quirk.

My pantry is not neat though but everything is in bug proof containers..

We have our own towels each including hand towels. For guests we have a pile of towels that are for adults and a pile for kids. I wash my hands frequently and wash surfaces regularly so don't worry too much about dirty hands on others, unless food prep is involved. Then they wash their hands in front of me at the sink before being allowed to help. We have tons of dish towels for wet hands in the kitchen and they go right into the laundry.

Let me elaborate on the towel thing. My decorative towels were purchased because they match the exact color and style of the bathroom. I have 2 towel racks. Each towel rack is arraigned with 2 bath towels, 2 hand towels draped over the bath towels and 2 washcloths draped over the hand towels. They are folded perfectly and line up exact. No tags showing.

On the sink I do have hand towels for daily use. And when someone wants to take a shower I go into the towel closet and bring out regular shower towels for them and sit them out.

But gosh darn it, some of my guests still dry their hands on my decorative hanging bath towels. And they are crumpled and out of order so I have to rewash and rehang. They were hard to find and I want to keep them looking brand new.

I have piles of towels I don't care about and will lay out when guests are over for use.

I can only surmise that people think my decorative towels are actually guest towels, and they are guests? I'm trying not to be OCD on the towels.

>>I can only surmise that people think my decorative towels are actually guest towels, and they are guests?<<

Well, yes, that would be my thought. I really can't get my head around the concept of towels as pure decoration, taking up all the towel rack real estate but being untouchable. If it was important to me to have towels matching the bathroom at all times, I would buy a pile of them and just use them.

JeCrigler, that is why I would have at least 2 sets of an item if I know it is something that was hard to find.

Here is one of my examples. I have a toothbrush/toothpaste holder. This item goes seems to come and go with most sets only for toothbrushes. Combine that with what is available to actually match my bathroom, it becomes even more difficult. I found a set and after I received it and like it, I immediately bought another to keep on hold, incase I break this one.

I do the same with bath mats. You can't always get the color that you like, and also they last longer is you can tap them out.

eld6161 I also like to have what I call "back up" items...when an item is opened, whether it is milk or toilet paper, I buy another....so I won't run completely out of anything.

Whoa!!! My house is clean and what I consider organized. After reading this, maybe not. I am totally okay with my pantry being less than perfect, as long as all of the labels are right side up and facing out I am good. Towels, use whichever ones you take a fancy to. I am just very laid back and I want everyone to be comfortable at my house-they didn't use to be and I was called a neat freak, but I am getting better.

So I googled for stories about people dying from accidents related to knives in dishwashers. There haven't been a lot of cases, but if I had kids in my home, I would not be taking any chances.

I put my forks and knives in the dishwasher with tips up for two reasons. As mentioned upthread, it seems like they'd get cleaner that way because they aren't stuffed down in the basket. The other reason is because if I do put them tips down, they end up sliding down through the slots in the basket and keep the drawer/dish holder thingy from sliding out when I unload the dishwasher.

I'm well aware of the knife tips and have never cut myself. But, I've also had friends/relatives help me clean up the kitchen who have loaded the forks and knives with tips down and I just leave them that way because I appreciate the help and it doesn't bother me enough to reload them.

Dh & I are both anal about certain things, him a bit more than me. Fortunately, we usually give each other some slack.

I was going to say I totally don't get the decorative towel thing and then I looked up at the towel hanging from the oven door. It's there for decoration, nothing more ... but everywhere else towels are meant to be used.

I don't put any knives in the DW. I probably don't load the DW the way dh would, but that's ok. Everything comes out clean. He does the unloading. Together we hand wash/dry dishes every evening.

I just feel bad because some posters have insulted those of us who have a quirk. I know I have a quirk and I wish I had that quirk where there would never be a laundry basket on my dining room table. Was my point. My husband has some too....we just live with it....not going to break up the best relationship we ever had over silliness.....

If DH or one of our adult kids who live with us leave it not as I like, I move stuff. It doesn't annoy me, I just wonder why they don't leave the stuff on the counter for me to put away.

I will never put knives up because of an injury I know of to a child.....just me. I actually don't have a dishwasher in my home so it is all about no one should put a knife in wash water

Some of my knifes are hand wash only, as for the dishwasher I load all flatware with mouth part up but a knife point down since I have kids. Think if you read a manual it says to load flatware up for the same reasons some mentioned above. Sometimes kibble can collect in the bottom of the basket..plus its hard to get flatware clean if the spoons ect are nesting together and this is easier to watch out for if they face up...I didn't write the manuals but I do agree with this system.

As for deco towels..nothing wrong in my eyes with making the bath pretty..but I'll tell you I'm one of the ones that have used the pretty deco towels in peoples homes, I washed and thought..no way I'm touching that community hand towel so I used the pretty deco towel even knowing it wasn't there for hand drying. This is exactly why I mounted a wicker basket onto the wall and loaded it with fresh clean facecloths and a wicker basket on the floor to toss them into . .I wonder how many people just don't dry because they want a clean towel. In my house everyone gets a clean one with each hand wash. I just buy the cheap white face cloths from Walmart 18 pk for 5 bucks..a full load weekly and they can be chemically or thermally sanitized. Worst part is rolling them all...haha

Elizabeth that reminds me of my PJ's which are often older elastic waist clam diggers and seen better day floral or striped blouses...my cousin passes me her old clam diggers usually brightly colored florals..I match them with a polka dot blouse for bed. This even scares the hubs away..haha

DD has an interesting way of storing flatware/silverware (or could it be me?) I've always separated forks, knives, spoons, etc. into their own dividers in drawers. DD empties the entire silverware basket right from the dishwasher into her drawer. When I laughed out loud and then remarked about it she told me she can always see just what she needs. Makes sense. Wish I had more drawer space. I might do that too.

I like all the responses! Thank you. I think we all have weird stuff. Like I have said, my house is not spotless but clean and sometimes a little messy. I like any of my storage to be super organized. I have a spreadsheet for what is in my attic...but if someone messes it up then I just fix it.

I also like that in this combined family (all the "kids" are adults) it is open door and we can always get a meal together and if all the beds are full, pull up a couch or the floor. You are coming in from the west coast with 3 friends....bring them here because a hotel is something you can't afford.

For those posters who said they wished they had more organized pantries, I imagine you might be the people I envy for the perfect yards or no empty water bottles on the floor of their cars.....We all have our thing.

Meh. I used to (OCD, generalized Anxiety Disorder). Not excessively clean, but things had to be a certain way for me to be comfortable. Sometimes DH gets angry because something gets put in a different spot, or on a different side of the same shelf. I always remind him, I take expensive medicine expressly to not care if the salt is on the left or right of the pepper. If it bothers him, he can shooshie and move it ;)

Dances.

dances_in_garden....That made me laugh!

I'm badly missing my self described OCD condo cleaner. She's had to leave more tasks to her crew now that she's the mother of two. What could be more perfect for the client --an OCD cleaner!

I have a few quirks...like no frying in my kitchen except of course eggs or browning meat, guess I should say no deep frying.

And laundry..maybe I shouldn't even talk about how anal I am when it comes to laundry. ..lets just say guests have told me I have the best and most fresh scented bedding they've ever slept on. 5 beds get changed every 3 days and I iron sheets...I'm probably beyond quirky...LOL

mamapinky, I don't change the sheets that often, but I sure do love to iron. My sister LOVES doing laundry, but doesn't care to iron, so between us we are a perfectly matched set!

Until I read that some folks in the n. hemisphere put the business ends of their tools upwards in the dishwasher ...

... I wondered if your choice could be that of a "Down Under" person.

ole joyfuelled