i am neurotic.

Before I go to sleep, I have to make sure that my books are arranged in height order from tallest to shortest, and that every cupboard/drawer is closed. I also make sure that everything touches the corners of my drawers if they are the same shape as it, such as a book. I also have a marked ring where I must keep my hairbrush in place.

When I’m at the grocery store unloading my cart I have to keep the like items together. Produce, frozen foods, toiletries etc. I don’t like it when they get mixed up and get especially annoyed if despite my keeping them separate, the bagger stuffs different categories of things in the same bag.

Eating in order – Every time I eat a snack out of a bowl–say mini pretzels–I have to eat them in order from least tasty to tastiest. In the case of pretzels, this would mean I have to eat them in order from least salty to most salty. Touching a pretzel also immediately decreases its tastiness value, and the last two must be eaten one after the other.

I have 4 remotes. Regardless of whether or not I need all of them for the device the picture and sound come from that I am using, I MUST have them in a specific order from on the couch next to me. They go (from left to right) TV remote, Cable Remote, Stereo Remote, and Roku Box remote. I get mad when people mess it up or sit next to me and move them wrong.

When I go grocery shopping. I organize things that are not in the right place and put them where they belong and will front items so the shelves look perfect. My boyfriend usually has to tell me to stop before I realize I’m doing it or I will keep doing it until I’m satisfied.

When I’m highlighting something, I have to use all 6 colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple) in that order and make sure each colour has the same number of lines highlighted.

I have a system for putting my food in order. For example, if dinner is veggies, potatoes, and chicken, I will eat ALL of the veggies, then the potatoes. Not until that’s done can I eat the chicken. If it’s soup or stew the process is the same. Cereal is complicated. If it’s something muti-colored I have to eat the pieces in order of color, worst to best. I will not eat a wrong-colored piece until I finish the color I’m working on. Lucky Charms are easier. I just have to make sure all the cereal bits are done before I eat the marshmallows. If i don’t eat things this way, I will feel like I’ve cheated. And it will bother me for the rest of the meal.

Every time I get a bag of M&Ms I dump them out on the table/counter and start arranging them like a bar graph by color from my least favorite to my fave (Brown-Yellow-Orange-Red-Green-Blue). Then I can’t stand to eat only one m&m so I make sure they all have a mate…then eat the left overs by two’s, throw away the odds. Finally after this I can enjoy M&Ms by 2s in ascending order per my preference.

Whenever I go to a restaurant that has sugar packets on the table I have to reorganize them perfectly; they all have to face the same way, and they’re organized in rainbow order.

When I eat any sort of colourful candy, like M&Ms or jubes, I empty a few into my palm, and eat them according to colour. I eat the citrus coloured ones first, then backwards according to the rainbow, and then brown if it’s there.