Obsessive over my house! - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

purplegirl1 · 06-27-2008, 10:06 PM

So, I just bought a house about 4 months ago. Right now it is me and my husband, we do not have any children yet. Our house is not huge and not too tiny...1 bathroom, 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, and unfinished basement (which we have our washer and dryer and my husbands toys - ha!). I clean....and I know the house is clean but I constantly still feel like the house is not clean enough...like it can be cleaner. I do have OCD, on Luvox for like 10 years and go for CBT....

Does anyone have this type of obsession? do you just keep cleaning? or let it go?

seriousperson · 07-06-2008, 10:13 PM

Hi purplegirl, Congratulations on buying your house. Excessive house cleaning is a pretty socially acceptable manifestation of OCD...unless it's sapping all your time and strength and making your husband and/or visitors feel uncomfortable. Are you cleaning things that are already as clean as they can possibly be? If so, that's probably something you want to deal with.

geminigem · 07-07-2008, 02:25 PM

This sounds like my son's wife. SHe is always cleaning. HAS to vacuum everysingle day......dishes MUST be all put away.......at least 2 loads of laundry every night. She gets upset with all she has to do, but doesn't like the way anyone else does things.

She is obsessed with cleanliness. I have noticed that when we have visited, but did not know it was a problem until about 2 weeks ago when she blew up at my son for leaving a dish in the drainer.

How could he bring it up to her without her exploding?

How would anyone approach you about your obsessive house cleaning without you feeling defensive.....or hurt.....or just plain angry?

This is all new to me.

Thanks for any help, and I hope you enjoy your new home.

purplegirl1 · 07-07-2008, 05:33 PM

Well...I would say it sounds like your son's wife may have OCD. See, for me, if my husband leaves a dish in the sink, I just put it in the dishwasher (for me, I feel ok b/c I took care of it)...I don't get mad at my hubby, I just do it and my obsession goes away (which I should really just leave a mess to deal w/ the ocd...as per CBT)...as for your son, does he notice anything about her behavior? Does this bother him? Do they have children?? Just asking b/c then sometimes the obsessive cleaning is even harder to keep up w/. I get nervous when others come over b/c of the cleaning but it is part of my OCD so I have to learn to deal w/ it all. Diff. is, is that I know I have OCD...she may not...she may just be really really neat....but sounds like if she does not want to clean like she "feels she has to" then it could be OCD....she prob. would get mad but your son and her should be having that discussion (about her obsessive cleaning).