Squeaky clean, and tidy

Everything must have its place; my living spaces are always tidy.

As I grew up, I found that being tidy is not a chore but a privilege. I marvelled at my mother’s wardrobe of sarees, stacked in order. She did not allow us to peep too much into her collection. That was the first influence on being tidy. Spending my adolescent and early teenage years in a boarding school was another opportunity to be neat.

These ingrained in me to be tidy all my life. Seeing everything in place, either on my desk, my wardrobe or in the kitchen, makes me happy. It is a joy.

In my younger years in Dubai, I moved houses frequently. I learned having less stuff made my life easy. In Sydney, my adopted country, I moved homes many times. To be exact, twelve times. When you move houses, you must pack, repack, and unload. So knowing where things are and where they could go was essential.

Being organised sharpened my thinking. It made me think more clearly.

Being tidy is also about minimalist living; It is also about practicality and being organised. Everything should have a home. My pens and pencils are in the holders. My wardrobe is organised in colours, on one end it is white, light blue, dark blue, grey, and black — then khaki, light brown, and dark brown. I have storage compartments for socks, undies, vests, boxer shorts, spectacles, and watches in the wardrobe. Everything is organised in multiple drawers.

My kitchen and laundry are also organised. Nothing is left on benchtops. There are plenty of storage cupboards. There’s a drawer for everything, nicely tucked away. Cutlery, dinnerware, cooking utensils and kitchen utensils have their unique place within the drawer. I have white china, and one uniform set of cutleries to match. I like the order.

I cannot sleep if there is a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. I like sleeping in a tidy home and waking up in one.

Losing things can be intensely stressful, so knowing everything has a home provides relief.

I have a great filing system. One folder for my car, another for tax, another for medical documents, another for my superannuation and many others. I do not have documents hanging around on my desk. I look at a copy once, action it and file it if I need to keep it.

The same thing applies to bills and warranty documents. They are stored on my iMac. The same thing applies to my work documents. Everything is stored on OneDrive, in easily identifiable folders for easy retrieval when needed.

I am also into lists and to-do lists, so being tidy is part of that tidy extension, the same mindset driving me to be organised. I have Trello boards for short-term goals and long-term goals. I have an app for shopping lists.

When my friends visit me and look around, they marvel at how systematic and organised I am. For some, I may look like a robot, hell-bent on being organised. I like the order. Otherwise, I’d be stressed.

Tidying up has become a self-soothing activity. I vacuum and mop the house every second Saturday morning. I wipe all my furniture and cupboards also on the same day. My ensuite bathroom gets cleaned every fourth day. I am obsessed with keeping my house clean all the time.

I don’t judge other people’s homes and their organising skills. But I must admit it distresses me to see disorder and clutter. Some can live as a big mess or giant filing cabinets. But for them, that’s how their brain works. They know where their things are. Their desks are full of papers; their kitchen benchtops are full of things. They have many varieties of cutlery and dinnerware. They can thrive on their disorganisation. For them, I may be a freak.

But I feel in control and happy, being organised, tidy and clean,

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