It’s true. It drives me nuts. I can’t think clearly. I have a really hard time focusing, and I am about half as productive as normal when I can see things out of place, or know that something is messy.

And this is nuts considering I was once the girl who couldn’t see her bedroom floor because there was a layer of clothing covering the tile. I would dig through my “faux” carpet to find outfits and things I had lost.

But I have started to become a bit anal when it comes to things being clean. Like right now, I have the dishes and such still out from making myself some coffee, and I keep looking over at it. I know in the back of my head that our bed isn’t made and that there are dirty clothes sitting at the bottom of my closet (I’m waiting on my new laundry basket to come in the mail).

I have discovered that my brain just functions SO MUCH better when things are neat and tidy around me.

It’s like writing my morning pages. I pull all of the gunk out of my head and put it onto the paper. And something about this process tidies up my mind, which then prepares me to stay focused and on task during the day.

I also have noticed that if I’m stressed or having an uncomfortable conversation I start tidying up. It’s like a nervous, soothing tick I’ve developed.

But it’s crazy to me, because I used to be the most unorganized, cluttered person.

By no means am I at the level of going on the show "Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners”, but this has just been a big flip flop on my end. And I know OCD is not a laughing/joking matter, I would never dream of diminishing what those with OCD go through.

I guess part of me is starting to feel like my mother, which is always a weird thing to notice.

And I’m not mad about any of this.

No, quite the contrary. Becoming a tidy, organized person has revolutionized how I think, how productive I am — focused, creative, etc. I’m actually quite thankful that I have made this small habit change because it has helped me immensely with how much I am able to accomplish in a day’s time.

This fits into my daily/weekly routine a few different ways. Firstly, I have found that I like taking 15-20 minutes every morning to do a quick tidy, which includes making the bed, putting away any clothes, and cleaning up anything in the kitchen that I missed from the night before. I also really enjoy a weekly deeper clean where I vacuum, dust and wipe things down.

How do you tidy?