Is it an obsessive compulsive disorder?

I was recently reading a funny and cute blog by http://kaylaaimee.typepad.com/ about loading the silverware in the dishwasher. She sees this as possibly an obsessive compulsive disorder. Maybe it is, and I just never thought of it before, but this also has been a nagging nuisance for me. I, too, have always wondered why you would waste your time washing a load of dishes and then contaminate them by unloading them with their eating side up using your hands! Clean hands or not…gross! Previously, I’ve always loaded mine eating side down so I could reach in, pull them out and place them in their proper place in the silverware drawer.

I also liked the idea of having everything grouped together so it’s easier to put away. All forks, all spoons, all knives, etc. With my new dishwasher, however, I am faced with the problem of having to place all the clean, or I should say, dirty parts facing up. I love that my new dishwasher has little sections that separate each piece of silverware as it goes in, thus, keeping the pieces from nesting together, and I absolutely have never had dirty silverware when I've taken it out even if it’s encrusted when it goes in! I’m lucky, however, to be able to fit most all of my silverware into those tiny little slots, but I can’t be too picky anymore about how organized it is going in and especially coming out. It does take a few extra minutes to reach a little further down and make sure I don’t touch the clean silverware. And, yes, I do always wash my hands first. Or, if you’re really suffer from OCD you could use one of those cute little half paper towels and scoop each piece up with it.

When I really throw caution to the wind, I choose another option, however. Sometimes I try to make sure that is the task my husband has. I turn my head, close my eyes, clinch my teeth and hand him the silverware holders. What I don’t know or see won’t hurt me, right? No, he really does wash his hands carefully before he cleans out the silverware holders.

Speaking of OCD, if loading the silverware tray in this manner is OCD, let me share one of his great-aunt’s from years ago. Once, when I was a young bride, we made a trip up to see them in North Carolina. I was helping with the dishes like any polite young bride guest should do. I was washing the dishes, expecting her to do the drying. (If I’ve had a choice I’ve always chosen to wash because at least I would be finished with my job before the other person, right?) And this was back in the olden days when dishwashers were indeed a luxury and not the necessity they've become today.

No, she informed me. She air-dried her dishes because it contaminated them by drying them with a dish towel!

So, now when you come into my house and find my sink full of air drying dishes, don’t stand in judgment of me. I learned a valuable lesson from an old pro! It has served me well over the past forty plus years. It has certainly sounded good to me…like a good excuse not to have to dry all those dishes. Think of all the minutes I added to my life.