Home Improvements With Opportunity OCD

I’ve been totally disabled by OCD for a week. This is the kind of OCD which hits me when my circumstances show signs of improving or some good event happens. Because I’m especially prone to OCD at the moment, these events are triggering. Also the particular OCD compulsion which has affected me for the past 18 months was something I managed to improve enough to do the house moving, but then immediately relapsed into again.

As well as the weight of needing to avoid OCD to enjoy the benefits of the new place, what was also triggering was the ‘dogshit’ smell I mentioned. It took some days for the wet carpet to dry out with constant ventilation, and reducing humidity by using my electric heater. Sounds grim, right? The place is ideal (even the landlord is) except for these two oversights by the landlord. But these two things just sound awful when I state them, and are pretty unhygienic as well as a sensory onslaught. The main thing for me is they are easily fixable especially because the landlord is so open to me making changes. So it is a case of bearing them until I’ve fixed it, which I can do quickly. It’s not ideal to have to buy a new carpet in a place I’m renting but that doesn’t matter, I wasn’t in a position to choose. I can also ask the landlord to share the cost or something who knows. I have an appointment booked for a free quote :).

The previous tenant was an older, disabled person with hoarding OCD who developed paranoid habits. So it’s no surprise to me the carpet ended up in this state, especially with the need for ventilation here since the surrounding vegetation outside really raises the humidity. This is welcome to me for my skin and the fresh air! Easier to reduce humidity than to increase. As well as ventilation vents in one wall this place has a patio-style door and a window. The last place became very dry on a hot day due to being in a concrete/tarmac covered terraced street which was terrible for my skin without raising the humidity myself. The temperature also kept increasing until around 9/10pm. When you’re surrounded by vegetation the opposite happens.

I also narrowed down the strong rotting smell in the kitchen to the sink waste pipe, and with googling found a tip to pour soda crystals and vinegar down it, followed by boiling water. This definitely cleared a blockage. Then when I ran my new washing machine for the first time (on a 90C wash to clean some towels), the smell came back even stronger. I think this was the waste pipe getting cleared out, so I think my reasoning is making sense!

Thankfully the last two days I’ve been able to start doing things again. I think now I can start to try to make long-term and lasting improvements again with OCD.

🌪