With each can grouped together according to brand and the labels facing out, Brent "Boomer" Harvey admits he cannot rest until everything around him is in order.

Senior staff at the club say his obsessive attention to preparation and training has helped him prolong his successful career, but in his autobiography Boomer, to be released next week, Harvey reveals just how far that meticulousness extends into his everyday life.

Harvey will break Michael Tuck's VFL/AFL games record when he plays his 427th match against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

"The best way to explain it is like having a strange little clean freak of an angel in your head telling you to do certain things," he writes.

"If I don't listen to him, I can't stop thinking about it."

Harvey writes that his clothes must be folded in a particular way.

He only likes to use a certain type of black coat hanger and he cannot have any hangers in his wardrobe without clothes on them.

Harvey cannot stand to be around wet dog food or have wife Shayne or one of his children use one of their kitchen utensils to scoop it out of the can.

"If I flick a light off and the switch doesn't 'click' crisply, I'll turn it back on and switch it on again," Harvey writes.

Harvey said his obsessive tendencies have helped him reach his record-breaking 427th game.

"Viewing everything as a challenge keeps me engaged and switched on," he wrote.

"The thought of being defeated in anything, from a footy match to turning off a light switch properly, is too much for me to bear."

Harvey is so committed to routine that he left his own 21st birthday celebrations early because he wanted to rest and prepare to represent Victoria in a State of Origin match the next day, for which he was a late inclusion.

Teammate Drew Petrie is quoted in the book as saying everything in Harvey's life needs to be "spot on" and that is reflected in his football.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he used a spirit level to cut his grass to make sure it was all the same height," Petrie said.