Hey everyone,

I just read a great essay (short) for an English Assignment, and thought I would share it. As a rather "sloppy" person myself, I was interested in this different take on things. It was in a collection of short stories, but I found a copy online! (ETA: I don't really agree with the headline on the page; I posted the link for the essay on the page).

Neat People vs. Sloppy People
by Suzanne Britt

http://matthewryanward.blogspot.com/2006/06/why-sloppy-people-are-gods-people-neat.html


QuickQuote: I've finally figured out the difference between neat people and sloppy people. The distinction is, as always, moral. Neat people are lazier and meaner than sloppy people...


I mean no insult to neat people at all. Neat people have been admired for years, and we've always been told that "cleanliness is next to godliness." This just made me feel a bit better, and I wanted to share. :)

I am a neat person. I always tell my kids (who are grown) and basically rather sloppy, that I am neat and tidy for the very reason, I am lazy. I don't want to spend hours scrubbing the kitchen stove top or what ever. I would rather keep it clean in little wipe ups.

I can be mean, I suppose, but only if you mess with me. :p :~D

Well, I'll watch out for you, Crazy4DL.... ;)

BTW: the quote may seem a bit harsh, but the body goes on to explain. Its all light hearted and in good fun. I don't want any neat people to think I'm calling them mean... but hey, sloppy people have been called gross and lazy for too long.

Power to the sloppies!

I'm a conflicted neat/sloppy person. I'm neat about my person and clothes and very particular about how food is handled , but my house is quite messy and cluttered. There are books, papers, pens,pencils, DVD and game cases all over the place, all covererd by a nice even layer of freshly shedded animal hair.

And Zero's room? We don't call it "The Pit Of Despair" for nothing.:)

I am not sloppy. I am creative. An artiste!

I am not sloppy. I am creative. An artiste!
There ya go! That describes it perfectly.:)

That article cracks me up! It is so the difference between me and one of my dearest friends! I am the sloppy keep averything person, and she is the bulldozer. The part about cleaning a desk nailed it. She hads the cleanest clutter free home ever and I have things piled...organized piles mind you...everywhere! Too Funny!

I am a neat person. Everything has its place and I love it that way. But I think a huge reason behind my neatness it bordom. When I don't have something to do I will organize. And I don't mind when people aren't organized and neat. But when it comes to cleanliness then sloppy has gone too far imo.

Interesting article though. Maybe if he just cleaned that room in the picture instead of writing that long article :D ;)

I am a neat person. I agree with Ruthie, I would rather spend an hour a day picking up than allowing the house to go to the dogs and then have to spend all weekend cleaning. I like my free time. I like being neat. I like not having to search for things. I like being a mom who puts her kids' clothes away right out of the dryer. I like that everything has it's place. I like being able to enjoy surprise visitors and not have worry about how my home looks. I like having a clean fridge.













My car is another story. It's a mess. :D

I am a mixed bag of tricks. Everything on the outside looks neat and tidy and clean...and is. The drawers or closets, on the other hand? A total mess!!! So, what does this make me?

. So, what does this make me?

A "it is nice to be nice" person? :p


:D ;) ;)

A "it is nice to be nice" person? :p


:D ;) ;)

Mwahahahahahhahahhahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That story is totally true!

Trust me everything about neat people is me. The sloppy stuff is totally my DH.

Once a month my DH's poor intern sorts through his office & desk so that it's clean and presentable for his monthly meetings. Personally I told her to tell him to bug off. But then again, I've been doing that for the 4yrs we've lived here and you can tell which room he has control over & what clothes are his.

I totally go for the throwing things out idea and DH always tried to convince me that he can "find a place" for things. We still argue about whether or not mail needs to be touched more than once. :D

I am not sloppy.
I just use a loose form of organization.

That means I'm flexible, right.

Ok, so I am messy....but
not sloppy.

But the neat person description is my sister. Well, she wouldn't get rid of her dogs, but she has throwing away fits.
She threw away her brass candlesticks because they were tarnished....into the trash not the goodwill stuff.

I asked her if she would save her newspapers for me for a project I was working on. She said that she would if I came and picked it up Every Day! You would think I was asking her to save used toilet paper!

Recycling? Too messy!

My room is a disaster. I try to keep it clean but it just some how finds its way to being a war zone. But....when I was at school my room was immaculate. I think it was because I was so bored all the time I had nothing else to do except to clean. So basically when I'm depressed I have a clean room and when I'm happy my room is a mess! I tried explaining to my parents that wouldn't they like a room that is messy because that means I am happy. Yeah, that didn't work.


My mom is the total opposite. She is like Danny Tanner from Full House. Everything in our house is spotless and we have every cleaning product imaginable. My mom says if it's not nailed down then it gets thrown out.

And as I type this my mother is saying "You leave stuff all over the place! Slobby!" Uh oh!

I am a throw it away/give it away type personality. My DH on the other hand keeps every scrap of paper in his pockets. I've tried to find ways to organize his "information" but he forgets to use them. My oldest dd is a slob, everything everywhere. My ds has a room that would make Oscar Madison blush and my youngest dd leaves everything everywhere. It makes me lose my mind because I am lazy and don't want to clean up after everyone and I don't want to have to spend my time off policing them. So I do the best I can and then I make them do all the hard work, like the bathrooms and the kitchen. I then inspect everything to make sure it's up to my standards and they are free to go. Does that make me a drill sargent? Anyway, I let them keep their rooms the way they want to and I just shut the doors. I want to live in peace.

ETA: No food is allowed in the bedrooms so I don't have to worry about bugs and other assorted infestations. Just clothes, shoes and various paraphanalia of the non-drug type.

This is how I organize the receipts in my purse:

When it starts to get too full, I get a ziplock bag and put them all in. Don't look at them, just put them in the bag. I keep the bag for a while in case I need anything that was in there and after a while I dispose of the whole thing.

Is this neat or sloppy?

I have always described myself as a Felix Unger brain in an Oscar Madison body! ;)

I love things neat, tidy and organized. Somehow it doesn't always work that way! ;)

I think my problem is that when we were kids my mother was anal about keeping the house always tidy. To the point where we spent our weekends and most spare time cleaning. I just don't put as much importance on it as she does.

And, I think if I lived alone it would be easier to accomplish.

Like disneyperson, I am clean about my food and clothes. I am messy, but I don't call myself a slob. Some of those people on those clean up shows are outright gross. That's not us! ;)

Now when I am at work, everything is tidy and has to be exactly where I want it to be, or I can't work properly.

I used to be a terrible packrat, but MrPooh has helped cure me of that, thankfully! :D

I like things clean and tidy, clean is not too hard to manage but tidy is often beyond reach.

I make it a point to put things away in their place, because it infuriates me to no end to have to waste time looking for things - that is one of my pet peeves. But I have stacks of things sitting here & there - because they are waiting for some minor project that doesn't get done. I could just put them away until I get to it, but I must be afraid I'll forget about it completely if I do that....

I did stop my newspaper subscription, mainly because of the clutter factor. I felt like I shouldn't throw the paper into the recycling bin until I read all of it, so it would sit - & too often wouldn't have time to get rid of a paper for much of the week until I had a collection going. Most of it was just bad news anyhow, and all I really enjoyed was the Ann Landers section with the horoscope etc. I can google a story if I'm interested in knowing more - stopping the paper was a good choice for me.

I loved this essay! :) I smiled to myself the whole time. I am definitely a sloppy person at heart. I do want everything to be perfect and sometimes I think, I only have an hour, if I can't do a thorough job it is not worth doing at all. But, having kids, a house, a job and a dog knocks that out of you. Now, as long as the house is presentable that seems OK to me.

I loved this line: Neat people will toy with the idea of throwing the children out of the house just to cut down on the clutter.

Of course, the first person I would have to throw out would be Dear Husband!