Are you a Slob?

American polling analyst Mark Penn writes about slobs in his book, Microtrends. Here is the excerpt:

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The Slobs are not, as you might have thought, overwhelmingly male. Men do outnumber women, but only by 55 to 45 percent. And neither are the Slobs slothful or unsuccessful. More than 2 in 3 are employed full-time, and of those that have kids, most of them have kids under 5. They are significantly more likely than Non-Slobs to have finished college and/or graduate school. They are twice as likely as Non-Slobs to make over $100,000 a year. And Slobs identify at liberal at nearly twice the rate of Non-Slobs (37 versus 19 percent), with a remarkable 47 percent of Slobs saying they are Democrats.

Fewer than 1 in 4 make their beds as part of a daily routine. More than 1 in 3 will leave dirty dishes in the sink more than a day. About 15 percent will even leave dirty dishes in their den, living room or bedroom longer than a day. When they get undressed at night, almost 4 in 10 drop their clothes on the floor. One in 3 lets kitchen countertop clutter go uncleaned for more than a week, if not indefinitely.

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Reason for sloppiness: too much stuff, not enough time and not enough storage. A small percentage of the respondents believed that messiness made them more creative.

I am certainly not surprised that women don't fare better than men when it comes to cleanliness and tidiness. I knew of a girl in early 20s who left the droppings of her pet dog uncleaned for hours!

In this country, some concerned people have called on Malaysians to not over-reliant on foreign maids. However, I suspect their calls will fall on deaf ears given that many Malaysians can’t tidy up their home.

Personally, I don’t make my bed every day, and don’t clean the kitchen countertop clutter for weeks. I do not, however, leave unwashed dishes in the sink for more than a few hours or drop my clothes on the floor. As a worker who studies part-time, I certainly feel that I have little time, and my study materials fill up a newly-bought cabinet in just a few months.

Perhaps I should be more sloppy. Then, I could become more creative, and perhaps even richer