Are Neatniks Born or Made?
Read more articles on Let Me Share With You and Domesticity.January 19, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
January 19, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
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Ok, so not every roommate/spouse or partner relationship is as divided as that of “The Odd Couple”, but we all know people who go to extremes with their personal space…and often, they’re stuck living with the opposite kind of person.
Luckily, I don’t live with anyone too sloppy, for that would make me crazy. But my neatness has been known to perturb others. It’s sometimes a curse to want things “just right”, to have to have the pillows fluffed just so and the books lined up evenly and the drapes hanging in alignment…oh yes, it’s definitely a curse to want your surroundings to look as if they’re right out of “Home and Gardens” magazine!
I don’t remember if I was unusually tidy as a kid, but once I had my own apartment, it didn’t take long to learn that life was easier if I always knew where everything was. Cleaning was easier, too. What was great was when I’d have people over after work and they’d express awe about how nice it all looked. I always wondered about that…should looking nice be that unusual? (The first time my mother in law visited, she exclaimed, “Oh, it’s so clean!” I was a bit insulted, wondering if she expected me to live in someplace dirty. But I’ve gotten past that sensitivity.)
Doing a bit of traveling in my 20’s, I couldn’t have pets, so with just one super-neat person, my apartment was usually picture perfect. I became used to it, and returning home to a clean and straightened environment was the way I wished to live my life. Occasionally I wondered what would happen if I, as a Felix, would marry an Oscar, but figured if I did, I could change him-in the way all women think. In any event, I married another fairly neat person. But even he gets frustrated, as did my parents, that they “can never find anything”. News flash-sometimes I can’t find where I put things, either. That’s one of the problems we neatniks face. We feel that there’s a place for everything, away from prying eyes, but even our prying eyes can’t find that place occasionally…
During my working years, I was sent to a time management class where they stressed keeping only what needed to be done on one’s desk-heck, I’d been doing that for years. It was really annoying to have co-workers gape in amazement that I’d have nothing on my desk, and I’d gape in amazement that they were able to ever get anything done with all the piles on theirs. Thank goodness I did get stuff done, otherwise, they’d wonder if I was working at all.
Some people just live neatly, and I guess I’m one of them. It is kind of cool to be the one that others ask to find things for them. I’m trying to educate my daughter in this practice, and it’s slow going. (I hope I’m not causing psychological damage; maybe kids are supposed to be messy!)
Here’s to those everywhere who feel the obligation to clean up after others!
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