A cleaning article. The cleaning article has tufts of tow fibers. At least some of the tufts are unequally spaced from adjacent tufts, to provide improved collection and retention of debris from a target surface. The tufts may be disposed in rows, which are unequally spaced from adjacent rows. The cleaning article may be made by cutting out spaces between tufts from a precursor sheet and attaching the precursor sheet to a carrier sheet. The cleaning article may be made by cutting a precursor sheet having tufts into discrete portions. The discrete portions are bonded to a carrier sheet.