This is strange to me. I am not, by nature, a cleaner. I do have a "dirtiness line" that I will not let my living space get to, but it usually revolves around what I like to call "wet mess." Clothes on the floor, papers strewn about, bags and blankets lying around = dry mess. Mold, left out paints, spills = wet mess. So i find it strange that the social norm here is to clear out all of the landmarks of activity living. Don't get me wrong, our house certainly needed the vacuum, so all and all it was a win win, but i just find it so unnecessary. As long as it's not disgusting or smelly, who cares. I certainly don't. If your house has a comfortable chair for me to sit in--im happy. Hell, even a carpeted floor is plenty. Who am I to judge how you want to keep your living space. I don't have to live there--you do.

This said, when i DO clean, I go totally OCD. I will scrub that sink until there aren't even any streaks left from the sponge. I will polish that facet. This is pretty out of character for me, but I picked it up quite honestly from my father, who would clean the countertop (*cough* still cleans the countertop *cough*) so obsessively that I used to purposely position crumbs at either end to make him go back-and-forth and back-and-forth. You've gotta loved upper-middle class white kid games. Yah just gotta.