As far as my personal house cleaning rituals go, I've been pretty productive for the past few days. I've kept up with the laundry, even when forced to do extra by a two year old who stripped off her pjs and peed all over her brother's bed. I've vacuumed, swept, mopped, cleaned a bathroom, cooked meals, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, shopped for groceries and generally feel like my house is in order.

However, I've had the guilty pleasure of watching part of the show Wife Swap. While I'm sure they always go for the extremes the two times I've seen part of a show, one of the women would be cleaning her house 5 hours each day and talking about the other family living in filth because the bathrooms weren't cleaned daily and there might be dust balls in the corners.

Even at my house's cleanest, I rarely manage to clean more than one bathroom per week and between a dog, three small children and two adults, there is always dirt on the floors and hair balls in the corners. It is rarely at its cleanest, either. Toys, laundry, dirt, dishes -- everything piles up and I don't always get to it right away.

And so I wonder, do people really clean 5 hours per day? I can't imagine spending that much time cleaning and if I did, I'd expect not to be doing anything else to the house for at least a week. I guess I'm just content to wallow in my filth.