A lot of things in life are highly subjective. Messes are one of those things.  A mess to one person is perfectly acceptable and tidy to another. Clean to one person is dirty to another.  As someone that ran a cleaning business for over a decade and served hundreds of clients, I can tell you that everyone has a very different threshold for messes. Knowing what yours is (and everyone else that lives in your house) can help you set routines that serve you and manage expectations of yourself and others.