Any time we need to have a plumber or similar come around, my wife insists on tidying the place up beforehand like we're having a dinner party or something - so that the contractor doesn't 'judge' her (as untidy and uncouth, or whatever).

The guy comes over when we're at work, with a key from the property agent. We never even exist in the same physical space as this person. I think this is nuts. I don't think the plumber could give less of two shits whether we've got papers strewn over the kitchen, and I certainly don't care if the plumber does have an opinion either way - it's my house so anyone else can naff off (and as stated, I'm not even home when the guy comes over).

What do you think? This is one reason I don't think we'll ever have a regular cleaner even though it might be nice, because I think my wife would just clean the day before through fear of judgment from the cleaner and thus we'd be paying to save precisely zero labour time.