In TS2, at the third dish you make, the 'clean' option appears in the counter (although it takes more time to get fully dirty). So far, I've played with 2 one-sim households for a whole sim-week each, and in both I've noticed that their objects rarely break (I only got one toilet broken) and that nothing gets dirty (even the floor is still shiny, with only a couple of dust piles appearing during the last day but still shining). I'm finally giving a serious try to TS4 after some tries now and then over the years.
