In former times, most of the people about whom we’d have written records today lived in multigenerational homes or on a manor.  Until WWI, it was quite common for families of skilled tradesmen, not just the extremely wealthy, to have a housekeeper and other hired help.  There were older children, extended family, and servants to do some or nearly all the housework. 
Those good Catholics in poverty generally had so little that there was nowhere near the amount and quality of household and clothing to clean.  General of cleanliness were below what we’d today deem acceptable.  One needn’t even go back to ancient history.  My grandparents and several great aunts recalled life in New York City in the late 1880’s, early 1900’s. Being Irish and Polish immigrants, they lived very simply.  My older grandmother remembered a two room walk-up tenement, fifth floor.  The “bedroom” could fit a small bed only, and was windowless.  The other room had one window facing the street and a coal burning range for cooking and heat.  The floors were swept and once a year coated with linseed oil.  The walls got wiped down once a year in the spring, but remained always grayish from coat soot.  There was one table, four chairs, a treadle sewing machine.  There was a deep sink on the first floor, shared, and the toilet was three shared outhouses in the back lot beside a horse stable.  Everyone owned no more than two or three sets of clothing that got washed with any bedding in the deep sink and hung on clotheslines on the roof. There was a public laundry, but it was expensive, used only when large items like blankets needed to be thoroughly cleaned. There was a neighborhood public bathhouse, compliments of the City of New York, two blocks over where the adults could bath every Saturday.  Children were bathed in the sink.  The rest of the time, they made do with a tin basin and pitcher carried upstairs in the apartment.  The water was shared. With seven children, a husband, and great grandma, nobody was going to make ten round trips up five flights of steep narrow stairs.  Grandpa was a “mechanic,” which meant he did unskilled, manual labor.  Grandma took in mending and sometimes piece work, hence, the sewing machine.  Six of seven children survived to adulthood which was above average for that time. 
This was the USA.  In even more recent times, look online for living conditions in Irish cities in the post WWII period, even the early to mid 1960’s.  People did the best they could with the little they had, and still managed to live Catholic lives. 
I wouldn’t worry at all about St. Praxede’s wife looking down in disgust.  I’m not saying it’s okay to be a slob, but a family with clean consciences is of far more value than an immaculate floor and refrigerator!