Essential. Actually managed it last time, too, with DP, as I had tried to do it the time before but he hadn't seen the need.
I did as much as I could over previous evening (we were leaving immediately from work, so I had to trust him that the house was sorted) and, when we got back three weeks later at around 2am, the lodger had obviously come back for a weekend before going somewhere else on their travels.
In that time, they had left a saucepan full of cooked pasta in the sink, packets of ham on the countertop, half an open tin of mushroom soup, two boxes of chicken wing bones and our milk on the side (so no cuppa). In a heatwave. And a giant turd in the toilet.
Three hours later, after trying to get rid of hundreds of flies, nearly thrown up countless times and been almost hysterical at both the stench and DP's inability to step through the front door once the smell hit him, I staggered upstairs to find that DP had stripped but not remade the bed.
As the last holiday ended with FIL in hospital, DP staying with him and coming home by myself, it was completely different being able to walk in, breathe without wanting to hurl, drop my stuff on the floor, put the kettle on and then go to bed.
It's going to happen every time from now on. And DP agrees.