I've seen kitchens worse than the one in your picture there (eww!). One of my friends lived in a place with a bunch of housemates, and some of them had no idea of the germ theory of disease. I think the straw that broke the camel's back was when one of them washed off a rat trap, post-rat, in the kitchen sink. Seriously. My friend got out of there quickly after that one. (When avian flu comes to town that place will be a mass grave!)
Re. those ceiling light fixtures: And back in the early days, your appliances, for example your vacuum cleaner, had a cord that went to a male screw-in fitting much like the base of a light bulb. You'd unscrew a light bulb and screw in the cord for the vacuum, and clean away. Presumably in places with single bulb fittings, you'd do the vacuuming during the daylight hours.
Re. washers in apartments: On how I hate it when stupid peoples' stupidities cause rules to be made that stop the rest of us being able to do normal things. If I lived in such a place I'd sneak a washer in anyway, if need be plus a doctor's note about allergies or something in case it was caught. I suspect that some of the implicit marketing of the micro to mini size washers is based on the idea that you can hide it or disguise it when The Man comes snooping around. "That's not a washing machine, it's an art deco flower pot!" Or, with the pulsator units, "It's an oversize blender, I like making *big* milk shakes!"