Threatened Eviction for clutter on my furniture?

My apartment was dirty but I needed my dishwasher fixed. I live in Texas. After the maintenance guy came (last Wednesday 11/11) someone from the front office came by with notice to clean the apartment with 48 hours or be evicted. They said they would inspect on Friday the 13th and but my husband and I were at work and assumed they did it then. We cleaned up in time. They did not come back until yesterday morning. My cat threw up in the middle of the night and we didn’t see it until they came. They said we didn’t clean the apartment well enough when the original notice said just to clean the floors. We vacuumed & mop or carpet cleaned, removed all trash. Only thing not clean when they showed up is that we have some stuff on the counters and a few dishes in the sink. They gave us no notice when they showed up yesterday so of course we had some dishes in the sink. All they said was it wasn’t “clean enough” and when we tried to contact the office via email to clarify they did not respond. They also did not come inside. They made the judgement from a partially open door. I don’t know what they would have seen that would be a problem. It’s a student oriented complex and I would bet that it is probably far from the messiest. Can we seriously be evicted for storing things (not trash) on kitchen countertops and our dining room table that we own? How is it worth it to file an eviction if someone else is going to take over the lease Jan 1st and our planned move out is December 17th (but we are paying full December rent)? Does it mean anything that they did not respond to our email and they they waited 5 days from the notice said they would insoect. We are subleasing our apartment (as approved by the front office) at below current market rate ($875 vs $950) and I’m suspicious this is a way for them to release at a higher rate or charge us more fees. If we are evicted we owe rent for the remainder of the lease but with the sublease that would be double rent. Sublease isn’t final (I have not signed anything) but they told the subleaser that they were accepted.

Edit: rent is automatically paid on the 28th for the next month (ie early) and I’ve lived here for two years. Never had any issues and they have never complained by my messiness.

Edit 2: I do want to clarify that I am cleaning the apartment but I don’t really have space to put the stuff I’m storing on the countertops in cabinets or something. But it’s like drying dishes and kitchen appliances and I’m so confused why my landlord cares? Edit 3: Front office closes in 15 minutes. They did not come. I even deep cleaned the oven and microwave. If they say we will come on Friday but they don’t do can they just show up whenever unannounced? Edit 4: This looks like a scam about the sublease. They told me unfortunately due to this I would need more move out fees to process my sublease and they aren’t sure if we can do the sublease at all. I said what if I clean the apartment and they said they don’t think I can clean the apartment.