Re: what do I need to learn to be independent?
Fingernails with fingernail clippers are actually pretty easy after the first few times, and fingernail clippers themselves aren't dangerous at all. You can feel the entire process, and you basically just cut off the points until there aren't any. For that one, just try it is my advice. That's what I did, sometime in high school when I got tired of asking for help and it ended pretty fine.
Sinks and showers do need to be cleaned. Your parents or whoever are doing it. Trust me, you can tell If it's not. it'll both smell and be easy enough to feel. Toothpaste does clump up in the bottom of sinks, and showers will get a sort of residue buildup from soap. In both cases, you get a rag and a cleaner and have at it. Typically you get the cleaner on the entirety of the shower and the sink, let it sit for a few minutes to break down stuff, then scrub. It's entirely possible to feel if it's dirty, so that's not a huge issue. Most of cleaning is about learning to be regular when scrubbing, since as a blind person it's going to take active practice to learn to not miss spots. The cleaner I use for sinks and showers currently is this. There are lots of other options, but I've found that that one does a pretty good job on everything bathroom except the toilet, but the downside is it's not in a spray bottle, so getting it on the thing in the first place is kind of hard, but I'm odor sensitive and that one doesn't bother me, plus it's really strong. But in the general case you just go to any store and buy some, because mostly they're the same.
The toilet is the gross one. Bleach isn't enough. Urine and feces will build up on the inside of it. Fortunately, you don't have to use your hands. Toilet brushes are basically a wire brush with a long handle. The cleaner for that comes in a bottle with a sort of curved thing on the top that you run around the rim as you squeeze it, and then it runs down the side of the bowl. You let that sit for a few minutes, then you get out your toilet brush and methodically scrub it and that's fine. You'll also want to wipe down the outside with a rag as well, and something like the above linked cleaner isn't a bad idea. If you have a penis, then missing slightly from time to time is something that may be happening to you--and usually people who are caring for you are going to be too polite to say much. So you have to be careful of that. I used to know one blind guy who dealt with it by always sitting, but you don't have to if you're good at it. But you do want to make sure you know if this is happening, because even if it's slight that's going to be a reason to clean it more often.
Bleach is also a good all-purpose cleaner, but with less tolerance if you're blind. You don't want to touch it with your bare skin, and it'll show on your clothes pretty much permanently if you even so much as spill it on your shirt for a couple minutes. Sometimes it's useful, but I avoid it because it makes me ill if it's so much as in the same building, plus the aforementioned.
You will want to learn to manually vacuum and mop. I'll come back to automated vacuums in a sec but there are no good automated mops. You can either use a bucket of water and a traditional mop, or any of the variety that have pre-set pads you just stick on, but which doesn't matter so much. The primary difficulty is (again) learning to be regular and methodical so you don't miss stuff. Vacuums work on dry stuff, but bathrooms and kitchen spills are a real problem and your choices are either mop or get on the floor with a rag, and trust me that mopping is way faster.
Automated vacuums are amazing, but you get what you pay for. I have one, because pandemic funtimes mean that I don't have the energy to get the regular vacuum out and I'd just keep "I'll do it tomorrow" indefinitely. Plus we had one in Florida that easily handled 3 large dogs and a 1500 square foot house. It empties itself at a base station, you configure it to run on a schedule with an app, and then you maybe intervene once a month or so if the app is like "your vacuum didn't empty properly" or "your vacuum got stuck". It just comes out twice a week, runs around and does it's thing for 45 minutes, and does a better job than I can after many years of practice with the regular one. Doesn't get caught on shoestrings or cords or anything, is smart enough to not run your feet over, etc. The only real downside is that mine can be a little bit loud, and they're not going to be so great if the entire house is carpet. But you want to avoid carpet anyway, to be honest.
*but*. The price tag on that is around $1000. The lower end ones aren't going to get the job done. Mine is iRobot. I'd maybe trust Samsung. But the $500 range or so, even from iRobot, is some wheels, a fan, and some bumper sensors. The iRobot will last for years and years, if you take care of it and don't like have kids trampling it. The one the family has back in Florida has been going strong for like 4 or 5 at this point with no major issues. SO once you've got one you're probably okay, and you can probably find one used and etc, and it's really nice, but you'll have to choke on that price to get one that's as good as what a human can do. Fortunately regular vacuuming isn't hard, it's jut annoying.
Lastly, the things you're forgetting about: you need to scrub tables, tops and front of counters and cabinets, dust the tops of dressers and desks, and make sure to frequently wipe down the stove. Especially the stove; if you don't do the stove, it'll literally bake stuff on so bad that you can't get it off. The oven is fortunately easy if you get a self-cleaning one: you press a couple buttons, it does it's thing, then you vacuum out the bottom for like 30 seconds to get the ashes out. Anything I haven't mentioned above doesn't take any particular skill, but knowing that something is dirty and needs to be cleaned can be a challenge, and knowing just what all in your house is going to need a good dusting and when is something that's easy to overlook.
Now, the good news. The good news is that for most of this you'll just need to find someone who's cleaning, be like "I need to learn to clean, can I shadow you and help?" and do that a few times. It's not dangerous, it's not *that* hard, it's just time consuming and icky. The way this works out in practice is that once you get your first couple cleaning skill points or whatever, you'll be able to clean fine but it'll take you 2 or 3 or 10 times longer than the sighted person. But you get fast at it really fast, so that doesn't last long and then it's just that annoying thing you have to do once every week or two.
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