I have been pondering this question for a while. I do not tip mousekeeping. I have felt that the regular bedmaking, tub cleaning, towel change is part of what I pay for the room. The amount of regular service that comes with the room is reflected in the cost per night of the room. If I ask for something in addition to regular upkeep of the room, like calling housekeeping to request extra towel delivery, or extra pillows and blankets, or turndown service when they don't normally do turndown, I will tip the attendant that comes to the door. The problem with all this tipping, is that the people that work at night doing turndown or running the extras to rooms of people who are at the park would probably not get tips. How on Earth can I be expected to tip every person that comes in contact with me at WDW? Should I tip the maintenance worker who came to fix the leaky sink? Afterall, he was just doing his job, too. ( Sorry, Slight sarcasm)
I do not leave the room in disarray, in fact, I usually clean the room myself, in order that the housekeeping staff will just have to do their customary cleaning.
As I said, I expect that WDW is paying their staff a wage that keeps housekeeping positions filled, and that the cost of normal room upkeep has been included when I pay the bill at the end of my stay.
Also, for DVC, the mousekeepers only come in and clean at the end of your stay. They change the towels on the fifth day, I believe. So essentially, you are not getting daily mousekeeping. You mousekeep yourself.
I do generously tip those people like valet, restaurant, bellman, extra request from housekeeping, room service, that make below minimum wage, and the majority of their income, the part they rely on when taking the position, is below or at minimum wage. I have thought that if I were a housekeeper, I would never expect to be tipped as part of my wages. As a restaurant server, which I have been in college, I expected to be tipped, because that was the biggest part of the wage. Wages were adjusted down to account for the tip portion of the overall wage.
Nothing against those that tip, good for you, but I don't feel it is necessary on a regular basis. Also, I wonder how you know that the person you tip, especially when you tip extra for the towel animals the day before, is actually the person that cleaned the day before? It seems that the tips don't encourage better service in mousekeeping like it does in tipped-professions like restaurant service. I'm surprised at the number of people who tip and end up going an entire trip without a single towel animal. I think if I got those, I would tip a buck or two, but I would wonder if the person that took the tip was the towel artist.