I don't think OCD and marble get along well. I can tell you that you don't need to be, but that doesn't mean you will change how you feel.

I think marble and an OCD cook are actually made for each other! I'm a little OCD as well, and I think that's precisely why I get along well with my honed marble. I clean as I go when cooking, I have cutting boards of all shapes and sizes that I always use, so I never set food directly on the counter, and I wipe up spills immediately. I did this with my laminate for 12 years before I redid my kitchen, and I do it now on my quartz surfaces, as well as on the marble counter, which has been getting heavy prep use for about 2 months now. No etches yet! I'm prepared to have the marble etch over time (so I'm not OCD in the sense that that would bother me), but it's less likely to etch quickly or heavily in my "OCD" kitchen than in the kitchen of someone who is a more messy cook.

As an aside, I read (somewhere, I'll try to find it) that it's fine to use a dilute bleach solution to clean marble. I find that a 50% rubbing alcohol spray after plain soap and water works well enough, though. The alcohol is of course a disinfectant as well.

I agree with you, pp, that the triclosan/Microban in Silestone is unnecessary. It's one of the reasons I went with Caesarstone instead. Cambria is another brand of quartz widely available. It may be obvious from my comment above that I have both quartz and marble in my kitchen. Could that be an option for you?

Cleaning as you go is good. I do that for the most part (sometimes cook more and faster than I can keep up with and catch up later), but I don't describe myself as ODC and tend to think of someone who would as someone who would worry about their marble not being pristine. If you are going to have to buff any slight mark or etch out so it will stay perfect, it will drive you or those around you crazy.

Sharonite, sounds like you just have one area in marble. I have my main counters in marble. That may make a difference too. And then there is the fact that I live in a guy house -- my habits aren't the only ones that come into play in the kitchen -- ya know?

Anyone who's going to disinfect regularly counters regularly with a bleach might not be happy with the results of that on marble over time. I'd go with another surface.

According to my marble fabricator, water and bleach mixture is one of the very few safe cleaners on marble, so if that's your only concern about marble, go for it.

My husband the retired chemist and chemistry and physics teacher reminds me that generally the salt of an acid is a base, therefore (pedantically) Sodium hypochlorite (bleach) is basic and safe for marble in a dilute solution, probably better than alcohol which is a weak acid.

Of course, as a pathologist, I'm kind of the opposite of OCD - I'm one of those people who believes a little dirt is good for all of us. I clean my counters but I only disinfect after a lot of meat, especially chicken. I do though have special meat cutting boards that trap the juice.

Thanks for the responses. I think I am leaning towards marble now that I know that I can use a dilute bleach mixture. (It's a small-ish kitchen so I don't want to mix materials.) The reason why I was particular towards Silestone was that it was a white-based marble effect and the others were more grayish. I think I can deal with etching on marble but not staining but reading though posts on this site, sounds like staining is not much of a problem. Thanks again.

cangelmd: what would be a good ratio of bleach to water? TIA!

I did a quick Google and came away quite confused. Many seemingly knowledgeable sources say to absolutely not use bleach on marble, other seemingly knowledgeable sources say to absolutely use bleach on marble. Similar to the divergence of responses in this thread. Weird. If I were considering marble, I would get a small sample of the exact same marble and test it. Sit it half in, half out of the dilute bleach mixture you use, and come back in a couple of weeks - something like that. For that matter, I'd do the same test with other cleaning solutions.