When we bought this house 12 years ago it was empty as the owner had moved in with his girlfriend. He told us, off the record, we could start putting some stuff in before closing, just don't let his agent know. I showed up around this time of year, and he was there knee deep in the leaves. It was near Veterans Day as we were both off work. He said "I bet if you saw this you wouldn't have bought the house, eh?"
I devoted probably 7 days, a few hours each day, of leaf cleanup every winter... and dozens of lawn bags. We also have a system to put leaves in the street for pickup but that doesn't always work out time wise.