While you’re cleaning it, you own it

I was giving a nice hard steel-wool-pad scrubbing to the stainless sink in the kitchen. Karla was messing around with the stuff that would soon become breakfast when she spilled something on the countertop. She used a rag to wipe up the spill, then came over to the sink to rinse it, saying, “I don’t mean to mess up your sink.”

I thought for a few seconds and replied, “When you’re cleaning it, you own it….” It was my sink while I was cleaning it. When I’m finished, it’s our sink or simply the sink. I wonder how that turn of phrase came about.