History Main / LivingInAFurnitureStore

In the StandardizedSitcomHousing that DomCom families live in, things are always well organized, clean and tidy: no open books are ever left on the coffee table, and no shoes are ever sitting randomly by the front door, no clothes are strewn on the floor (unless {{Chekhov|sGun}} left them there). You'd almost think that they were living in a furniture store.

See also: FriendsRentControl, TheBeautifulElite, HollywoodHomely, ProductPlacement, CowTools. Contrast with MenCantKeepHouse. Compare PotteryBarnPoor and FirstWorldProblems.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': The guys' apartment is this (due to Sheldon's OCD habits). Penny's, on the other hand, is usually a mess. Sheldon even commented that Penny's apartment is just disorganized, not dirty. (This after he straightens it up.)
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': ZigZagged. The couch area is usually rather clean but the rear area frequently has some of Ted's W.I.P. (ranging from drawings and assignments to 7' Empire State Building models) left out in the open and the bedrooms are realistically messy. [[http://how-i-met-your-mother.wikia.com/wiki/Barney%27s_Apartment Barney's apartment]], on the other hand, is always terrifyingly clean.
** This is by design as Barney wants to discourage his dates from feeling too comfortable.

This is especially noticeable when the inhabitants are stated and shown to be lazy, slobbish, or disorganized. It's also more common in cartoons, as it takes a lot of effort to draw convincing clutter. In LiveActionTV, the actors still need to move about the set safely, the director will want to enforce TheLawOfConservationOfDetail, and too much stuff can cause shooting errors quite easily.

See also: FriendsRentControl, TheBeautifulElite, HollywoodHomely, ProductPlacement. Contrast with MenCantKeepHouse. Compare PotteryBarnPoor and FirstWorldProblems.

* A literal example with ''Film/TheRoom''. The furniture was purchased from a thrift store display window and placed exactly as it was. Hence, none of the chairs face the television, and it does not look inhabited.

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': half-averted. The couch area is usually rather clean but the rear area frequently has some of Ted's W.I.P. (ranging from drawings and assignments to 7' Empire State Building models) left out in the open and the bedrooms are realistically messy. [[http://how-i-met-your-mother.wikia.com/wiki/Barney%27s_Apartment Barney's apartment]], on the other hand, is always terrifyingly clean.

* ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'': the movie revolves around how perfect everything in Pleasantville is, though the plot eventually interferes.
* Used deliberately in ''Film/{{Juno}}'': The [=MacGuff=] and Bleeker houses are realistically average-looking, while Mark and Vanessa live an a pricey new development which Vanessa seems to have decorated with the merchandise from an entire Ikea. After she adopts the baby, however, her night table becomes appropriately cluttered.
-->'''Juno:''' Nothing's wrong, I'm just allergic to fine home furnishings.

* A literal example with ''Film/TheRoom''. The furniture was purchased from a thrift store display window and placed exactly as it was. Hence, none of the chairs face the television, and it does not look inhabited.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': You'd think the Bundys would be absolute slobs, but apparently, their house is tidier than yours. Their empty kitchen might have prompted the joke that the Bundys never actually had food in their house, rather than Peg being a lazy housewife.
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' averts this one and also hangs a {{Lampshade}} on it: not only does their house seem to have the normal amount of mess that an average house would have, but after Francis invited his hoodlum friends over (who are so destructive that it only takes three of them to turn the house into the same kind of wreck one would expect from a WildTeenParty), they even notice their house looks "too clean" after they manage to clear all the mess left behind. So, the boys dirty it up a bit.
** A latter-season ColdOpen has Lois spill something on the rug, then vigorously clean it up, then notice how the overly clean spot forms an "anti-stain". So she sprinkles some potting soil over it and grinds it in with her foot.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
** At the start of season 3, Wilson Fisk's [[LuxuryPrisonSuite "house arrest" penthouse suite]] in the Presidential Hotel is completely barren and devoid of furniture save for a single table in the living space on the first floor, as well as the fully furnished bedroom and the penthouse's secret "mission control" room where Fisk can give orders to his criminal flunkies. Midway through the season, Fisk's personal belongings begin to be moved into the penthouse, and by episode 7, the place is fully furnished in preparation for Vanessa's return in episode 12.
** The condo where Foggy lives with Marci is rather sleek and nicely kept after.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' either averts or justifies this.
** Justified in the case of Monica and Rachel's apartment: Monica is a neat freak, and doesn't like people moving furniture around. However even the furniture is eclectic and mismatched, and the decorating (like the famous purple walls and frame over the door) are more homey than you see on most shows.
** When Rachel moves in with Phoebe, she goes overboard at Pottery Barn. Ross remarks that the living room now "looks like page 72 of the catalog."
** Joey and Chandler's apartment managed to accomplish looking much more lived-in and normal despite the general lack of clutter, though this was probably in part because of the colors used and that most of it looked assembled bit-by-bit rather than carefully arranged and bought all at once.
** Also averted when Joey briefly moves into his own apartment. While the apartment does have brand new furniture, the rest of the gang comments that the furniture is quite odd (such as a panther coffee table or a random white dog statue). Also, Joey ends up moving back in with Chandler after it's revealed he couldn't pay for the apartment or all of his brand new furniture.[[note]]He gets to keep the dog statue[[/note]]
* Despite how many times it had been trashed by monsters, and what traumas or bizarre living arrangements the family are currently dealing with, the Summers' house of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is rarely less than spotless. This was {{Lampshaded}} by the gang a couple of times in Season 6.
--> '''Anya:''' "This is a Slayer's house, why aren't there any weapons lying around?!"
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' is excused since the title character is a neat freak, but it would have felt out of place otherwise, considering how "ordinary" the people are.
* The various ''Franchise/{{Degrassi}}'' series do this far too often: especially in the earlier shows, every home looks exactly like a stage set. It wasn't until ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' that we got to see messy rooms, and then it was only with characters who ''really'' demanded it (Emma and Peter literally live in the basement, complete with all the basement clutter, while Alex's mother is an alcoholic, abused wreck).
* Inverted on ''Series/BlackBooks'' where the living space (also a place of business!) was unspeakably messy. There were molluscs on the pipes. There was a dead badger lying on the floor, presumably for days. One episode's plot was motivated by the fact that the main characters had to leave as the place was being professionally cleaned; two weeks later, it was back to its usual squalor. That episode ended with a piece of toast falling from the ceiling onto a character's head. And let's not forget the patch of sticky floor, intentionally left that way to stop "children running around". To demonstrate how abysmally squalid the place is, the professional cleaner runs a white-gloved finger ''through the air'', and when he holds it out for inspection it is covered in grime.

-->-- '''Mike Nelson''', ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' "Film/MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders"

** Irene Adler's house, on the other hand, invokes this trope, especially when she and Sherlock find themselves in an enormous pristine room, with what seems to be very little other than a posh sofa and a fireplace/mirror. [[FridgeBrilliance Irene could keep rooms she entertains clients in as bare as possible to let them project their fantasies onto her and the environment. Or it could symbolize how empty and devoid of real connections her life is.]] More prosaically, Irene employs a full-time maid.

* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' is a prime example. There's very rarely anything out unless it's specifically needed for that scene. The bedrooms are basically furniture and a few knickknacks. It's even more improbable considering they live in Florida and almost surely don't have a basement for storage. They have a garage, but it's at one point home to mink cages (when the girls try to breed minks) and a small collection of stuff, then later empty when they decide to turn it into a guest room. Then suddenly in the first episode of S7, the living room is crammed with junk that the girls are sorting through, deciding what to keep, toss, or bring to storage. Where did it all come from?

* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'', Tim's entire apartment looked like an Ikea ad that had never been lived in or had a speck of dust in it. This was especially jarring considering just how unbelievably messy it had been established he kept his private quarters during ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]''.

* Completely averted in ''Series/{{Life}}'': Charlie's house does look amazingly tidy, but that's because Charlie's house is massive and has ''no furniture whatsoever'', though he does keep a RoomFullOfCrazy handy. It's a Zen thing.

* ''Series/NewGirl'': The four roommates' loft is spotless and stylish. {{Justified}} -- Schmidt is an obsessive NeatFreak, and when Jess freaks him out enough that he stops cleaning it descends into a pig pen overnight.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4317 one choice Monique is presented with is Wife Material, showing her vacuuming in this.]]