You know how on TV when someone's house gets robbed, the walls have outlines where the furniture and pictures used to be? Well, if you're getting a new place and can't afford furniture, you should paint the walls to look like that and tell people that you used to have furniture but you got robbed. I wish I had a good picture to illustrate this.

Another tip which I read somewhere is to always have some get well soon cards, and then if your place is a mess and you have company coming over, just put the cards out and then your visitors will think you've been sick lately so you haven't been well enough to clean.