I've mainly been trying to rewrite my room descriptions to cut out mention of objects that aren't necessary to save me the hassle of having to include interactions with them all. The office I mentioned before originally was:
The office of Dr Pangborn is largely the same as the last time you were here: the gorgeous oak desk with his ancient computer atop, a monstrous filing cabinet lurking in the corner and a large bay window showing the good doctor’s garden. There are a number of files piled high on his desk, some of them having been there long enough to gather dust, not to mention numerous tea-cup stains and random scribblings. Of the good doctor there is no sign.
Lots of stuff to examine, but only the computer is relevant. The rest is just scenery. So lots of tasks and objects to include for one simple location, including what you can see of the garden out of the window. Most of it is unnecessary and only there because I felt I needed to include it. The new room description, however, cuts a lot of that out:
The office of Dr Pangborn is largely the same as the last time you were here, visiting him for one perceived illness or another. Things here change very rarely, including his computer which looks to have been state of the art when your parents were young. Using it was generally a case of the good doctor punching the keys repeatedly, swearing, muttering, then slamming his fist into it a few times before declaring it was broken and giving you some pills instead. Of the good doctor himself there is no sign.
All the unnecessary stuff is now gone and I think the room is much better for it. There's a lot less I have to cover and the players will probably appreciate it, too, because now they won’t be wasting time examining lots of pointless scenery in case it happens to be important. As a general rule, scenery in this game is mainly
just scenery. It doesn't serve a purpose. It’s just there to flesh out a location. So it’s a lot of time and (wasted) effort to include every little thing the player might conceivably be able to see when I could instead be concentrating on the stuff that
is relevant.