And where would a bride be without a trousseau, a car without a garage, a bedroom without a bureau, an opera singer without a claque, a hungry man without a restaurant, a statesman without a conference?
I've never been on a placement without a bedroom to myself, and in an unfamiliar culture surrounded by new people I don't think I could survive without one for more than a week.
Though living without extra bedrooms appears to be a sacrifice, it is familiar to families the world over.
Catherine Johnson, in Little Baby Nothing, breaks into a teenager's bedroom without knocking first.
The family could survive without a separate bedroom for Luis Ángel, Lupita thought, so it wasn't, technically, a need.
She's with her boyfriend, who excuses himself to the bedroom without even taking off his coat.
"Nobody's allowed in the bedroom without J.P.," she tells me, as I notice the Do Not Enter sign.
From computer games he migrated, without leaving his bedroom chair, to ultra-nationalist and anti-Islamic websites.
While the customs officers were getting to grips with their discovery, Gurlitt, 80, reportedly remained in his darkened bedroom without protesting.
To have the memories and still make it bearable, so I can live without shutting a bedroom door or burning a chair".
