Among all the requirements for furniture, the most important are the requirements for its intended purpose and social targeting. They largely determine the range of furniture.

Functional requirements for furniture are the conditions that determine the conformity of its purpose and the process of operation. They include: the conformity of furniture products and their elements to the purpose, environment and operating conditions; the need for functional division of products by parameters in accordance with the requirements of consumers of different age groups; the choice of useful volumes of containers and their rational internal arrangement and filling; compliance of furniture for children with modern methods of educational process; rational ways of storing items taking into account their purpose, quantity, weight and volume, as well as compatibility within a single furniture design.

When designing furniture, functional actions need to be considered for specific age groups of consumers and for different typological traits of people.

Analysing various functional aspects of furniture and its indicators, such as the level of quality, optimality of the assortment, as well as the solvency of the population, it is impossible not to dwell on such an important indicator as competitiveness. This indicator is integrated, i.e. it reflects many properties of the object.

Competitiveness of furniture is the most important “market” indicator, it determines the attitude of the buyer, and the success of the whole enterprise depends on it.

When designing furniture, one of the most important issues is the choice of optimal composition of sets of products for a particular functional zone of the flat, as well as determining the total useful capacity of compartments for storing various things in the flat. This useful capacity is one of the initial conditions for determining the overall dimensions of the designed products.

The functional dimensions of products are regulated by the relevant industry standards. However, to determine the overall dimensions, it is necessary to know what, for example, it is necessary to design a wardrobe for dresses and linen – one-, two- or three-door; how many chairs or stools should be included in a set of furniture – two, four, six or eight, etc. To solve such problems on the basis of studying the long-term practice of design and trade organisations, the optimal nomenclature and composition of furniture sets for different functional zones was adopted (developed by VPKTI-Mom, a now defunct furniture institute). The recommended optimal nomenclature and composition of sets have not lost their value today, as the basis of their development is based on the principle of rational consumption of items, which has not changed significantly. The recommendations are given for different variants of flats and different number of family members, they can still be used today as a methodological guide.

The method of building the optimal nomenclature is based on the analysis of human actions and processes carried out in a given functional zone.

In order to determine the optimal furniture nomenclature for all functional zones of the flat, all storage compartments were combined into groups intended for possible common storage of items:

• hanging clothes (coats, cloaks, suits, dresses, shirts, etc.);
• folded clothes (shirts, blouses, jumpers, underwear, scarves, hats, etc.);
• household and household items;
• printed publications and decorative items;
• tableware, linen and cutlery;
• bedding;
• children’s toys, board games, etc.;
• kitchen utensils – pots, kettles, pans, etc.;
• simple kitchen utensils – meat grinders, rolling pins, graters, cutting boards, etc..;
• kitchen machines and electrical appliances;
• foodstuffs;
• household maintenance items;
• sanitation and hygiene items; washing equipment, laundry items and laundry detergent;
• travelling items and sports and hiking equipment;
• repair and construction materials, glassware, etc.

It is accepted that the useful capacity of storages, except for compartments for hanging clothes, is their internal volume, including elements of functional equipment (shelves, trays, drawers, etc.), which increase the convenience of storing items and provide a more complete utilisation of the volume. The useful capacity of the compartments for hanging clothes is determined by the length of the rod, regardless of the way it is arranged.