Completely different type of game, but maybe the TES approach would kind of work... Normal items in normal places where you'd expect to find them.
As long as it doesn't make every player groan with frustration over all the useless junk in useless containers.
On a side note, it would be great if containers had tags, like: "Barrel" - contains something useful/of note (even if it's a small thing), "Barrel (empty)" - contains nothing, "Barrel (mundane)" - contains junk without gameplay purpose (or commonplace junk that could be used in some way, but not normally useful).
