How does Steinbeck's initial description of the bunkhouse show that the migrant workers have to live in harsh conditions in Of Mice and Men?

Steinbeck describes the barren bunkhouse with its whitewashed walls and unpainted floor, small square windows in only three walls, and a solid, wooden door with a rustic wooden latch. For beds there are eight small bunks with single blankets or burlap ticking, and above the beds a wooden box nailed to the wall acts as shelving on which the bindle stiffs place their meager belongings. Thus, the living conditions are those of the ascetic or...

Steinbeck describes the barren bunkhouse with its whitewashed walls and unpainted floor, small square windows in only three walls, and a solid, wooden door with a rustic wooden latch. For beds there are eight small bunks with single blankets or burlap ticking, and above the beds a wooden box nailed to the wall acts as shelving on which the bindle stiffs place their meager belongings. Thus, the living conditions are those of the ascetic or the poor. 

There are no curtains at the walls, no paintings, no mirrors, no rugs, no comfortable chairs. In the middle of this bunkhouse, a large, square table functions as a card table or gathering spot for the men to sit; however, they must sit upon boxes as there are no chairs. Everything inside the bunkhouse is impersonal and functional. For example, "[N]ear one wall there was a black cast-iron stove, its stove pipe going straight up through the ceiling." This stove's function is to heat the bunkhouse.

Much like the lives of the bindle stiffs, there is a sense of the temporal in this bunkhouse devoid of any real comforts; in addition, nowhere is there decorations or curtains--those things that personalize a place and make it feel a little like home. Instead, the bunkhouse is merely a station where the men come to sleep and to relax for brief periods with no privacy, either. It is not unlike the barn quarters of Crooks, the stable hand, other than the fact he is isolated from the other men.