clients usually look at me warily when i come to their house to take photos and i start opening blinds and looking for light. they're even more unsure when i place kids on the kitchen table or in the bathroom; you can see them thinking, "i paid you money to stand my kid in the bathtub??" but, invariably, when they get the photos back, they are happy with what they see.
taking good photos (whether of people or landscapes) requires good lighting. i believe light to be THE most important part of taking photos (assuming, of course, one already has a basic grasp of photography basics like iso, apeture and shutter speed). here are a few examples from my own house and my own kids, taken this morning:


both of these photos were taken on top of my dining room table. i get amazing light from my dining room window in the morning. i plopped the kids on top of the table and started snapping. to give you the big picture, here's what it looked like:
see? it's not about the background as much as it is the light. so the next time i come to your house and do something that makes you pause, just remember it'll look good in the end :)