My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Tennessee
We are renting a two bedroom apartment. We are a family of four consisting of two adults and two very young children both under 3. Our current set up is that we co-sleep with both of the children. Therefore the second room we do not need as a bedroom. Instead, we use that room for storage. The room does have a queen sized bed in it and a TV. But more than anything it has all the baby gear (ex. strollers) and toys.
We had an inspection (we have monthly inspections) and we got a lease violation notice for having an "extremely cluttered" guest bedroom.
So my main question is this... If we are otherwise good tenants who pay our rent on time and keep the rest of the house uncluttered, then what exactly is the problem and is this something they can enforce? The manager is claiming it is a safety issue and has picked on us for this in the past to the point where we did go get a storage unit for a lot of the extra things, but that unit is full. She, the manager, is stating that it is a safety issue because you cannot easily access the window in case of a fire. As if we would be jumping out of the two story window in event of a fire AND as I mentioned that room is not used for anything BUT storage. We never go in there other than to put things in it and take them out.
Now, before you start imagining a hording situation, this is NOT garbage or filth. It is things such as a Radio Flyer wagon, a walker, stroller, a trunk full of toys, and there are some boxes with baby clothes. Oh, and at the time there are bag of Christmas presents we need to wrap.
So in our lovely state of Tennessee what is the law regarding our rights of use of space in this rental unit?

