but the apartmentlooked like a doll’s house that had rolled down a street.Clothes flopped on the floor like exhausted ghosts, thedining chairs stood on their heads, the newspaper wastorn into a thousand pieces of confetti. The dresserdrawers hung out like tongues, the kitchen cupboardswere gasping mouths, the bathroom was completelyshell-shocked. Foamy faces grinned from the mirror; allthe pictures hung upside down
A litany of metaphors and similes, all combining into a big piece of imagery. The list before tells us WHAT they did. This paragraph paints the picture for us.
The similes and metaphors also do another subtle thing - it makes it feel silly. They use a lot of childish references here. This will contrast against how seriously the adults ended up interpreting the scene.