GM: You slip into the study and close the door quietly behind you. Based on your observations of the house guards, you have about three minutes before they come to inspect the room.
Player: Okay, I go to the desk and and check all the drawers for false bottoms and then look behind all the wall pictures for hidden safes.
GM: Hold on. The desk is a big heavy oak thing but it doesn't have any drawers.
[cue extended back and forth with the GM trying to get the player's vision of the study to align perfectly with their vision of it]
Compare that to the situation in which the player simply says, "I search the study for clues." The GM can then ask for a a Perception roll (or not, depending on the specifics) and narrate the results of that roll, including whatever descriptive elements are important. Now the GM and the player still have their own mental images of the study and they are still different from one another's but those differences don't matter and don't impede play.