Rule: Inanimate nouns usually do not take the -s genitive.
Examples of errors:
(1) He found it under the planks of the old man's room's floor.
(2) Rationalization is also a problem. It's reasons are outdated machinery and crowded conditions.
(3) Because of the housework's monotony, a housewife becomes more and more discontented.
The -s and of genitive are to some extent in complementary distribution (i.e. mutually exclusive) in that animate nouns and nouns referring to people and, in some cases, animals) generally take the -s and inanimate nouns the of construction, e.g.:
John's collar is dirty.
The dog's collar is dirty.
The collar of the shirt is dirty.
The buckle of the collar is broken.
One would be less likely to say:
The shirt's collar is dirty.
The collar of John is dirty.
The collar of the dog is dirty.
(Cf. 1.6.4 in reference to the last two examples.) Nevertheless, there are a great number of inanimate nouns that can take the -s genitive as well as the of construction; these can be classified as follows:
geographical names: Africa's modernization, England's industrialization, Rhode Island's history, New York's problems
locative nouns (i.e. common nouns indicating places): the earth's center, the nation's debts, the city's recreation areas, the world's problems, the moon's surface
temporal nouns: a year's wait, the week's proceeds, today's young people, a day's work, a moment's thought
A fourth category includes many different nouns that only seem to have in common the fact that they express concepts closely associated with human affairs, e.g.: at arm's length, the mind's development, his life's work, the story's main theme, the car's engine, the ship's captain, the wine's quality, the book's importance, the machine's function. Given the wide variety and number of nouns that can be included in this last category, the question as to just when an inanimate noun does allow the -s genitive becomes very problematic. Many native speakers, no doubt, would not object strongly to (2) or (3), for example. (1) is awkward because of the two -s genitives together, though this is less troublesome with animate nouns, e.g. John's brother's coat. Furthermore, many nouns which do not ordinarily allow the -s genitive themselves will do so when substituted by it, e.g.:
The assumption is unjustified, but it's basis is clear.
is less objectionable than
The assumption's basis is clear.
It's reasons in (2) is less acceptable because the expanded form is not the reasons of it (cf. the basis of it in the example above) but the reasons for it.