We prove that it is independent of ZFC whether every Hausdorff countable space of weight less than $c$ has a dense regular subspace. Examples are given of countable Hausdorff spaces of weight $c$ which do not have dense Urysohn subspaces. We also construct an example of a countable Urysohn space, which has no dense completely Hausdorff subspace. On the other hand, we establish that every Hausdorff space of $\pi$-weight less than $\mathfrak p$ has a dense completely Hausdorff (and hence Urysohn) subspace. We show that there exists a Tychonoff space without dense normal subspaces and give other examples of spaces without “good” dense subsets.