Welcome Nika Harper to WWdN! She’s sharing this guest-post-story-thing with us while Wil Wheaton is at sea. Check out other stories and writing at nikaharper.tumblr.com and various reading/gaming on YouTube. Her penchant for unusual cocktails is the genuine best.

The first thing to go is the easy stuff; the junk that you needed to clean anyway.
Boxes, trash, procrastinated piles of rubble left behind from a trip to the electronics store or a night in with pizza. Normal things that should be cleaned, are broken or useless but nonetheless make up a small percentage of your life. Yes, you feel strong, but relief is fleeting. As soon as it’s gone, it’s forgotten.
You won’t notice the missing burden, the assumption is it was never there.

The second thing is organization, and it comes at a cost.
Plotting every step of your routine, shuffling and sorting the necessities from the unique items, crafting mental boxes like “fun” or “useful” or “special.” Applying sortable tags that make the culling easier. Categorize, agonize, simplify, look with the eyes of a stranger.
“Good for me.”
“Reliable.”
“Exhausting.”
“Better in memory.”

The third thing is utility, and it requires diligence.
You can survive with nothing, sustain with little, thrive with ample, drown with excess. Those labeled boxes drip and overflow as you toss them, one by one by one, closing your eyes and trusting instinct.
Pretend there isn’t room. Pretend you already don’t have it. Look away, throw away, push harder, squeeze tighter.

The fourth thing is sentimentality. It hurts.
Everything disappears, someday. This time you make the choice.
Take pictures. Hold it close. Store it in your memory. Let it go.

The fifth thing, and the last one, is everything you’ve forgotten.
Overlooked comforts. What made your life your own. What separated hotel from home. Everything you took for granted, reached for, and had nothing but air to grasp. The feeling of loss.
Yet, it’s over. The repair, the replacement, they begin along the way. It’s exhilarating to live on bare minimum. Only what you need. A restart. The elation of being lean and agile. The first step in a clean new life. The ability to build up what is needed, nothing more.

Then the second step is doubt…