The basics of life

I've accumulated quite a bit of junk over the last four years. And in my presence, junk has a tendency to multiply like fourth-graders on a math test. I neglectfully leave one or two items at the bottom of the laundry basket (so handy for those "lick and a promise" clean-up jobs!) and, you know, six months later it's just a mound of junk in there! How did *that* happen? Like seeks like, and suddenly there's a junk convention in my laundry basket.

Books accumulate too, but they are most emphatically NOT. JUNK. However, they are bulky- too bulky to fit in a suitcase - so for the most part, in my sudden effort to pare my life down to the very basics so I can feel like I'm going home that much sooner, they are being donated to the two-shelf (soon to be three-shelf) "English fiction" section we have in our otherwise-theological office library. I have become infinitely more realistic lately about which books I'll ever read again.

Really, what do you really need to live, other than a laptop, books, clothes, and maybe a fingernail clipper and a handful of cheerios? I mean, ok, maybe a water bottle if you're being really picky, but really, most of this junk can just go.

Paperwork schmaperwork.