Loved The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, though am still working through the “editing” part. I do see the gift in starting from scratch and having less stuff. I spilled an entire pot of coffee on my laptop once and had to start over — there was a cleanness to my mind and work that first year after.

Sometimes as a writer, I take all my work and save it into an “archive folder” to start fresh. I’m sorry you lost your stuff, but yes, the universe has volunteered into the extreme KonMari method! But I like your partner’s optimism, the clean “ruby environment” and you got this brilliant essay from it, so you’re already off to a good start.