You're a student. One day you wake up and your room looks different. You can't quite put your finger on why. It just looks wrong, somehow, well… bigger. You roll over and slap your face on the bare floorboards. Instantly you're awake. You understand. Your bed's gone. So is your pillow, sheets, the wardrobe, your chair, and the bedside cabinet. In fact, it's all gone. You leap up and bound down the stairs to face your housemates. They've left you a note on the kitchen table: "You can have your stuff back, as long as you can remember what was there. Whatever you can't remember goes to the dumpster." You think, "Where did I get such hilarious housemates?" but you're uneasy. What did I have in my room?
We all get so used to stuff that we don't really see it anymore. That is, unless you're one of those people with a photographic memory. Most of us aren't. Take it all away and we won't be able to tell what we're missing—just that things don't look right. Rooms and...