Jack the front of the car up. Remove wheels.
Remove calipers, caliper brackets, and rotors.
Disconnect sway bar link.
To disconnect the tension rod from the control arm, I find it easiest to put the front of the car on stands and compress the suspension with a floor jack, then disconnect the tension rod from the control arm.
Disconnect any steering linkages you need to. If you pop the steering linkage out of the knuckle, then an alignment isn't necessary.
Remove the two bolts on the underside of the knuckle that hold it to the strut and pry the knuckle out of the bottom of the strut WITH THE SUSPENSION FULLY EXTENDED.
Everything is now disconnected and you can remove whatever you need to.
Do not under any circumstances remove the center bolt on the top of the strut. Remove the outer three and remove the strut from the car and use a spring compressor to get the strut apart if you need to.
The knuckle can be a pain to get off the ball joint sometimes. The best ball joint separator to use is the scissor kind, not one meant to be hammered on, and not a press-type one.
You can remove the ball joint from the control arm and replace it by itsself, contrary to what you've heard. I use TRW ball joints at about $40 each. They are greasable and should outlast the car.
If you put some sealer on the bottom of the strut where it seals to the knuckle, it will keep water and moisture out of the area and make it much easier to remove the nut next time.