The one thing that got me to start actually throwing stuff away was realizing that I was almost certainly going to die in my apartment.

It hit me one day that it was basically a 100% guarantee that at some point, I would die in my apartment. The thought terrified me and made me realize that I was essentially leaving behind my entire life's worth of stuff for someone else to deal with.<br><br>Now, I'll admit it's not like I was drowning in clutter. I had always kept my space tidy, if not minimal. But I had boxes of stuff from college and beyond that I hadn't touched in years. I had entire areas of my closet that I never dared to enter. And worst of all, I had a nightstand drawer that was so jammed that it no longer opened due to my inability to let go of anything.<br><br>One day, I came home from work and opened that nightstand drawer. I slowly pulled everything out. Old receipts, old group chats, old coupons. I dumped it all in the trash. And it was the most cathartic thing I'd done in years. I started to go through more and more. I threw away old clothes and shoes. I got rid of all my schoolwork. I trashed anything that I hadn't touched in years.<br><br>It was incredibly freeing. I realized that I'd been holding onto all this stuff as some sort of attempt to hold onto the past. Old group chats reminded me of my college days, the textbooks reminded me of my time at university, the old clothes made me feel like I was holding onto my youth. But the truth is, it was all just stuff. And it wasn't doing me any good.<br><br>It's now been years since I started my minimalism journey. I've gotten rid of so much stuff and I'm still not done. I've moved to a new apartment and I'm still getting rid of stuff that I brought with me. But for the first time in my life, I feel like I'm where I'm meant to be. I'm not drowning in clutter. I'm living in the present. And I've never felt better.<br><br>I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that I want to leave this world with the same ease that I entered it. I want to leave behind nothing but memories. And I want to make sure that no one has to deal with the aftermath of my life.