The last few years have taught me many things, and despite no defining benchmarks like degrees, new relationships, new jobs, etc. there has been a clear and obvious change in my lifestyle.

Objects used to stick to me like parasites, and I couldn't remove anything without feeling some kind of emotional pain. I would justify keeping the clutter with the same cliché excuses: "it reminds me of...", "I might need that some day..", or "what if I have to [do something I never do] and need that [useless thing]?..". This lead to clutter everywhere. Old t-shirts would hibernate under my bed, trinkets used once in some obscure setting would stick around forever and my life would look (and feel) like a teenagers messy room.

I'm not sure why it happened, but one day I faced my fears and started to purge... it felt good. At first I thought I was losing an old friend when I threw out a t-shirt from University. However, the more I did it, the more I could see how irrational my excuses were. I found that I could still remember the memory, I never ended up needing the thing again, and l could still function totally fine. The insurmountable pain of throwing things away retreated to become like the sting of ripping off a bandaid, and it got less and less painful the more I did it. In fact, it eventually turned into pleasure and later a passion. The space created by throwing things away opened up capacity both mentally and physically. I now pride myself of a more streamline and efficient lifestyle.

Now, my life is better, cleaner and crisper without clutter hindering the evolution process. It's obvious that living with less is more.