DYING with NOTHING

Living a minimalist life isn’t new. But dying a minimalist death is a movement growing in popularity. Alley Pascoe investigates the slightly morbid) new bucket-list goal

- Alley Pascoe

There’s a saying you might have seen written on a letter board outside a church or tattooed on some bloke’s chest at the local pub. It’s a profound sentiment: “We’re born with nothing, and we die with nothing.” In theory, the statement rings true. In reality, though, most of us will die with stuff – lots and lots of stuff. The average American home has 300,000 items in it. The average UK child has 493 toys by the time they turn 13. And the average Australian person buys 56 new items (or 15 kilograms of new fashion and textiles) each year.

It’s a lot to leave behind. This thought is driving a new wave of minimalists who are planning to die without belongings. Our possessions in life can become burdens in death, as many of us who’ve lost parents have found out the hard way.

“My dad passed away when I was 19, and as the oldest child I was in charge of everything,” says Renee Benes, who’s now 36 and runs the minimalism blog The Fun Sized Life. “He had an entire storage locker full of things and I had to clear it all out. I inherited my great-grandma’s Bible from my dad. I hung onto it out of obligation and kept it tucked away in a drawer. When I started on my ‘minimalism journey’, I realised that storing something that wasn’t being used or enjoyed – for the sake of it – was just wrong. So I donated the Bible to a charity shop.”

While it might be hard for some to comprehend giving away a precious family heirloom that’s been passed down through generations, Renee isn't the only person ending the cycle. More and more of us are planning to leave nothing materialistic behind.

Why? Good question.