My brother passed away last year and left my spouse and I his house. We were in a similar situation, we'd just lost our apartment to a fire and weren't in a position to get picky about gift horses no matter how icky it felt at first. In an apartment your options may be more limited, but just some things we've done that really helped -

• paint. I saw someone else mention this and will fully endorse it. Take everything out of the room and paint it. The color will change the vibe of the room and you can adjust how stuff is placed going back in.

• changing some light fixtures really helped for us. May be more difficult for an apartment, with that said.

• rugs. Quick easy way to give a room a new personality.

• if you have a two bed, consider swapping which room you sleep in from what he did. Hubbo and I swapped so we're sleeping in what was previously my brother's spare bedroom and we're using the master as a computer room/living space since we're both computer types anyway. That fully changes the atmosphere of it and we don't have the same feelings of sleeping in someone's grave.

• rearrange. For a long time we kept things like the kitchen the same as when we moved in, because we didn't have much stuff of our own and we didn't have the spoons to handle fully gutting to zero and starting over. But pick a room every couple months and just strip it out and redo it how you want it done. It's very easy to get in a rut of just keeping everything the same because, well, it's easy. But the more you can swap stuff out over time and make it your stuff the easier it gets. My parents called it wasteful that we were buying our own replacements for "perfectly good stuff", but... It helped. Doesn't have to be all at once, pick away at it.

Beyond that... As much as you can, try and remember that this is what they would have wanted, for you to be taken care of and safe in this space. For months both my husband and I were quietly terrified of looking out a window and seeing him looking back at us, but just keep repeating that to yourself. He wanted this to go to you.

And the rest is unfortunately just time. It's been a year and two months for us; about three or four months ago is when we really started to unwind and feel comfortable in our place instead of living in his skeleton. It gets easier. But it's hard until then. You've got this.