Each year I do Buy No Books June. It’s a chance for me to catch up with my own-and-need-to-read pile (currently I own at least 248 books I have never read.)

This June I’m going one further. I’m doing Buy Nothing June.

I own too much stuff. I feel a deep urge to get rid of as much of it as possible. Maybe that’s from listening to The Minimalists and reading minimalism blogs every week. But maybe it’s because I went to visit my daughter, took only my handbag and one small cabin bag, and didn’t miss anything I own. I had my Kindle library, my laptop, two changes of clothes, medications, and a paper journal. What more do I need, when you get down to it? And yet I look around me now I’m back at home and I see only extraneous things.

I have a long-standing dream of living in a tiny house. I really like this one, by Rustic River, even though it’s not technically a tiny house; it’s got a pretty big footprint, but it’s awesome!

Tiny houses aren’t much of a thing here in New Zealand yet, mainly because land prices are so high it makes sense to put as large a building on a section as possible to make resale value worthwhile, and also to make rates (property tax) seem relatively affordable in comparison. Also, the local tiny houses I’ve seen lack charm. I mean, look at the Chattahoochee. Look at it. Then look at the Kiwi ones. There’s no comparison.

But no matter my yen, there’s no way – NO WAY – I could currently fit my shit into a tiny house.

So, not only am I going to buy nothing in June (except food, utilities, transport etc) but I’m going to cull and dispose of one full bookcase of books, and clean out the garage. When I finish the month I will get rid of the bookcase. I can’t achieve miracles in one month. But I can make a start. And pin photos of tiny houses to my office wall and think about One Day.