In the beginning...

Hi, my name is Liz. I'm a philosophy teacher, mother and human being living in the north west of England with my husband, 1 year old son and 2 cats. I also own all the things.

Seriously like all of them, they all belong to me. I have so much stuff I just don't know what to do with it all. Books? Literally thousands. Clothes? By the tonne. Jewellery? Shed loads, in all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes and sizes. Our modest 4 bedroom terrace is filled with stuff, stuff is everywhere.

So I've decided to stop buying stuff. I'm not going all Marie Kondo and chucking it all out because, frankly, I really like my stuff and I don't necessarily want to get rid of it. I'm not trying to save money, because staying within my means has never been a major issue for me, I love charity shops, sales and car boots and I earn a reasonable wage. I'm just not going to buy more things, for a year.

Why I'm stopping buying things

Well other than the aforementioned lack of space, I'm starting to realise that the purchasing of items is taking over my life. I used to read and work with my evenings, now I browse cheap Chinese selling apps looking for bargains or bid on things on Ebay. I have a wonderful son, who spends a lot of his Saturdays trawling around shops while mummy browses. Admittedly he often benefits from my purchases, but he also has enough books, toys and clothes to sink a ship so will hardly suffer from my decision. I spend a good portion of my extremely limited free time returning things to the post office that I've bought online, packaging up dresses I've sold, bought or swapped to take to the post office, or picking up missed parcels from the post office. Stuff is not just taking over my house, it's occupying my thoughts, my time, my existence! I need to readjust, I need to stop buying things.

The Rules

1. From the 5th March 2018 I will no longer purchase non-consumable items for my self. Obviously consumables such as food, cosmetics, toiletries etc. are exempt because, ya know, I gots to survive!

2. Gifts are allowed, as in I can buy gifts for others and if people choose to they can buy me things too. Social niceties still have to be observed! All this needs to be within reason though, I don't want to replace buying stuff for me with buying stuff for others. Also I was gifted an Etsy giftcard for my birthday so I am allowed to spend this as it is technically a gift, plus it seems rather rude to not spend it because I've decided to do this stupid challenge. Social niceties remember!

3. Essentials can be replaced if broken/lost/stolen. So while my laptop say is not a consumable, I really need one and if it breaks I need to be able to replace it

I don't think I need any more rules, but I'm willing to be flexible and add or adapt these as I go along. Also I really do think I will slip up over the course of 12 months, it's a long time and I have a really bad habit, but I'm not going to beat myself up over this or loose sight of what I'm trying to do.

Steps to help me stay on the wagon

I've just deleted all my selling apps from my phone and unfollowed various selling and swapping pages and groups from Facebook. I've also bought myself a few things that I may need or want over the next few months to try and keep me happy.

So here goes, me trying to manage without purchasing stuff is officially underway and no longer just something I've told my husband I should try and do.