the mccues go minimal

today, after my huge rant about anxiety and Facebook.  I'm taking steps to reduce stress in my life.

there is a type of meditation I use for my stress and anxiety, it's called mindfulness. 

you essentially stop what you are doing.  you strip away all the things from the past and possible future and focus on what's happening right now. you end up using your 5 senses to stay in the moment. and try to absorb everything that is now. 

well, Christmas was a blast with my children and mother. it was all about talking with each other, having fun and making meaningful connections. it was liberating not to be worrying about my house looking like it is from Better Homes and Garden. 

and why should living like that only come but once a year.  so, we as a McCue household are deciding to pare down. 

not only because with less stuff in our lives will we have more time by taking care of less things. but because we will have to spend more time with each other. 

so, I'm not going to run out and throw away my TV or the family's video game collection. we are going to start smaller and work up from there. 

so here is the game plan:

i still have clothes from high school.

1.  attack the closet. 

the closet is a major area of freaking the fuck out for me.  most of the time I can't find what I'm looking for. so the first part is to trim down to what I actually wear. then I'm trimming down the color.  I mostly wear black and grey anyway, but I'm sticking to simple colors.  simple  outfits and only using color on shoes and scarves.  it'll keep my clothes versatile and keep my laundry easy to do. 

2.  attack my DVDs

I've been moving my collection to blurays and have gotten rid of quite a few DVDs in the past, but I am banishing my DVD collection. I have a Netflix and Hulu account and I haven't watched a standard DVD in probably 2 years.  this will free up some extra funds (I'm selling them) and take the family out for a fun adventure. plus, zane will have one less thing to dust. 

3. downsize my book collection. 

Zane's bedroom bookshelf

my book collection is huge. we moved all of Zane's books into his room to free up more space and I still had to buy another bookshelf. it's absurd, but for some reason my massive amount of books make me feel more literate for some reason.  so, i keep on collecting books, and comics and anything else i can get my hands on, but i do read a lot.  but my book habit has become unruly.  with about 2-10 books coming in a month and little to no books going out of the house.



it's scary to think i am bringing in hundreds of books and simply occupying space with them after i have spent my time with them.  and it is pointless but somehow satisfying to say "I have so many books!"

My 1st bookshelf (with DVDs books and blurays

when people come over they can look at tangible evidence that I am not stupid. and honestly that's no way to live.  so I am chopping down my book collection to one bookshelf. if I hated the book I need to sell it.  if it's a crappy book I need to sell it.  

2nd bookshelf.  I also have a collection in my bedroom.

4. makeup has to be minimized.

this is a big one for me. when we moved town homes my biggest excitement was being able to get rid of my vanity and downsize my makeup collection to a tidy spot on the side of my large bathroom counter.  this ended up being a disaster.  so, I have to downsize again. I do not need 65 different colors of eyeshadow and 10 eye pencils.  I need to move down to what I use, and pitch the rest.  

looking back buying a $60 eye pallet from urban decay and too faced cosmetics seems like a major waste and a prime example of American desires for excess. I'm still a huge advocate for luxury and organic makeup, I just think sometimes a Sephora bender is just used to cover up feelings of low self worth. I have to get out of that cycle. 

5. I'm not killing all my collections. just going to focus on things I always have enjoyed. 

this may seem stupid, but I can't get rid of everything.  so, I'm keeping my record collection, I'll keep buying books and blurays and for some reason I can't get rid of all my nerdy action figures and statuettes.  but it's going to be baby steps.  if one item comes into the house then one item has to come out of the house.  

my pride and joy (and leftover trash from Christmas)

prime example of my excess brick-a-brack 

except for vinyl records, I can't let those go.  it's a major bonding point for trin and I.  it's my serene area of the house. 

I'm slowly moving to a more minimalistic lifestyle.  we view that way with food.. finally coming to the realization that having less means having more time together and more money.  

we don't buy store prepped food, and try to keep processed food to a small amount. that keeps us available to cook with each other, and means we spend more time enjoying the food we cook instead of in front of the TV eating something quickly thrown together. 

so why not do that in more than one facet of life. and no I'm not telling you to throw your TV out the window, but maybe we have all this stuff to distract us from what's really important, and hopefully getting rid of some of my stuff will be liberating. 

I'll post before and after pics after I finish this up, along with any cash I did get, and how we managed to spend it.

I'll also post how communication and time that we now spend together (if any).

here are some great links on living minimally, so go on, throw out some shit:

• Zen Family Habits
• The Minimalist Mom
• The Minimalists
• Minimalism is Simple

Godspeed to all us clutter-bugs.