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Post in Beauty Confidential
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Show Me Your Declutters!

I received an order today with four new lipsticks,

(Lancome L'Absolue Lacquer...I will never ever stop mentioning these every-dang-where ๐Ÿ˜„๐Ÿ˜)

but had absolutely no room for them in my containers. While the thought "buy more containers" crossed my mind for a brief second, I quickly dismissed it as I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with too much stuff. I'd been pulling out one or two here and there, but today was the big reckoning!Sorry I didn't stage a better pic, but that's 55 lip items that are now gloriously gone from my stash!Sorry I didn't stage a better pic, but that's 55 lip items that are now gloriously gone from my stash!

This is only the stuff I pulled today; I have a small train case packed full of the other lippies (and some palettes) that I've been slowly pulling over the last couple of months. Do I still have more I could get rid of? Yeah, most likely...if I was on the fence, I erred on the side of keeping it rather than tossing. And I didn't swatch every single keeper to weed out similar shades, so there's probably still a good bit of overlap in my berry-heavy collection. But my oh my, I feel soooo much better now. I found not only things I had forgotten about, but things I really had no clue I even owned in the first place ๐Ÿคฃ

 

So...do you have too much too? Ready to clear up some space and salvage a little sanity? Share your declutters with us; we wanna see it! 

Re: RE: Re: RE: Show Me Your Declutters!

@eshoe you still made the right choice if you never used it anyways. Stay strong! ๐Ÿ‘

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

Not products per se, but definitely reclaiming some sanity... I did a big organizing sweep the other night and had accumulated all this in various storage spaces. Some part of my brain thought I should be keeping this, but it's now gone to the big recycling bin in the sky!


IMG_20180709_224515.jpg

 

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

Ugh, that reminds me I should take a look at my boxes too. I keep the boxes of all my limited edition products ๐Ÿ™ˆ Some are just so cute!

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@fieldsofclover ๐Ÿ˜„

That counts!

I'm usually good about tossing my boxes pretty much immediately, sometimes before I even try the product. I've had a few instances where I realize "dangit, I should have kept that one so I could return this". Not sure that's a rabbit hole I need to allow myself to open though ๐Ÿ˜

 

My grandfather used to keep every single box for every single thing he ever bought, and he'd update them with notes over the life of the product. I had the task of cleaning out some of his basement after he passed, and found things like this gemAnd the base was packed carefully back in the box, just in case it might be useful someday :pAnd the base was packed carefully back in the box, just in case it might be useful someday ๐Ÿ˜›

 

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@RGbrown Omg that is so sweet โค๏ธ I donโ€™t know why but I would love to read little notes like that. 

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@RGbrown That's wild! My parents wore out two of those, but neither met quite that dramatic of a death.

 

I have those same box-saving genes on both sides of the family, though. I need to figure out how to level up my decluttering skills another notch or two. 

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@fieldsofclover

It's definitely tough to find that perfect balance of keeping enough without keeping too much. It seems most every time I clean stuff out, I regret getting rid of it later. A couple-ish years ago I tossed my backup hairbrush. It was probably 10 years old, but hadn't been used all that much because right after I bought it, my puppy chewed the handle up pretty good. I had wrapped in tape so I didn't get splinters, but wound up buying a new one because, well, you know...it worked fine but looked like carp lol. I finally decided it was spare and unnecessary and taking up too much room in my one and only tiny bathroom drawer, so I tossed it. Not two weeks later, my good brush broke, and I had to make an emergency Ulta run. ๐Ÿคฆ No wonder I can't let stuff go ๐Ÿ˜„

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@RGbrown it meeeeeeeee...

 

Murphy's Law is definitely at the root of a lot of mine, too ๐Ÿ˜’

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

So glad I found this thread as I'm sort of going through this right now! I have way more lip products than I would ever use but it's so hard to just get rid of them! What I've been doing in the past couple of weeks is committing to using a different lip product each day or every other day. At the end of the day, if I don't feel like I love it or something just doesn't work as I wish (too drying, not long lasting enough, wears off weird, etc.), I decide whether to keep it, toss it or give it another chance. I could never bring myself to throw away a lot of makeup at once (like a big declutter). I've tried and I still haven't gotten rid of more than half of it thinking I'll send them to Project Beauty as someone else mentioned, local women shelters or friends. Everything is still in a box. So by just focussing on one lip product at a time I'm sort of tricking myself ("it's only this one lipstick that I don't even like") to let go little by little.

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@mganeshaly

 

I totally agree it can be quite difficult to let go! I'd been slowly building up to this purge...I was pulling one palette here, one lippie there for a couple of months, then apparently reached my tipping point the other day. Now that I have the bulk of my least favorites gone, I need to do like you are...go through what's left one by one with a more critical approach to formula, staying power, comfort, and just overall satisfaction. I don't necessarily want a small collection, but I want to love everything I have.

 

I looked up Project Beauty last night, and while they do take some used cosmetics, unfortunately they don't take used lipsticks ๐Ÿ˜ž

I know what you mean! That's what I'm trying to do, keep...

I know what you mean! That's what I'm trying to do, keep the ones I really like and organize them so I don't reach for the same ones all the time. And yes, that's the downside of Project Beauty, they don't accept everything and for good reasons. I can't imagine giving something like a used lip gloss or liquid lipstick since there's no way they can sanatize those. I do have other products from a declutter that I've been planning to send for the longest.

Re: I know what you mean! That's what I'm trying to do, keep...

@mganeshaly

While I completely understand the "no wands" rule they have, I was a bit baffled by "no bullets or crayons either". Those can be easily sanitized. ๐Ÿคท

Re: I know what you mean! That's what I'm trying to do, keep...

@RGbrown Wait, they don't accept those? I thought they did! Now that I don't understand either. 

Re: I know what you mean! That's what I'm trying to do, keep...

Probably to keep jerks from shipping them old nearly-spoiled things. That's too bad.

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@RGbrown What a great idea for a thread! Weird question - are you throwing away the items you decluttered? I only ask because every time I contemplate going through my stuff I feel terribly guilty when I think about throwing things away. I hate the thought of wasting money, but having too much makeup/skincare to use up makes me anxious.

 

*I was proud of myself this morning, though. I had a little sampler set of Etude House products that I only bought because I thought they were going to smell like honey. I tried them this morning and they actually smell very flowery and headache-inducing. So I threw them away :). They were really small samples and not very expensive, but still, progress.

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@JenniferOhJenny

Congrats on decluttering! Every little bit helps, no matter how small ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

 

I admit I don't have much of a plan for this stuff yet. The thought of actually putting in the garbage can gives me knots in my stomach, so for now they're sitting in a box under my cabinet. I feel no urge to go through it and pull stuff back out...I'm happy it's "gone" and won't be missing it one bit...but I also hate to just throw it out lol. I actually get this weird feeling of accomplishment when I see the box, "see, look, I *can* pare down" ๐Ÿ˜… So it's all in a bit of purgatory right now...I don't want it, but I haven't figured out its final fate yet either ๐Ÿค”

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@RGbrown I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like to throw things away! My problem is (almost) everything I have, I really like. Especially with my lippies - I like them but I just don't wear them enough. (Right now I have a Juicy Shaker on my desk to remind myself to reapply every time I get up to go to the bathroom.) I think life was a little easier when my only lipgloss was the Jennifer shade from Buxom!

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

@JenniferOhJenny haha, I've been doing something similar; I leave a lip gloss on the counter to remind myself to use it up while I'm home. I work from home and don't wear makeup around the house, so this at least gets me to use a little something more often and helps me feel like I'm getting some marginal use out of something in my collection lol.

Hi RGbrown congrats on your decluttering. I also hate to...

Hi RGbrown congrats on your decluttering. I also hate to throw away things and think about money wasted... I remember someone mentioning project beauty share and they take some gently used cosmetics- I've got a box in the works to send them... anyone have any other suggestions for what to do with the products not being used?

Re: Hi RGbrown congrats on your decluttering. I also hate to...

@laurakristie

For other outlets, you can always check with friends, family, coworkers, etc. Look into local charities too. Project Beauty is nice, but it's centered in Washington state, and just feels a bit more anonymous (to me at least, since I live almost an entire country away). The bigger ones in your area should be relatively easy to find but likely have more stringent rules on what they'll accept, so seeking out smaller ones can be rewarding as well. Before I moved a few years ago, there was a small local church that had a food pantry; it received no outside funding from larger charities and relied solely on the donations of an aging and shrinking congregation. It was open one day a week, and was so badly stocked that frequently they could only give families something like one box of pasta, one jar of sauce, one jar of peanut butter, and maybe two or three cans of veggies. I was heavy into drugstore couponing at the time, and asked if they wanted soap/shampoo/toothpaste/makeup etc in addition to food and they were *thrilled* to have it, so I picked up every single free or cheap item I could find and sent it their way. This was all brand new stuff, of course, but in a roundabout way, my point is...sometimes the smaller places need more help, and will be more willing to accept items outside the norm for them, just so they can diversify their offerings and help folks in more ways. They are harder to find though...I stumbled on that one because my stepson went to Scouts at that church, but if you have the time and motivation to hunt one or two down, seeing the grin on the food pantry's lady face is way more satisfying than slapping a label on a box lol ๐Ÿ˜‹

Re: Show Me Your Declutters!

This is a great declutter @RGbrown!  I've been trying to force myself to use up the things I have, but some of the items just don't seem worth it.  For instance, if a shampoo is drying my hair out and making it tangle when I take such good care of it and deep condition like crazy, it is worth throwing out - which is why I recently threw out my DevaCurl products (well, I gave my husband some of the gel before I threw it out).  I'll definitely be posting here as I simplify my life.

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