Show Me Your Declutters!

[RGbrown]

I received an order today with four new lipsticks,

(Lancome L'Absolue Lacquer...I will never ever stop mentioning these every-dang-where 😄😍)

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!

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 🤣

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! 

[RGbrown]

@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 😞

[mganeshaly]

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.

[RGbrown]

@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. 🤷

[mganeshaly]

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

[fieldsofclover]

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

[JenniferOhJenny]

@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.

[RGbrown]

@JenniferOhJenny

Congrats on decluttering! Every little bit helps, no matter how small 👏👏

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" 😅 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 🤔

[JenniferOhJenny]

@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!

[RGbrown]

@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.

[laurakristie]

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?

[RGbrown]

@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 😋

[curlychiquita]

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.

[SpaceLlama]

I agree that bad shampoos are worth tossing, @curlychiquita & @RGbrown! I usually send mine to my sister since her hair is different and if it doesn't work out for her, she has other roommates and people she knows that she can pass it on to. We do the same for makeup & skincare, but we're sisters so we feel okay about sharing beauty products. I recently threw out a bunch of old makeup from when I was starting makeup, but it was quite old and disgusting so I felt no regret. I still have a bag of less old stuff in "purgatory" as you said that I need to decide what to do with. 😬

[RGbrown]

@SpaceLlama

Oh, that's awesome that you have a hand-me-down network! That's an awesome way to make sure some unloved items can get some use 🙂

Ah, decluttering the super-old stuff reminds me of one regret. I had some makeup that was 12-13 years old when I first started getting back into it on my current level a couple of years ago. I went through and tossed pretty much all of it with no regrets, except one piece (there's always one, isn't there!). At the time I tossed that stuff, I didn't wear blush and wasn't really interested in it at all, so I threw out all that I had. But of course, a few months later I started dabbling with it some and I was heartbroken to realize my Revlon A Rose Is A Rouge blush was gone. I always remembered it being the perfect shade for me, and haven't found anything exactly like it yet (or, well, exactly like I remember it, at least lol). I found it on eBay for $20+, but it's just not quite worth that to me, especially now that I have entirely too many other blushes in my collection. As old as it was, it may not have even been any good anymore, but I certainly wish I had bothered to save it so I could at least know for sure lol. 

I think this helps explain my desire to keep stuff in purgatory for a while too 😛

[SpaceLlama]

Oh no, @RGbrown! That really sucks! Luckily the stuff I started out with was really cheap makeup from Ardene, Claire's and (believe it or not) La Senza that was definitely unusable by now. I do have that fear for other products though 😬 I hope you can one day find a good dupe for it!

[RGbrown]

@curlychiquita

I hear you! I always have a hard time finding the balance between "not my favorite but it's fine, I can use it up" and "omg this is the worst thing ever". I recently tossed a couple of shampoos and conditioners myself that just weren't cutting it. I hated wasting the product, but...if it's ruining my hair and leaving me frizzy, I really should just let it go.

[Shosh85]

This is a wonderful idea for a thread! 🙌 I’ve been meaning to go through all my makeup and skincare – this will be the perfect motivation to do so! Stay tuned, I’ll be back! 👌😊😉

P.S. That’s an impressive pile, I’m sure that’s got to feel good! Great job, @RGbrown!! 

[RGbrown]

@Shosh85 can't wait for you to join in! Paring down feels so good. I'll never have a tiny "capsule" collection, but just having a better handle on what I do have, and being able to find it easier, is such a relief 💕

[eshoe]

@RGbrown, it’s nothing near your declutter, but i figure if I can reduce by at least one x day, that would be around 30 a month! Anyway here is my first go-round. The Tata Harper, I don’t know what I was thinking as I have dry skin! I love her products, this just wasn’t meant for my skin. The Kiehl’s Glow Formula...not sure what this was supposed to do, but I thought it was a mask when I ordered it as a GWP😆 I don’t recall where the Vasant moisturizer was from, a Beauty Box but it’s not rich enough for my skin. Last, the Jane Iredale was SO cute but it had a weird bumpy surface then broke the 2nd time I used it. I tried to fix it as it’s the perfect size for a clutch but gave up.

[RGbrown]

@eshoe congrats on clearing up some space! Getting rid of stuff that just doesn't work feels so good! 💞

[txcatx]

This is a brilliant idea for a thread, and I totally need to do this sometime this weekend!