It’s been two months or so since I did a big organization/clean-out. It was shortly after formally announcing I was going to step back and work a little less on the blog, and it encouraged me to really start to tackle my archives!
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I decluttered at least 24 lipsticks when MAC ended their Back-to-MAC program in March.
2 weeks ago i did an organization after one of my labs cross the Rainbow Bridge. My other one will get a brother on Christmas.
I am so sorry for your loss. I dread the day it happens with my grandkitty. I told my daughter that I prayed that I would pass before Sophie does. Even thought she is my daughter’s cat, she has spent a lot of time with me as we got her just before my daughter started college so Sophie stayed with me and I took her to visit my daughter whenever I went into town and saw my daughter. Then after her first job, she had a roommate who had a cat and Sophie and her cat didn’t get along and the other girl made more of a stink about it, saying that she didn’t have anyone to take care of her cat so Sophie was going to have to be the one to go, so she returned to live with me. I bring her home whenever my daughter is going to be gone for more than 3 days and since I refuse to turn right around drive all the way back to Seattle from Western Montana, she usually stays with me for a few weeks before I take her home. Thank heavens cats have a decent life span.
In any event, I didn’t mean to drone on about my cat in the face of your loss. I am sure your other lab will love having a new brother.
Thank you!
About 2 weeks ago I decided to go through and get rid of all of my Urban Decay 24/7 liners. I have known for years that they irritate my eyes, but I have finally gotten fed up with dealing with it. There are plenty of long-wearing liner formulas that do not make my eyes water and cry off all my makeup. None were spoiled so I gave them to a coworker.
Daily.
You are so organized, kjh. I can go years without even thinking about doing it, little own actually doing it!
In all honesty, I don’t remember when! But I know that this is something that I need to do. And soon. Because I have a bunch of older MAC lipsticks and Lipglasses that smell rather unpleasant and even though I don’t believe that this off smell renders them “unsafe”, it’s not exactly nice to smell, either!
I went through my lipsticks and decluttered quite a lot of them when I started using makeup again so approximately 3 months ago. I haven’t gone through any other categories of makeup and still need to do that. So, for everything except lipsticks, it has been about 4 years since I did a declutter.
Funny story: At Christmas time 2022 my mother and brother were over for Christmas dinner. I was in the kitchen and my daughter was in the second bathroom so my mother used my bathroom. I heard her come back into the living room and ask my brother to go with her. He followed her into my bedroom and after a while they came out and sat in the living room. I asked my brother what was happening and he said that Mom had taken him to show him how many lipsticks I had on my vanity. She was appalled that I had so many lipticks. I looked and her and said, “Mom, those are just my high end lipsticks, I have two more boxes in my closet with the rest!!” When she went to say something, I told her not to chastise me about my lipsticks or I might have to remind her how much money she spends at the local casino. Not another word was spoken. My mom rarely wears makeup and so occasionally she will put on some lipstick but it is a dime store lipstick that she has likely had for 15 years. I doubt she has any idea of exactly what makeup products I might have and would be shocked if she actually realized I have probably 50-100 e/s ,palettes, foundations, blushes, etcetera.
I did a little declutter a month or so ago and looked very hard at the eye palettes I owned and what was probably passed their expiry dates. I tossed out palettes that I hadn’t used for quite some time, preferring newer and better quality eyeshadows.
I did the same for my lipsticks as well.
I have so many palettes that I hold onto because there is a shade that I really love, is unique to my collection and that I still use. I do wish that palette manufacturers would make it easier to depot their palettes so I wouldn’t be faced with trying to figure out which way I should go!
The last significant declutter was before I moved in April, and most recent significant reorganization was after moving.
I do this at least once a month. My focus and usage goals change from month to month, season to season, so I am constantly reorganizing.
Do you ever find that your monthly change in usage results in your having decluttered something that you now wish you still had? That is always my fear, that I will just get rid of something and then the next month want/need it for some reason. I don’t have issues with getting rid of things that have gone bad or are just so far out of date that using them might be problematic but I would hate to go get that perfect Chanel blush that goes with the look I am doing, only to find I got rid of it last month, LOL! If it was a year or so ago, I might not feel so bad!
I have gone through things periodically but am needing to do a purge of expired and unused products to make room for the newer things recently. Also am having major home renovations this coming summer and must declutter many areas of my home
I do it quarterly. I just did it in the beginning of September and got rid of a bunch of lipsticks that just sit there staring at me judgementally.
I am so impressed with people who have such organizational skills and keep on track. I am so bad about it and need to try to be better.
It’s ongoing. I have a huge paper bag under my vanity and toss everything that smells or look wrong. I have kept some DCed MAC lipsticks though, as I really like the colours.
I also have a box on my vanity with stuff to try, eyeshadow palettes not used for a long time and lip products.
I find it hard to do a real declutter over a day or two, so with this forever ongoing declutter I find it a lot easier.
I do need to arrange the lipsticks I have in the rotating towers as I have quite a lot of new lipsticks, mainly from MAC and I like to have them in a bit of order, reds, pinks berries, purples, nudeish and so on to the odd colours, not that they are odd, I mean greys, blues and blacks along with say Shitake for example.
If I have a lot of products from one brand I like to sort by brand and then colour.
It’s been an over four to six months. I only have lipsticks and mascara to be concerned about, so it’s pretty easy. And since there’s quite a bit of lipstick to throw out, I’ve learned not to by more (at least not expensive ones). As for mascara, I( think I’ve pretty much thrown out old ones (as I go and those that I bought that I really liked, but ended up not using as then they’re dried out). Glad I never bought more than one backup; however sad that I didn’t use a couple of them instead of others before they dried out.