Do you have too much makeup? I’ve been feeling like I do. Last month, I shared my excitement at Lisa Eldridge sharing some No Buy sentiments. I’ve been feeling a bit like I want less stuff. I’m not entirely sure how to describe it. I’m not aiming to be minimalist, anti-consumerist, or no-waste. All of those concepts feel extreme to me and I’m more of a moderation kind of gal. In short, I just want to pare down and be more thoughtful about the things-in this case, products-I bring into my home. As it is, I have too much stuff and a lot of that stuff is stuff I never use or is just OK and I use it because I have it, but wouldn’t miss it.
In particular, I feel like I have too much in the way of beauty products. It’s funny when you’re getting into a new hobby and you just need to try all the things to figure out what suits your features, abilities, lifestyle, and so forth. So I accumulated a lot. Less than people I know in real life, and certainly less than the vloggers and wannabe MUAs who have entire rooms of their home dedicated to their collections. But this isn’t a game of comparison; I had certainly accumulated more than I needed, and more than I would use in a reasonable amount of time.
The KonMari Method
A while I ago, I sipped the delicious kool-aid Marie Kondo (she is getting a Netflix show – isn’t that crazy? I’m kind of concerned about production making it weird though, like so many things are) was serving up. Although I haven’t executed the KonMari method on my home (will probably start with my office, honestly), I appreciate and incorporate some of the principles and thinking into how to treat bringing items into my home.
Makeup and beauty products fall solidly under KonMari category four, Komono (miscellaneous), to be addressed after clothing, books, documents & papers. It is such a broad category that she suggests dividing it into (at least!) ten subcategories, one of which is makeup.
I needed to come up with additional storage solutions. I bought a few sets of MUJI drawers (which seriously are wonderful and do spark joy on their own). In reality, though, if I wouldn’t have irresponsibly allowed my collection to expand, I wouldn’t have needed to spend more to store it. I’m not beating myself up about it; a lot of the ‘stuff expansion’ was a result of exploration. But I know what kinds of products I like, now. I’m more in touch with what I like, and what sparks joy in a product or tool, to responsibly bring it into my home with an expectation that I will use it and love it.
When it Doesn’t Spark Joy
Over time, I feel like the more makeup I accumulated, the less affected I was by how awesome it is. I found myself having less fun than I used to. Sadly, the overwhelming amount of stuff I had wasn’t inspiring me and I started seeing it as more of a chore than something fun.
I destashed to friends and family, I sold items on /r/MakeupExchange, I tossed expired things, I donated some items.
That actually helped a LOT! Since I’ve done that, I’ve been feeling better – but not as good as I could be. So, (being a rebel and totally going out of the prescribed order; sorry Kondo-san) I resolved to give my collection the KonMari treatment.
To Be Continued
I’ve put it on the calendar for a weekend and April. I’ll report back with my results by May.
I’ve been doing the same and wanted to mention Project Beauty Share out of Washington. You can send lightly used makeup and other items for women (a list is on their site) and the sanitize things and doate items to women who have been involved in abuse, homeless and such to help them get back on their feet. Thataayla on YouTube supports them and it’s great way to declutter and help others. I am putting together a box as we speak.
I don’t want to eliminate makeup or stop my hobby but I have figured out what works and what doesn’t and if something doesn’t make me genuinely happy, I don’t need it; aka 90% of the new items releasing every 2 seconds.