Have you ever decluttered your collection? How did it go?
Oh, definitely! I do this regularly and continuously to some extent. As I receive press samples, I set aside products for donation that I don’t expect to cover (from products that aren’t a good to fit ones I can’t use to products I already have). After I’ve tested and reviewed products, I sort them into two “piles” where anything I expect to keep goes into bins to be sorted later, and then anything that I don’t plan to keep is set aside for donation (products that can’t be donated are given to friends/family or recycled). When I put things into “long-term” storage (actually organizing them where they should go), I routinely take older products and remove them; as they’re older, they are more likely set aside for friends/family or recycled as appropriate (e.g. 3-4 year old glosses).
Yes! I try to declutter regularly. Not only my collection though, I mean, EVERYTHING. I hate the idea of things piling up and not being used, especially when someone else could be getting better use out of it.
When I did one of my first declutters, I did some research into my own collection and tried to find dupes, and only kept one of each. Then I gave the make up to friends and donated the rest. It felt like I could breathe again and I was inspired with the make up I had.
Probably time to declutter again.
I’m the same way. I find myself decluttering everything around my home about 3 times a year. Less is always more and I’d rather give my items to a new home for a (hopefully) happier second life.
I have done one big declutter, getting rid of mostly drugstore makeup (because I can’t seem to part with makeup I’ve spent a lot of money on). I threw away some of it, gave some away, and I have a bag of makeup in my desk drawer at work that I haven’t figured out what to do with yet. Some of it I am keeping for emergency on-the-job touchups.
I’ve also done a mini declutter with MAC products for a Back-To-MAC. Currently, I have four MAC products collected for my next BTM, which includes two lipsticks and two eyeshadows that I haven’t used in a few years.
I’m about to do a declutter too! I’ll be searching for places that take (very) lightly used makeup, but I’m also going to be selling a good deal of it on /r/makeupexchange. I’m moving soon and hope to move light 🙂
Project Beauty Share takes gently used makeup that can be sterilized. They give the products to local women’s shelters and they may sell some to raise funds as well.
How would I contact them? I have plenty to donate. Are they only local? I’m in Cleveland Oh.
I should definitely do this from time to time, I will keep this useful post !
Can you tell us more about how you recycle your makeup? Or if I’ve missed a previous post on that can you point me there? Thanks!
I just take out the product and recycle the packaging.
Ah, ok 🙂
You can recycle cosmetics empties with Terracycle (assuming you live in an area they operate): https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/personal-care-and-beauty-brigade-r. It’s not immediate, though. I signed up a couple months ago and although I’ve received an email from them saying that I’m on their list, I haven’t gotten my box yet. I’m saving all my empties in a bag for now.
Cool, thanks for this idea!
I’ve read that L’Occitane and Bare Minerals recycles empties from any brands if you take them into a participating store. I’ve never done it myself though to confirm how it works.
I have done large declutters in the past and it’s gone well, I’ve never regretted anything. Now I try to regularly declutter as I go along. Toss a product here and there like eh, I’m done with this right? I used to feel very guilty about not using products I bought, and then keeping them around like one day I might get to them, or “but I used to love it!” But I shouldn’t feel like that anymore. They’re just things and consumables at that.
Ugh, that sounds like me. I do this with clothes, too. “Someday this might fit again…” (Insert eye-roll here.)
I declutter when the spirit or circumstances move me; no set pattern or trigger. Maybe 1-2 times in the last year, when I look around and realize I have just too much stuff, or I’ve decided I don’t like some item and the act of tossing or donating it blossoms, or I’ve just bought a new container for one thing that triggers a whole reorganization. Like a dusting project can blossom into a day-long cleaning jag
I’d give myself a B+… almost all of what I have, I like and use. Since over the years I’ve had a few items that were back of drawer until I rediscovered and liked them enough to put in rotation, I don’t get too ruthless.
Other than a few small declutters, nothing since I moved to Arizona. And before that, the massive declutter I had to do at 33 y.o. due to having suffered severe conjuntivitis and iritis. Nothing recently compares to those 2 events, though! Thing is, I really do need to downsize in a major way. I have 50-60 older Nyx eyeshadow singles that get totally forgotten about due to the virtual sea of palettes I now own. Also, a bunch of other stuff, like nail polish with some bottles over 10 years old!
I try to! I am not super successful at it because I have no one to pass products on.
I do check my stash regularly, especially cream products and revisit powder products to rotate a bit and just throw thing that I really cannot get working!
The only time I just went through everything all at once to do a total declutter I ended up regretting quite a few items that I had thought i didn’t want. I think that when i made it a task like that I felt I wasn’t doing a good enough job getting rid of things so I got ruthless.
It works much better for me if I declutter as I go. I’m pretty good at cycling through my collection so as I come across things that have expired, dried out or that I really don’t like on me I get rid of them.
I am into that right now. Anything that I don’t use is getting tossed. I am being ruthless because I have way too much for one person. This is why I am also on a no buy, except for things I have run out of and Pat McGrath (my obsession).
Every now and again, I go through my lipsticks and eyeshadows and chuck out anything that’s old or doesn’t work well on me anymore. Time to do it again…
Kind of; mostly samples. I did a foundation declutter after discovering IT Cosmetics CC Cream. I’m going to do a lip product declutter after finishing my spreadsheet. But all in all, nothing major nor consistent.
Yeah, I do it roughly twice a year (along with other stuff like clothes, books, etc)
I don’t declutter much since I use almost everything I have, but there are a couple things that get moved on. If it’s something I haven’t used I’ll pass it to a suitemate, and if it’s something used (like a lipstick) I’ll probably give it to my mom.
Okay, I have to say it, I LOVE your profile photo!
I am about to begin a makeup purge tomorrow and am really not sure how to begin. This question and answers are perfectly timed for me.
I declutter quite often, my usual method includes rounding up the items and putting them in a tub or bag and stashing them somewhere–out of sight, out of mind. I’ve had a few instances where I found myself later digging through the bag to retrieve something I eventually realized I wanted to keep, but typically I forget about the stash until like months (or even a year) later. When I find the bag I say “oh yea, this was my declutter stash, I obviously didn’t notice any of this was gone so out it goes!”
I do a very small decluttering occasionally with my makeup items specially lipsticks and mascaras, also foundation. I find it harder to declutter makeup than my clothes a few times I have regretted donating some pieces but when I declutter my closet I don’t go back and forth deciding otherwise I’ll end up keeping some stuff so I do it pretty ruthless. Is great to make new space though and reduce clutter throughout the entire house.