Welcome to a new series on the blog all about 'minimalism' but this is going to be a different take on it since I'm putting my own spin on being a minimalist.
Have you ever looked around and realized how much crap you really have? Especially as a beauty blogger when you're sent so much stuff and have so many products / props / camera equipment for blog posts and videos.
So after reading a book on the topic and researching a lot online about minimalism, I've decided to take the concept on board and apply it in small but practical ways to my lifestyle. I'll be posting every Monday or second Monday as I have things to discuss about the topic and my progression.
Okay let's take a step back to define what minimalism is. What I take it as is being less connected to physical possessions so only keeping the things you need or that make you happy. It's a really freeing feeling to rid yourself of all the baggage (quite literally) that you have and only keep what you need.
So I'm going to talk through my first steps to incorporating this theme into my lifestyle and what I have done so far. If you want to follow me on this journey, that would be awesome! We can do it together and trade tips.
So let's get into it - Culling My Makeup Collection
This is a HUGE one for me! I used to look at my makeup collection as my tools for my job, being a beauty blogger and all. But now I see it as being serious excessive to the point where I can't even find the products I want to.
The Situation
What I use to store my makeup is a huge IKEA Alex 9 Draw Set exploding with products and then I had boxes of more products lying around as well. As a beauty blogger I get sent so many products on the weekly and since I haven't necessarily gone out and purchased them because I liked the product, I'm often stuck with a LOT of products I will never use or don't necessarily love.
The Solution
In my first cull of products I managed to get down from 9 draws and boxes of products to 4 half full draws. I'd say that I just about halved my collection. What I did was separated all of the products I use on the daily or I really want to start using more and put them in my everyday makeup draw. Once this was done, I was left with everything else that wasn't necessary to keep. So I went through each product and asked myself the following questions;
Am I going to use this in the next 6 months?
Does this make me happy?
If the answer was yes to either of them then I kept the product otherwise I would chuck them in the "get rid of" pile which would later be split into 4 different categories which we will get into now.
What To Do Afterwards
Okay so now what?! You're now stuck with a massive pile of cosmetics you have no idea what to do with! Some are new so you don't want to be wasteful and throw them away but who do you give them to? Some have been used once for a swatch in a blog post so you can't really give them away. Okay so here's how you do it...
Charity Pile
Give all of the new, unopened products to charity because they can sell them at Lifeline and Salvos stores in that condition. Otherwise you can give them to Women's Shelters and other such charities because they accept new and sealed products.
Friends Pile
This is for the products you have swatched once for a blog post or new products that don't have a seal on them. Say you used a lipstick once only to find out it wasn't the colour for you or tried a new eyeshadow range only to find you hated it. Your friend are going to love you if you chuck everything in a big box and let them rummage through to pick out whatever they want.
Family Pile
This pile is for the products you've used a few times but found something better or just don't want it anymore. Say you bought an amazing Chanel bronzer but it made you look kind of orange because of your skintone - your sister is going to think it's Christmas come early.
Chuck Pile
This is for all of the products you've well and truly used but definitely won't use again and they aren't in great condition. This is the time when it's okay to completely let go of the product and throw it out.
So that's the first step of my minimalism challenge complete! I hope this has given you some inspiration on how to cull your makeup collection to only keep what you need and love. Tune in next Monday for the latest in the series.
No comments:
Post a Comment