Beauty

[aprilskies]

On 4/4/2015 PAlady said:

Aprilskies - I have also done the "big" clean out and it looked nice for awhile and then I ended up where I started, a big mess looking at me again. I am going to clean out again after we are done painting the inside of the house. This time, I will keep it cleaned out, I am tired of wasting money on things I think I "need" and then just tossing it.

I do look at the beauty threads, and started to write down products I think I maybe interested in. The funny thing is, I go back and look at the list and realize I am not really interested in the item. It has saved my from some impulse buying.

Hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Easter.

PAlady, I want to thank you for mentioning products you put aside to toss. I have been procrastinating on some because after throwing so much out the last couple of years, I was determined to use things up. However, like you, there are products I just never get to and never will. So, I am beginning to toss. Thanks for the inspiration.

[jackthebear]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/marie-kondo-and-the-tidying-up-trend-1424970535

I read about this on a blog I follow, waiting for the book from the libary. Ties in with what we talk about here

[DL2843]

I am becoming convinced that ""tidying up"" happens at major life transitions. Mine was buying the house.

[Beauty$Junkie]

I have not purchased any makeup/skincare items for quite awhile now. I did purchase a Forneo dupe this morning. I still have so much stash/crazy stash that I may never get to. However, I have a real fear of getting rid of it. My fear is that if I don't have it smacking me in the face, I may be tempted to start buying again. I had been trying to use up open containers of stuff, mixing different lines together, and I am done with that. I am using my DD line, exclusively now, until it is gone. I like it, and there is no use leaving it sit to age while I work on the other stuff I don't like as well. When it is gone, I will move on to my Principal Secret.

I have been enjoying all of your posts, and thank you all so much for being here.

[PAlady]

Aprilskies - Glad I help get you motivated. We are almost done painting so my clean out will probably start the end of this week or the beginning of next. I am hoping the weather stays nice so DH starts golfing again, I do my best decluttering when no one is around. Good luck with your clean out.

[geezerette]

On 4/10/2015 sundrops said: just bee, geezerette and Dosey, I'm checking in from ABQ. Success!!! We bought a small place. No problem with our dog. We will close in May. Should be moving by August 1st. Very satisfied with our new home but now still stressed until we find jobs once were here. Flying back home tomorrow morning. Living in the NE part of ABQ.

sundrops: How wonderful to check in and read your good news! I'm so happy for all of you. I know how stressful a big move is without having to worry about your pets on top of it all. I imagine you're breathing a big sigh of relief. Now you can concentrate on the fun part (is there a 'fun' part about moving?) and start in on figuring out what you want to take with you. It sounds like you have a lot of eliminating to do, which fits right in with the whole idea of this thread, so you'll have plenty of support here.

Congratulations!

[geezerette]

On 4/11/2015 just bee said:

On 4/10/2015 geezerette said:

On 4/10/2015 DL2843 said: What amazed me the most is how quickly little "extras" add up. My former workplaces celebrated every holiday and birthday. I would need 20 plates so you buy the pack of thirty and store the extra. Twenty years later I have two huge tubs of paper products. Organizations send free notecards to entice me to send in money. Years later I have about an eight inch stack of notecards. I love to read, between freebie bookmarks, gift bookmarks, and bookmarks I bought on trips I had over 60. For me it was a matter of just not thinking about those little things. The same was true of all my lotions and potions, and don't get me started on my "collection" of gift with purchase lipsticks. I guess at some point we just become aware, and then we clean ??

And the address labels! I thought I was the only one who just couldn't bear to toss those little things out. I guess it comes from my raising. I always figured I'd have a use for that stuff someday. But I think I'd have to live to be 231 years old to use up all that "free" stuff I've accumulated!

Oh, no! You, too? I ordered oodles of address labels when I moved here 20 years ago and I still have them because I get "free" labels in the mail just about every week. I could wallpaper the house with all the labels I've collected. Someone else mentioned bookmarks. I'm so happy to hear I'm not the only one who collected those, too. And all these years of school and textbooks, did I ever use even one of those bookmarks in a book? No, I grab glossy postcards that I find in my junk mail to mark my place.

Yep. ("Separated at birth" strikes again.)

I've actually been forcing myself to grind up the new labels I get. But that's really hard to do when they send ones with cute little critter photos on them...

[aprilskies]

On 4/12/2015 PAlady said:

Aprilskies - Glad I help get you motivated. We are almost done painting so my clean out will probably start the end of this week or the beginning of next. I am hoping the weather stays nice so DH starts golfing again, I do my best decluttering when no one is around. Good luck with your clean out.

Yes, it felt good, PAlady. I threw out some makeup items. My hair products, I was going to pull them together and give some away and then I changed my mind. However, I will do that this weekend. Even though, I don't worry about hair products, I really don't have loads of hair and it takes me a long time to get through things and I don't want this stuff hanging around for years, so this week, I will gather those up.

I decluttered my spices too. It felt good to free up some space in my cabinets. I cant tell you how many full sized spices I keep throwing out time and time again. I vowed to only buy those that I use regularly from here on out.

What dawned on me, is that, it is good to go through this process every so often. It really shows you want gets used and what doesn't and it is eye opening.

[aprilskies]

On 4/12/2015 Beauty$Junkie said:

I have not purchased any makeup/skincare items for quite awhile now. I did purchase a Forneo dupe this morning. I still have so much stash/crazy stash that I may never get to. However, I have a real fear of getting rid of it. My fear is that if I don't have it smacking me in the face, I may be tempted to start buying again. I had been trying to use up open containers of stuff, mixing different lines together, and I am done with that. I am using my DD line, exclusively now, until it is gone. I like it, and there is no use leaving it sit to age while I work on the other stuff I don't like as well. When it is gone, I will move on to my Principal Secret.

I have been enjoying all of your posts, and thank you all so much for being here.

If this helps you, keep it. I think this is partly what happened to me. I was doing so good and getting through some stuff and all of sudden thought there wasn't any harm in adding one or two things I wanted to try. I haven't been able to stop myself since until recently. And I am still not convinced that I am "cured," but am starting to get a handle - sort of. This wasn't the only reason for my decline , but it started the ball rolling.

[geezerette]

On 4/13/2015 aprilskies said:

On 4/12/2015 Beauty$Junkie said:

I have not purchased any makeup/skincare items for quite awhile now. I did purchase a Forneo dupe this morning. I still have so much stash/crazy stash that I may never get to. However, I have a real fear of getting rid of it. My fear is that if I don't have it smacking me in the face, I may be tempted to start buying again. I had been trying to use up open containers of stuff, mixing different lines together, and I am done with that. I am using my DD line, exclusively now, until it is gone. I like it, and there is no use leaving it sit to age while I work on the other stuff I don't like as well. When it is gone, I will move on to my Principal Secret.

I have been enjoying all of your posts, and thank you all so much for being here.

If this helps you, keep it. I think this is partly what happened to me. I was doing so good and getting through some stuff and all of sudden thought there wasn't any harm in adding one or two things I wanted to try. I haven't been able to stop myself since until recently. And I am still not convinced that I am "cured," but am starting to get a handle - sort of. This wasn't the only reason for my decline , but it started the ball rolling.

You ladies have a good point. And one that I've come to realize sometimes applies to me. Often when I've eliminated too many things, I end up buying either the same thing back or something similar. It's hard to decide how much to keep to use as a deterrent, though.

Sometimes I'm really glad that I didn't toss something. For example, I switched my face cleanser a while ago and lately hadn't been real happy with it. So I unearthed an old 'purity' and used it. I liked it better than what I had switched to. So I was happy I could try something that I already had without adding to my clutter. Problem is, now I have a whole stash of the new cleanser that I don't like as much and feel obligated to use up!

aprilskies: To your point of no harm adding a few things--I did the same with a few items the last couple of weeks and got burned on both. Two scarves that I thought from the online photos would be perfect: colors on both turned out to be wrong once I saw them in real life; a couple of (expensive) lipsticks: colors and consistency were perfect, but they both caused a bad reaction (which I've never had before). Bottom line: all those either have been returned or are waiting to go the next time I make a post office run.

To paraphrase Peter, Paul and Mary: When will I ever learn?