1432 My Plan to Get All of My Products Used Up!

Well, for about two years I have been telling you guys and girls and people of the world that I am trying to minimise the products I keep (I will let you in on a secret, it is not going well). I am not sure what is wrong with me, but I am completely and utterly failing! I am trying very hard, but I seem to accumulate more and more products. Friends and family know I like my products as well so, a few of them have passed them on which is lovely of them but doesn’t do me any favours.

Right then, in a bid to try and get this situation under control and I would love it if I stopped spending money, I have decided to do a post about it. Share my plan to hold me to it and hopefully give one or two of you the idea. I have been a bit of a geek, dork, extra whatever would you want to use (I honestly don’t mind) but I have put more effort into this than I needed to, it is the only way I could think of to track the products I own, the products I have used up and hopefully it will keep me accountable to stay on track.

I am slightly embarrassed that I had to do it this way but, it doesn’t affect anyone but me so I thought I might as well. With any luck, it will give you an idea too (I mean if you have extra time on your hands, why not right?) Yes, you might have guessed (if you know me, you didn’t even need to guess, am I right?) I have made a list of all the products I need to use up. There is a couple of reasons why I have done this, one is because I was finding it difficult to remember what I have so I ended up repurchasing items and then finding one of the same six months down the line at the back of my cupboard. So, I figured if I make a list and put them in groups, I won’t have this problem and that means one of my issues is solved right. The second reason, I don’t know about you, but I love to cross items off a list. It is very satisfactory for me (which is a win). And lastly, because I knew I had way too many and desperately needed to cut it down.

I have made a list of all the beauty products I own, not including make-up or nail varnish or anything disposable like cotton buds and cotton pads. (Don’t worry, I am looking at getting the reusable cotton pads, but I need to use up what I have so far first, so don’t come for me please, if you know any nice ones let me know). The list contains anything from shower gels, toothpaste, foot creams (yes, I am old in that way), make-up remover and wipes. Pretty much any product I knew I had too many off okay.

I am embarrassed to tell you that it started with 441 products, but I am happy to confirm I have got it down to 333 products. I am aware that the number is much higher than it needs to be. Realistically, I need maybe 20 of them. I have a very annoying trait that when I find a product I like, I tend to go and buy 2 or 3 of them (especially if they are on offer) because I know I like them. But why do I need that many beauty products? The truth is, I don’t. My aim over the next six to twelve months is to use up as many as I can (without wasting them). If I notice myself not using something I will pass it along to friends and family who are interested and any that I know are quite old will probably have to go in the bin because products can go out of date. Sadly.

I have listed them (not here, don’t worry) in eighteen different groups which I will list with how many products are in each group. Here goes: body moisturisers (13), body wash & shower gel & scrubs (30), bubble bath (1), deodorant (6), face & eye creams (35), face treatments (3), face masks (34), face wash & cleansers & scrubs (13), foot stuff (4), hair (63), hand creams & scrubs (22), hand gel (sanitiser) (5), lip balm (24), makeup removers (3), random (6), soap (7), sprays (57), and wipes (7).

Okay then before you get a chance to ask questions or judge, I feel I should get the opportunity to explain why a couple of those are 40 or above in one category. There are three I want to talk about. Don’t worry, the number does concern and baffle me as well! The main three I would like to highlight are hair products, lip balms and sprays. Shall we start with hair products? So, you are right, 63 might be a high number, but that includes individual hair oils which I use in fours or fives. I also have bought a couple of bits that last forever in that area. Next? Lip balms, now I didn’t realise I had this many until I put them on paper. I went through a stage where I had them everywhere, at work, on my desk, on my bedside cabinet, in my car, at my grandparents’ house etc. Obviously, during the lockdown, I rounded them all up and have way too many. I do use it a lot, but I still don’t need twenty-four, do I? Any unopened I have already used any as gifts and will do that with any others that I can. I can recommend a good brand though. On to the last one I want to explain, sprays. This is just a new weakness I have found. I never used to be into sprays but apparently, that has changed. Again, any new untouched ones I will use as gifts.

So, after rambling for ages, and boring you to death, the point of this post is. The main point is to hold myself accountable (and so you lovely people can). Now that I have shared this with the world, I am hoping I get my bum into gear and get using some of these products instead of them just collecting dust all the time.

If anyone is interested in a full list of the products, please let me know but I thought it could be a bit boring as there are more than 300 so I didn’t want to burden you with that list. Just know currently as of today there are 333 products on there (I am hoping that it doesn’t go straight back up to 400 over Christmas), it should go down quite a lot by Christmas, but I am planning to use a lot of them for Christmas gifts.

The idea of the list is to stop me from buying what I don’t need and stockpiling. Instead, I can just check the list when a product runs out instead of looking through all of them, if it is on the list, I will know it is going to be in my possession somewhere right? It would be interesting to see how long it takes me to get the list down. Shall we time it? Let me know if you are going to join me or if there is a way you have managed to get through all your beauty products. I know ‘Lockdown’ prompted a lot of people to start using up their backlog of products so let me know your progress, I will be very interested!