The spring cleaning bug has bitten me once again! I’ve been itching to organize lately and I thought I’d start out with a small and manageable project that I knew I could successfully complete during one of my baby’s naps. I did a huge purge of my beauty stash last spring, so I knew it would be much less time consuming to go through my makeup this time around. I was surprised by how much I was able to cut out of my current collection without a second thought!
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I have a huge vanity since we have the space for it in our airy master bedroom with high ceilings and lots of wall space. In fact, the main reason I picked out this vanity, which I found at PBteen a few years ago, was that it filled an empty space in our bedroom perfectly. Plus, it has great built in storage between two large towers of drawers and open shelves. In years past I had way too much makeup that I justified because I had the room to store it neatly. I’ve since realized that I don’t really care to have so much in my collection at any given time. It can be overwhelming when faced with so much to choose from! I’d rather have a smaller, more manageable collection of products that I love and use on a regular basis.
I keep all of my makeup stored in the drawers on the left side of my vanity. My plan going into this year’s purge was to weed out any expired products (mainly liquid face bases and eyeliners) as well as items I either haven’t used much since last year’s purge or newer things I don’t care for. I didn’t expect to pull out quite so much but once I started, I found it easier than ever to locate the products that don’t currently suit me. I separated these into two bins: one to toss and one to pass on to family and friends. I was able to pull out a five-drawer acrylic organizer I was using to store my massive lip product collection on one of the shelves and move all makeup into the drawers alone. Success!
Here’s a look at my current stash and organization:
1. I keep my makeup brushes on the shelf just above the drawers in decorative pencil cups like this one on an acrylic lazy susan. I have them organized by type and frequency of use. I keep baby wipes (which I use for makeup touch-ups and such) and tissues in an acrylic container.
2. The back of the vanity door has a narrow built-in shelf that is perfectly sized to hold bottles. My makeup brush cleanser, setting spray, Fix+, hand lotion, and a washcloth all tuck neatly inside this space and are easily accessible when I have the door open to access the drawers when I apply my makeup.
The top two drawers contain half of my (admittedly still large) lip product collection. While I did manage to pare this down significantly during this year’s purge, it was a bit of a challenge to let go of some of my lippies even though I rarely wear them anymore. My new goal is to keep my collection to this amount or less. If I want to bring a new product in, something old has to go. Since I really do love all of these lippies, my hope in enforcing this policy is that it will help me only buy new products that I’m serious about using.
3. I keep lip glosses, lip crayons, pencils, and chapsticks in the top drawer. I’m still using my favorite Linus Shallow Drawer Organizers to organize my products by type.
4. My lipsticks are organized by brand. My goal is to keep my collection limited to this space with no double stacking.
5. I like using 2-section drawer organizers for small tube-like products as they help keep them from rolling around and turning into a big jumbled mess. From left to right I have brow products in one section, mascara in the next, eyeliners and highlighters next to that, and eyeshadow bases and sticks in the last section. It’s super easy to pick out exactly what I want each time I apply my makeup without needing to root around for the right thing.
6. My love for eyeshadow palettes knows no bounds! Actually, it does, since starting last year I limited myself to only having what I can fit in this deeper drawer. It’s still quite a few and there’s room to spare! I finally purged what remained of my single eyeshadow collection except for two since I figured out I always reach for a palette. It’s nice to have all powder shadows in one place now.
7. My face base drawer is looking a bit bare and that’s because I haven’t been wearing a lot of foundation over the past year. I tossed the couple I had as they had expired. Liquid face products are one area I really stick to expiration guidelines with to protect my skin. From left to right I have face powders and blotting papers, my current liquid face bases (not counting my tinted moisturizer which I keep in the bathroom), and concealers.
8. I store my blushes and bronzers in the bottom drawer. This is another part of my collection where I was able to weed out quite a few and I still feel like I could pull out a few more. My blushes fit nicely in a long and narrow container in the front of the drawer, and bronzers and palettes sit nicely in two square container behind that. It’s amazing how well these drawer organizers fit together like a puzzle!
I go through each part of my makeup organization in more detail in this video if you’d like a closer look:
I hope you enjoyed this updated look at my beauty stash and makeup organization. I’m super happy with my efforts and am finding it quite refreshing to have a more curated collection to choose from. I’d love to hear about your spring cleaning projects if you care to share!
Happy Spring Cleaning! 🌷
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