A graphic of a makeup bag with makeup spilling out of it
Episode 34 – How to Declutter and Organise your Makeup

In this podcast, Lesley and Ingrid explore how difficult it is to declutter and organise makeup. We explore how hygiene is important when decluttering and how best to organise your makeup.
Whilst wearing makeup is important to many people, there are some people for whom makeup is a hobby that they love and they have large volumes of makeup and beauty products. Decluttering makeup can be a difficult undertaking for many people and we offer advice to help you.
Prefer to read rather than listen?
Transcript of this podcast episode
Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The Declutter Hub Podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:25  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 34 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid.

Lesley  0:31  
And I'm Lesley. 

Ingrid  0:32  
If you have clutter and want to sort it out, this is the show for you. In today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about decluttering your makeup. So Lesley people absolutely love makeup. Where are you on the makeup front?

Lesley  0:48  
And I feel like I need it to fit outside. Well for the most part. I'm not saying that I don't ever go out of the house without makeup but it's a rarity if I'm honest even you know don't wear loads and loads of makeup but I do put a bit of foundation on bit of eyeliner, a bit of mascara and a bit lipstick most days. Because it makes me feel better about myself. How about you?

Ingrid  1:10  
Yeah, I've got I don't have lots of lots of makeup. I have a small little makeup bag with some powder and some definitely lipstick, some mascara, some blusher. If I go for an evening out, then I definitely do my makeup. But if I just go to the local shops, I'm not too fussed about it, I could go without makeup.

Lesley  1:30  
Very brave. I think that's very rare. I think I think it's just something that you you do over time, isn't it and you sort of build on that and change, you know, change your style a little bit. But then I also think I'm getting stuck in a rut, let me go and buy some new makeup to kind of freshen up my look and change. I think that's part of why sometimes we have more than we need. I mean, I'm with you. I've not got loads, I have like one, I don't put mine in a bag or put it in a little sort of container in the thing. I've got like an everyday thing. And then I've got a you know, things that I don't use very often. So I've not got loads and loads, but I do definitely put makeup on. And I understand why people love their makeup.

Ingrid  2:10  
So then let's let's dive into that then. So why do people love their makeup? What's the psychology behind having so much makeup? Which we see all the time? Don't we?

Lesley  2:20  
Yeah, I think I think the volumes of makeup and different people's houses and what makes them tick is very different and Far be it from us as professional organisers to go in and dictate what's important to somebody and what isn't. If somebody wants 30, or 40, different lipstick shades, that's up to them, you know, I've probably got four or five or us. But some people like lots and they like that continual change, they like to shake their makeup look up all the time. You know, if I think about my daughter and my son's girlfriend, every time they go out, they've got a different look, you know, and that's, that's different to me, who tends to put the same thing on I just put a little bit more on the morning, the same thing, but just more of it. And so yeah, it's interesting. And so it's, it's about where you are in your life and what makes you tick a thing. But ultimately, I think for most of us, makeup is a part of what makes us feel better about ourselves. I know some people won't like the idea. And that was kind of putting a face on but it's true for many, many people, not everybody, but many, many people.

Ingrid  3:20  
Yeah, true. And let's be honest, I mean, the second thing is that retail therapy is so fantastic. You know, when you start to buy new makeup, you've got all these beautiful counters with these lights, and these lovely women helping you and trying it out. And before you know it, you've got five products instead of one, you're going for mascara and you've got five things, but it's time you go to the till,

Lesley  3:40  
because you believe it because you believe that that's going to make you suddenly miraculously become like a supermodel when you buy a new primer or something. So yeah, you know, that's marketing at its best, isn't it, if you go to a makeup counter, they are very proficient marketeers. And they are going to trump trying to they are going to try and sell you more stuff. And in the moment of weakness, you may buy more than you need or things that you've already got. And that's when it starts to build. Yeah, and it's expensive, you know, that makeup is expensive, you know? Yeah, so we'd have seen this there's loads of things I think you do if you're feeling a little bit of a rut, you know, and you want a change you know, a makeup is something that you think oh, you know, I really want a different look want to feel better about myself Let's go and buy some new makeup that definitely forms a part of the psychology for a lot of people I think there's definitely a kind of keeping up with the trends and I think you know, as well as going to the makeup counters, we've got social media which is blasting kind of beauty bloggers and you know YouTube videos and everything about how to do your makeup better and how to shake things up and you know, these fantastic new styles and you know, ways of doing things and, and makeup trends change all the time. And so a lot of people want to keep up with those trends as well particularly the younger generation. Yeah, so yeah, it's there's a lot of things wrapped up in makeup isn't there you No, really is your thing these days?

Ingrid  5:03  
Yeah, absolutely. And I think I think you're talking about the marketing machine is absolutely show true. And I think the thing is, when you buy one product, it might not add up. But if you get it go away with three or four products, it really adds up with the amount of money it costs to have a lot of makeup. I think people lose track on the investment nearly that's in their makeup drawer.

Lesley  5:27  
Yeah, cuz it's big, you know. And, of course, you know, from a marketing perspective, you go in, if you buy two products, you get like a little gift bag. And so there's all that kind of stuff that comes into play with it. Well, why would I not do that, you know, I would be foolish not to buy two things and only buy the one that I came in for, because I can get a whole load of other free stuff. And so there's so much it wrapped up in that. And we see that all the time in the decluttering world. And as we said, it's not for us to dictate what makes you tick and what makes you happy. But some, sometimes it may become a little bit overwhelming, or costly, or you're buying things that you don't need, you know, so in the decluttering world makeup does form a part of what we declutter, and it's, and it's important to say, it's something that people who love their makeup really struggle with getting rid of it.

Ingrid  6:13  
Yeah, so So let's then talk about decluttering. A little bit. We, when we work with clients, or when we declutter our makeup ourselves, what do we need to look at? If we have lots and lots of makeup to deal with? How do we declutter it?

Lesley  6:29  
I think first of all, you need to know what you've got, don't you? So I definitely think makeup is certainly a kind of gather like with like scenario. So gather up all your foundations together, gather up all your eyeliners all your lipsticks and the lip glosses, and your primers and your powders and your bla bla bla bla bla. Yeah. Only when you say the amounts that you've got, can you make a rational decision then about what no longer serves you? And there will certainly be things that you bought a couple of years ago that were a mistake that didn't ever look good on you, for whatever reason. And so but I think if you try and I think it's interesting, so we've talked about this with a lot of things that people you know, those things that people love, whether it's a shoe collection, a book collection, a makeup collection, you know, the key word here is collection, and people are like, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, we're not touching me not touching my makeup, or we're not touching my books, because people view them as a whole collection that can't be splintered off into individual items. And so I think by gathering light with like, all of a sudden the individuality, individuality and individual items come into the fore, and we can make more rational decisions at that point. We can't do that. If it's just all put together in in, you know, boxes and boxes of things. Really?

Ingrid  7:39  
Yeah. Yeah. Very, very true. And I also want to add here as well, don't forget the stuff in your handbag, ladies, if you're decluttering. Or if you are in your bathroom or in your dressing table. Don't forget to stop this lying about in other places. If you're gathering like with like,

Lesley  7:55  
I'm not just ladies Ingrid, not just ladies true. 

Ingrid  7:58  
Good point, well made, Lesley. 

Lesley  8:00  
Yes, of course. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, so yeah, really important then to, to think about that, and to think about splitting it down into the individual items. And I think that's the first stage for me. So, you know, I've got a client, I've got quite a few clients actually, who love their makeup. And one of them. I was talking about it to you just before we came on, online, what was an eye, you know, I've got a tour by like a big chest of drawers. And we literally have got one drawer for each face part. You know, one drawer foundations, one for eyes, one Phillips one foot, you know, that kind of thing, one for nail polishes. So these are big amounts of stuff. And that's after the decluttering. You know, so, you know, for some people, we're just talking about one makeup bag and other people were talking about the contents of a huge chest of drawers. And so it can be very different for different people. Yeah, and there's no, you don't have to get rid of everything in there. That's not what this is about. But it's about making sure that you're left with the things that you truly are using. And we do have to think a little bit also about hygiene and things like that, that we're going to talk about now, aren't we?

Ingrid  9:06  
Yeah, definitely. Because what people don't realise is that cosmetics trap quite a lot of bacteria. And you really have to replace them on a regular basis to avoid irritation of your skin and breakouts and eye infections. And I read somewhere because I've been doing quite a lot of research for this podcast and somebody said a rule of thumb, the more moisture the project has, or the closer it comes to your eyes, the shorter its lifespan and I thought Oh, that's interesting. So then I started to look into what is the lifespan of products so can we advise anything here? Besides having complete common sense? What can we advise our listeners if they are going to declutter the makeup and a dead giveaway is if it smells bad or the texture is wrong, which really dried out, then you know, oh, this is really too old too. Keep in my makeup.

Lesley  10:03  
I think what we've got here is we've, you know, I'm sure the lifespan of a makeup product is there for good reason. But I also think that makeup brands are there primarily, or solely to sell you more product. Yeah. Not that, you know, some makeup brand is gonna come and kill me on. You know, if it says this has got a six month lifespan, do we actually look at that product? After six months? You know, I'm thinking about a mascara, which probably normally would say three to six months on it. Yeah, yeah. Am I still using my mascara? After 912 months? Yes, I am. Because I don't use loads and loads and loads of it. So it doesn't run out. And I've not got huge colossal I infections I'm fine, you know, to me, you know, and then I've got a blusher that I've probably, you know, that I've found that I've probably had for sure I don't really use that much of it, you know, so it lasts for quite a long time. So I probably have that a couple of years. You know, he's putting a bit of busher on my face a couple of years ago gonna cause me a problem. No, but it might cause other people problems. So if you've got sensitive skin or things like that, so we've talked already about common sense. But I think, you know, use common sense and you know, your own skin and you know, you know, when a product is likely to go off or whether it's whether it's past its best, or whether it's clogging up on your eyebrow or on your eyelashes and things like that. So I think it's more about that then strictly adhere into you know, sell it. Well. They don't even have sell by dates, they just have a monthly like 12 months, six months, 24 months, that kind of thing, don't they? So it's even hard. They don't have a kind of use by date, because it depends on when you open them. Yeah. So, you know, we could sit here and say, All right, on your mascara when you open it, that's not going to happen. Is it? Who's gonna do that? Do you know anyone that does that? No one's gonna do that.

Ingrid  11:55  
The only time I really should suggest people do that is on the sun cream.

Lesley  11:59  
Yes, absolutely. Because that's dangerous. Yeah, that's dangerous. Absolutely. I would definitely agree with that.

Ingrid  12:05  
Yeah. But I mean, powder powder. And eyeshadow is actually the what I kind of saw what everywhere, at least two years. So that your goods, your powder and blush because I think it's dry. It lasts longer. But yeah. All right. I've seen anything between two to three months to six to nine months. For me my logic is if it starts to really dry out, and it gets too thick, then I know ah, and because I use it everyday because I do like using mascara. I know that I probably buy it more often than then the two years because I know it doesn't last that long in my house.

Lesley  12:44  
Okay, okay. So yeah, something the hygiene side of it. You know, let's not get bogged down with that. I think it's more about common sense, isn't it? But obviously, knowing your own skin and your own, you know, different people are much more sensitive.

Ingrid  12:56  
Yeah, true, true. And I just wanted to give a couple of little top tips about that. If your nail polish is really kind of thick and not as gloopy anymore as it should be, you can just throw a couple of little drops of nail polish thinner in it. Give it a really good shake and then your nail polish can last again a little bit longer. So mean

Lesley  13:16  
do you mean that nail polish thinner? Oh, do you mean nail varnish remover? What what do you

Ingrid  13:21  
it's a nail polish thinner. But I've also done it with nail polish remover when you can't even get open to see to see what I would look something inside. You know, ah, this this has to go. But yeah, I agree with you. I think it's more about common sense. You know what if you have a lipstick or nail polish or a blusher in a colour you think how did it end up in my makeup bag? It probably was a free gift that you got you know I had it the other day I was like why do I have a bright pink to pink nail polish in my bag? It's probably a free gift somewhere so I decluttered it and I thought okay, I don't need it anymore. But look at the consistency of the stuff and if it looks if the the package or if it looks a bit dirty and you know you've used it a lot so maybe it's nearly done and you can kind of go I need to buy a new one. I think especially things like Foundation, eyeliner, those things you probably want to be a bit more on the lookout for if that still looks in good condition.

Lesley  14:25  
Yeah, definitely. So I think hygiene is relevant for sure. But I think you know trends like that you just mentioned if something's in your makeup bag and you think where does that come from? And I would never wear that. You know don't keep these things for an eternity if it was a mistake by then offload it to someone or somewhere else.

Ingrid  14:44  
Yeah, so you just mentioned that little symbol on the back of a lot of makeup. I want to explain this deliberate more to our listeners in case you've never seen this. On top of on the back of a lot of beauty products. You can see a little pots with little going open. So if it says 18 M, it means 18 months, or 12. M means 12 months. So, if you're like, oh, gosh, I opened that, like, ages ago, I can't remember when to open this. That's I think, then you need to investigate a bit more than gonna go that it's still smell good. Does it look good? Do I still actually use this on my face or on my body anywhere? And then make the decision if you can declutter it, so organising. So we've decluttered some of the stuff that we are no longer using, or we no longer want. So how are we going to organise it?

Lesley  15:37  
I think it's very much gonna depend on the volumes that you've got. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, for me, and I think you and I do the same thing. We have like an every day, I don't have it in a bag. I haven't a little sort of colour, sort of flexible box, if that makes sense. Because I find that really helps me and I have one that with the stuff in it that I use every day. And I have one with the stuff that I use with just when I go out, you know, some more very outlandish colours. Yes, a different kind of colours that I wouldn't use that often. Or, you know, I'm not going to meet I'm probably shot. I'm not going to put a primer on every day when I go to work. But if I went out on the weekend, I might use that, or am I right? Or do you not I mean, that lip liner or, you know, things like that. And then I've got another one with all my makeup tools. And so I've got a separate thing with eyelash curlers, which if I ever remember to use them do do a great job, I'll probably remember one day every six months. And things like that, and new sponges and things like that. And so I have two or three different places where I put them. The thing that I would say about storing makeup is it's less about the storage, but more about the cleanliness, you know, makeup bags get really dirty down because there's little bits of particles of makeup that kind of come off and make it all look a bit grimy. So definitely periodically, I definitely go and wipe on my makeover. And then it starts to be appealing. Because I think once it stops being appealing and looking nice. Wherever you store in it, that's when you're like, oh, I need to go and get a new blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really important to take care of the outer casing of things. Because, you know, I've got this. What do you call it concealer? At the moment? It's really annoying, because it kind of comes out all the time. And it's then it's just going all over everything. And so I keep having to wipe everything across. Yeah, no, but to keep it nice. But

Ingrid  17:33  
not not only the products themselves, but also probably the back of the container you probably exactly, yeah, yeah.

Lesley  17:40  
Yeah, yeah. So I think that's really important in terms of storage. And so if you've not got loads, maybe have an every day container, whether that's a bag or a box, and then have something that issues less frequently. I also have my brushes and like I've just got a glass out of my kitchen that I use. And I put all of my makeup brushes in there and stand them all up. So they're not kind of floating around in my general bag. So that's basically it. So it's all very simple. But as I've mentioned, you know, if you've got lots and lots of things, and you want to be able to do it, you want to be able to find them easily. It may be split them off into lips, face, eyes, blush, Primus, you know, that kind of thing? Am I missing anything out? Probably. But it's really, you know, it's important to split those things up in a way that makes sense to you, you know, does it make sense to you to put your foundations in when you blushes? Because that's the first thing or not? Or would you see those as two completely separate things, which put the blushes in with the highlighter, which put your lip glosses in with the lipsticks or not. It's very different for different people. And you need to think about what makes sense for you and how many containers you've got to put things into, you also need to think within storage about how meticulous you are. So there's some fantastic makeup storage containers out there. But they are for people that are quite meticulous about putting things away. And so you need to be honest with yourself about am I actually going to do that or am I kind of took it in a box person and rummage around I am definitely that I am a chuck it in the box person and rummage around to find what I want. I don't want to spend lots of my time meticulously putting all my lipsticks lined up in a in a sort of perspex. You know, pacing, but some people do. And so it's about because we can get completely blown away with storage solutions. But with any storage solutions, whether it's makeup, whether it's anything else, that's not going to fix you being a little bit kind of chaotic, if that makes sense. And so find a storage solution that's going to work for you. And it's not going to be create barriers that mean that you're not going to put it back because it is too difficult to put it away. Well that's going to mean is it all ends up staying out and it doesn't get put away. And so it's all sort of wrapped up. So it's really important to think about that storage solution and whether it's Practical, because let me tell you, there are loads and loads of storage solutions out there, which look fantastic. Which are a complete waste of your money. A complete waste.

Ingrid  20:09  
Yeah. Yeah. As usual, you're talking completion stimulus, because I see it all the time as well. I mean, what what I actually did with one of my clients, we created the daily back, and she because she had one of those beautiful acrylic seethrough perspex beautiful things. So we then said, Okay, let's make that the not so often stuff. Easier to and then let's just do make a bag or a little open box or something or a container, where you just do the daily stuff. So that way you kind of think about it, I had the same I had also had a client who was like a makeup, she blogged a lot about makeup, she she had so many products, and we did the same thing we did to draw for lips and eyes and nails and, and we categorised it all out. And I think her sister and her friends were really, really happy. Because she actually let go of a lot of stuff that she realised that she had so much she could never in a million years put it all on her face. So her her friends and family around her were really happy because they got out she got a lot of stuff. She gave away a lot. So let's talk about where the stuff that you declutter, can go.

Lesley  21:23  
This is a tough one. Because of all the things that we've mentioned before, you know, the fact that things start to look messy, the fact that things once a seal is broken, and there's a hygiene issue and things like that. So it's not that straightforward. I just did a bit a big declutter of beauty products with a client where a lot of the things were still in wrappers. And they definitely went to a Women's Refuge, which is, which is something that gets spoken about quite a lot in terms of where something can go when it's still sealed. Because they are very welcoming of that kind of thing, because that's it, you know, that's a luxury at the end of the day. But I think that most women's refuges or homeless charities are going to want those things to be hygienic, you know, the standards are not going to slip, you know. And so it needs to be hygienic, it needs to be sealed, it needs to be wrapped. So if you are thinking about doing something like that, obviously, it can go into a normal charity as well. So it can go into a normal charity bag with everything else. And so the thing that we speak about all the time is Don't make things difficult for yourself. Don't make you know, offloading things to 15 different charities make that be a barrier to your decluttering if it's easy for you, and it's a straightforward thing, and it's something that you can incorporate within your week, and you're going to feel fantastic about sending it to a homeless charity or Women's Refuge. That's brilliant, but if it's going to sit there for the next six months, just put it in the standard charity bag.

Ingrid  22:49  
Yeah, yeah. And you know if it is nearly finished, old grotty, yucky smelly, throw it away. Just throw it away. And if it's something that you've only used once or twice so you have open you can't really give it to a charity shop. But then you can always say to your friend or whoever, you know, hey, I've got this really blusher I've only use it once it's not my thing can I would you like to have it so you can then maybe give it away but products that still look good smell good? Are have just been used a little bit? Then you can give it away to to a friend

Lesley  23:25  
Definitely. Definitely. But it's you know, the rule of thumb I guess for charities is that it needs to be sealed before it goes to them. Well it definitely needs to be sealed before Yeah, but you can pass things around your friends and family as and as common sense dictates

Ingrid  23:39  
Yeah, there was another thing I would like to add to this podcast as well Leslie and it's about maintenance of brushes and sponges. Because of course we now we talk about makeup but I think makeup equipment and tools and things. They also need to be maintained and cleaned out. And I think even especially those brushes that people used to put like, foundation on really need to be cleaned very, very regularly.

Lesley  24:11  
Yeah, definitely. It's funny, because I've been talking about the marketer's dream having just before Christmas, I was looking for something to give to my daughter and to give to likes girlfriend, and I found a saw actually on it was on the don't ask me why I've been following this on Instagram, but it was the X Factor makeup room. I know this is really sad that I follow those on Instagram, but I do. There's another admission of shallowness though Yeah, so for some reason, I'm following the X Factor makeup room and so they show that they use this thing called the stylpro. This is a bit sounds like a sponsored post it I feel like I should be getting money from stylpro But obviously we're not. But it's like a sort of centrifugal thing that makes these brushes and they come out so you clean these brushes, and they come out dry. I, which is a big deal, you know, and it actually works. And so I just before I came on, I'm not really asked Leah since Christmas, you know, how did that thing worked? Because it's fantastic. So that's something maybe to look at, you know, so you can clean all your brushes within that and they come out dry, which is a big deal, because then we got to leave them, haven't you to dry off once you clean them? Yeah, that's why people don't end up using them. Because people's that oh, I need to clean my brushes, and then that's just when they're gonna put the makeup on. And then Oh, but I don't want to wet brush and you know, so again, it's another barrier, isn't it? Yeah. So yeah, so I'm sure there's other products very similar, but that sort of seemed definitely to work for my daughter.

Ingrid  25:35  
Okay, cool. Good idea. Leslie, do we need to say anything else about decluttering and organising makeup? Is there anything we've left out?

Lesley  25:47  
I don't think so. I think it's just that it's just a very personal thing. It's just a very personal thing. And you know, in terms of how many shoes have you got, how many clothes have you got, you know, this, this is never about dictating to people what they should have, and the volumes of them, because everybody is different. And what makes them tick is different. If you love your makeup, go for it and keep it. But just be realistic. And just be prepared to go through periodically and get rid of the things that no longer serve you. Whether that's that they're the wrong colour, whether that's that they're a little bit monkey, and they need to go or whether or not it was a mistake purchase or a freebie that you've never used or something like that. So don't just keep everything because what happens then is it becomes completely overwhelming. When the amount of arguments between husband and wife about the amount of make the people have got that's a common one, isn't it? Well, oh my gosh, she's got so much makeup. It's all over therefore, and, and I'm sure some of you will relate to that out there. And so, yeah, so just be honest with yourself, but don't worry about if you've got too many of them if you're using them, but be honest about how often you're using them all. Yeah.

Ingrid  26:54  
Completely agree with you. Well, listeners. So that's it for this episode. And we hope you've all enjoyed listening and are inspired to take action. So will you clean out your makeup brushes and sponges? And are you gonna have a little clean through your makeup bag and have a think about actually what are your items that you use all the time and daily and he is just making a daily bag make sense to you. Anyway, we hope this podcast has been super helpful. And if you'd like to get more tips and advice, please follow us on social media. We are on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and we've got a fantastic Facebook group community where we check all things clutter, and we'd love to see you there. If you don't want to miss the next weekly episode, subscribe to the declutter hub podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. See you next time.

Outro  27:48  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the declutter hub podcast. Check out declutterhub.com for more inspiration, and don't forget to tune in next week.
Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode
Listen on
Apple Podcasts
Listen on
Amazon Music
Listen on
Spotify
Watch on
YouTube
Prefer to watch rather than listen? Watch on YouTube