What I’ve Decluttered Lately

Raise your hand if you’ve decluttered more than ever over these past few weeks! I’ve been minimizing my possessions for a few years now, but since we’re stuck at home, this has proven to be the perfect time to go over everything again for me as well. Since I live in a small apartment and we spend nearly all our time here now, this isn’t the best time to do any major re-organizing or massive clearouts that’ll require a lot of space. However, I love squeezing in a little decluttering session here and there in spare moments. Give me a drawer, corner or cabinet and half an hour, and I’ll be more than satisfied.

I always find it very motivating to see what other people no longer consider of use in their life. Today I thought I’d hop on the bandwagon and share what I’ve decluttered lately. Perhaps it inspires you to cast a critical glance at your belongings too!

Makeup & Toiletries

This is usually the category that’s easiest for me to go through, and that has the biggest yield. From my teens to my early 20s I absolutely adored makeup and I collected a lot of it over the years. Not all of it got used, by far, but I loved having variety and I’d make the occasional makeup-related content which justified having it all, in my mind. For the past few years however, I notice I’m much less interested in makeup. I don’t care about new launches or trends at all, no longer follow makeup influencers, and rarely buy anything new unless I run out of what I used before.

I do still keep more makeup than I would if I didn’t make beauty videos, but it’s a much smaller collection than before and ever shrinking. This time, I got rid of:

• Old mascaras
• A broken eyeshadow
• Two dried out cream eyeshadows
• Two single eyeshadows
• Three mini palettes
• Two lip balms
• Four nailpolishes
• A hair setting spray

When it comes to toiletries, I really try to use them up rather than throw them away in my journey towards a more minimal home. However, there are so many products in my bathroom that I’m not always able to finish something before it goes off, so sometimes it’s just time to say goodbye. I got rid of:

• A cream face mask
• A bath foam (it’s been three years since I moved into my bath-free home)
• An expired hair mask with a tiny bit left
• An old face oil
• One of my face brush sets (I had two)

I also finally said goodbye to this scalp massager. I used it for a few months after I got it, but then I stopped using it and I haven’t been able to get myself to use it consistently again. I’d pick it up every once in a while but I just don’t really enjoy using it anymore, and it did take up precious space in the shower.

Travel Products

I’ve heard this is quite a common issue, and I’m guilty of it myself too. Hoarding travel products. There’s just something irresistibly cute about tiny beauty products. Most of them end up sitting in my house for years though, and I somehow just keep acquiring more. I need to face the music: most of them will never get used. I got rid of:

• Hotel soap. WHY did I ever bring this home?
• Hotel body lotion. Again. Just leave it, Lucy!
• Expired facial sun cream
• A shower gel & body lotion set

Accessories

For someone who doesn’t wear a lot of jewellery, I have a surprisingly large amount of it. This is again something I’ve collected over the years, as I’ve made several futile attempts at incorporating more jewellery into my outfits and/or been gifted pieces by loved ones. It’s only after I got some really nice, dainty, real gold pieces that I started to actually enjoy wearing jewellery on a more regular basis. It’s time to slim down that huge collection of costume jewellery. I got rid of:

• A lion’s head necklace
• Two key necklaces
• A mustache necklace
• A bird ring
• A beaded statement necklace
• A beaded bracelet
• A rose gold infinity sign bracelet
• A whole bunch of rings

I also decluttered three more eyeglass cases. I have a box where I store eyeglass cases, but through several sponsorship with eyeglass brands I’ve acquired more than fits in the box or would be necessary to keep. I got rid of a lot of them in my previous big decluttering round, but decided to get rid of more of them now. I don’t really need more than one or two of them, anyway.

Office Supplies

The drawers under my desk are used on the daily, but for some reason I tend to forget about them when I declutter. Maybe I’m so used to them that I don’t really realise they’re there anymore? Anyway, I went through them now and found a bunch of stuff I can’t believe made it through earlier decluttering sessions.

• A desk planner I no longer use and is almost full
• A stack of used sticky notes
• A loyalty card for a store in Utrecht (I live in Amsterdam now)
• Dried up electronics wipes
• Four eraser sticks that surely go with some type of holder I couldn’t find
• Two old SD cards (4GB and 8GB, lol)
• Two non-functional pens
• Business cards for my makeup artistry services, that I no longer provide
• A Hello Kitty pin
• A Pokémon figurine
• A full notebook
• A pencil case I used in highschool
• An expired gift certificate

I also decluttered the shelves above our washing machine, which are in my office as well (told you it was a small apartment, haha). I went at this so hard that I completely forgot to take pictures of what I was getting rid of, but it was mostly a lot of paperwork, empty boxes and promotional material from brands I’ve worked with.

And Lastly…

I went through my medicine box and removed these two expired items:

• Povidone-iodine
• Spray-on bandage

I also got rid of some scented candles that had gone off, and some half-used candles that somehow made it back into the box.

Anything that could still be useful will be donated or sold, and everything else has been recycled or disposed of properly, as always.

Decluttering is a never-ending process, and I’ve noticed that the longer I keep at it, the easier I find getting rid of things that I still felt some attachment to previously. I’m also much more conscious of what enters our home nowadays, so the minimizing is going very well. I’ll keep you updated!