Yesterday was Day 8 and the daily minimalist challenge was Learn to Enjoy Solitude. I have no problem with that one most of the time. I love the quiet. I woke up yesterday when I was done sleeping (which lately involves waking up at 5 am, doing a few things, and going back to bed from 6:30 to about 8am). I immediately went to do my workout. If I start it quickly after waking, I'm already half-way through it before I have a chance to tell myself I really don't want to do it today. After the workout, I took a cold shower to cool down, got dressed, and did my hair and makeup for the day. Then I read in a great book from my list, had a cup of coffee and eased into my morning.
Around 11 I had a friend of a friend swing by to pick up a chemistry set I was giving away. He and his wife have 8 kids from ages 4 or so to about 23, I'm sure they'll have fun with it. After that, I made myself a brunch type meal, a bowl of refried & black beans, pico de gallo, and lowfat sour cream. I ate it watching a show I love but DVR'd called "The Kitchen". All morning, I was having minimal interaction with anyone and it was okay. Very peaceful.
In the afternoon I again got time alone because I was decluttering more of the office/craft room, which is more of a catch all for everyone's crafts. I have made a decision that even surprised me. I'm done with scrapbooking (I think). I am donating everything related to it, my papers, scissors, stickers, embellishments, stamps, punches, everything. I realized moving here that I have so many albums already that moving them, and finding space for them, is too much. The kids are all grown and don't usually take or show me pictures of where they go, what they do, or who they're with, so there's much less reason to scrapbook. If I pick it up in the future, then fine, maybe it'll all be digital albums, but I'm actually relieved to not have so much stuff lying around that I'm not using. I'm donating it to a library for their billboards & children's art classes they do. At least someone will be getting good use out of the stuff.
Also I'm giving away about 2 dozen "old" books I've held onto. Many are from between 1882 and the 1930s. They may be worth $5 - $40 each in a collector's hands, but there's so few around since the demand for hard copy books (as opposed to digital) is fading quickly. I'm giving them to a friend who adores and cherishes books. She can keep them, read and pass them one, or she can donate to her local library since sometimes they don't have a big budget to get enough.
After the afternoon was just about gone, I settled in to a light supper and to watch baseball. I ended up going to bed early and just recording the last 2 innings - just in case something good happened late in the game.
So I would say most of my day was spent in solitude, but it was spent quietly, doing intentional thing, simplifying my life even more, and feeling good that I'm passing on things from which others can find value. It was a very good day of solitude for me.
Day 9 challenge: Downsize Your Beauty Collection
Again, I've already done 80% of this or more over the past few months but I'll be going through it again. I need 2 or 3 lipsticks, not 10. I need one eye shadow tray with multiple colors and maybe just 2 of my favorites on their own. I don't need 10 makeup brushes, I get by with 3. One mascara is enough so it's never too old. I don't wear eyeliner often anymore so 1 is enough. I have liquid makeup which I don't need to wear much anymore since I find Revlon's Photo Ready pressed powder does a great job, but I'll hang onto a little of that for special occasions. That's about it. Nail polish I wear more now than I have in the past 10 years, but doing dishes everyday, I still don't wear it often. I may keep my top 5 favorites, but not all of it. If I don't love it enough to wear it often, why hang onto it until it's old and clumpy and throw it away THEN? Do it now.
I have hair that's hard to take care of since it's naturally curly. It tends to be dry, frizzy, and curls often decide to go in directions other than I would choose. I do need a small amount of products to tame it depending on the weather, temperature, and humidity levels. I'll hang onto mousse for curly hair, some gel, some finishing spritz spray, and one of those root touch up products. I don't need to hang onto lots of extra kits, masques, cremes, and treatments to add moisture. I'll use the ones I think actually work over the next week and toss out the rest. Use it or lose it.
Every girl needs 1 or 2 good razors, shaving cream, and a good lotion to put on her legs - but not much else. I'll keep my 2 deodorants, one I use every day and a smaller one for when I travel. I do have a small collection of trial size stuff leftover from my last trip but I'll use them up when I travel again in September. After that, any leftover can be tossed since I have no major travel plans in the near future after that - especially if I'm going to be in school again, and who knows? maybe working a part-time job at some point too.
That's about all I have left. I do have a few facial products/lotions, less than 5, that I do use on a daily basis so I'll keep those. Anything else I find in the back of the cabinet gets tossed.
The last part of this isn't really about beauty products, it's more pharmaceuticals. I keep a shelf of stuff normally in a medicine cabinet but I gave ours to Tim for his stuff since there's more room in my shelves. I plan on moving them to some type of shelf or else one of those small multi-drawer plastic bins to sort them a bit so everyone can find what they need without having to dig through stuff all in one box. And that's that. I expect I'll have lots more space when I'm through today. Maybe I can use that space for towels so we're not always reaching under the sink for them.
Good luck if you too are decluttering your beauty products. If not, why not try it this month as a first step to getting rid of things that are old, that you don't need nor use anymore?
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