Here’s How To Get Your Beauty Bits In Order

Walking into your bathroom, it can sometimes feel like you’ve stepped inside your local chemist, and shutting closed your beauty drawer is getting harder by the week with all of the online shopping you’ve been doing. But knowing where to begin is the real challenge.

We all so want to be one of those people who are completely on top of things, keeping track of all the products they own and who have a place for every lipgloss and shadow in their possession. But, when everything’s so small and cluttered it can be easy for things to get lost, with most products expiring before you’ve even had the chance to try them out. So, no more we say! Enlisting the help of Professional Organiser and Founder of Organised Chaos, Sarah Reynolds, it’s time to get our shit together and give our beauty products the respect they deserve. 

Mess up the mess 

Yes, sorry, we never said this was going to be easy. The first thing that needs to happen in your tidying process is purging and categorising, “Give yourself a good bit of time for this process because you have a lot more products than you realise” says Sarah. Begin by sifting through all of your products, separating what is make-up and what is skincare, paying attention to expiration dates and removing anything you no longer want or use. 

Instead of binning everything you no longer deem as useful, instead create piles, with anything well past its prime going into the ‘throw out’ pile, and the others going into a ‘donate’ pile. If there is anything in the throw out pile that can be recycled, you can do that terracycle.com. And as for the donate pile, you could have some friends or family members sift through the good stuff, or if that’s not an option you can donate your unused (or lightly used) products to homeless charities, women’s shelters, and organisations helping people in direct provision, simply email or call ahead to see what kind of items they accept. 

Sort some storage 

Now that you’ve sorted the good, from the bad, from the ugly, the next step is to invest in some decent storage. This doesn’t have to break the bank, and Sarah recommends using storage that you can easily see through, as this will save you from rummaging around, and makes it easier to know exactly what products you own and need to use, “I like to use acrylic storage on bathroom counters for beauty products because you can see everything you own and they can look really pretty.” As we said, you don’t need to go scooting off to Ikea to spend a small fortune on this, some Tupperware, old candle holders, or cups will do the job just nicely – it’s all about thinking outside of the box, the world is your storage unit.  

If your beauty bits span much further than just your bathroom (and we’re sure they do), then you can also look into getting some drawer dividers, Sarah says “There are some fab available storage out there. Aside from acrylic storage, you can use drawer dividers inside drawer space. The idea with them is that each divider should hold a different category of beauty.”

Start filing 

Clear out? Complete. New storage? Sorted. Now all that’s left to do is get tidying. Sarah recommends sorting out your products by type, “Once you have decided on everything you’re keeping and separated them, organise your products by type – for example all lipsticks/palettes/foundations etc.” Work through each category one by one, placing the bulkier bits such as body creams and perfumes in bigger boxes or vanity cases, and the smaller, more fiddly products can go into smaller containers and compartments. 

It’s also recommended to have a system in place for the products you use regularly and the ones you don’t. Sarah says the best way to do this is to place the products you use every day in your bathroom/ bedroom area, and the others in a dedicated storage unit. “If you have duplicates (or triplicates) you might like to create ‘back stock’, so place all the items you use most often in your bathroom/bedroom and then have a separate area for ‘back stock’ that you pull from as your main area depletes.” Now, doesn’t that just sound like organised bliss?! Go forth and be tidy, my kings and queens. 

• Beauty
• Tidying