Wendy here, from Pretty Well Organized, with a quick and easy project for you today. Spring cleaning is the perfect time to declutter and organize a space that is easily overlooked: your makeup drawer! It’s an easy location to ignore but today I’m going to give you some tips for how to organize a makeup drawer.
One of the biggest misconceptions about the makeup drawer is that we usually use up the makeup before it expires. You might be good about it but I know I am not! I started with a quick Google search of “when does makeup expire” and found this great article on Allure.com. You can read it here.
Quick rundown from the article:
- Foundation 6-12 months
- Concealer 2 years
- Powder 2 years
- Blush 2 years {liquid 1 year}
- Eyeshadow 3 months {eek! This was my biggest offender item–I’ve had some in my drawer since college…and that wasn’t yesterday :)}
- Eyeliner 3 months
- Lipstick/gloss 1 year, or after you’ve been sick
Reading it was enough for me to open up my {messy} drawer and start pitching all the “questionable” makeup. Here’s my {ugly!} before picture.
To declutter this mess, and organize my makeup drawer, I started by grabbing the nearest trash can, and tossing out everything that fell outside the guidelines above. Anything I wasn’t sure of, also went in the trash. These products go on your face, so why risk it?
After I purged all the questionable items, which really amounted to nearly 60-70% of the contents, I laid the remaining items out on the counter while I wiped out the drawer.
I used a simple organizer I had purchased at Target for less than $5. I slipped the organizer into my drawer and quickly inserted the remaining items into the organizer. The drawer is dramatically more organized and it actually helped me to simplify my morning routine. Here’s the result:
Organizing my makeup drawer was a quick and easy project, during spring cleaning, that really made me feel like quick and simple projects CAN make a big impact. I challenge you to take the challenge of cleaning out just 1 drawer a week during the next month and I guarantee you will be shocked with what a big impact small tasks can make in your routine. Pick high traffic locations for maximum impact. Happy spring cleaning, what will you clean and organize first?
Wendy
