Do you guys have a box/drawer/closet of shame? If so what does it look like, and what are your goals for it?

My 'box of shame' was MLM clothing. But it was more like a closet. Finally got rid of them to a friend who volunteers at a nursing home. Seems seniors love overpriced leggings and ugly polyester tops. :| It was over $4,000 of clothing and it made me sick to know I'd charged most of it. I went cold turkey a year ago and unsubscribed to everything and blocked all mail and facebook groups.

Just got into make up a few months ago and I already have a 'drawer of nope'. Colors that didn't work, influencer suggestions that looked like crap, products that made my face burn. I've returned everything I could (love Ulta's policy). Others, I've gifted to people that love glitter or can work with the colors. I have a personality that buys into the 'FOMO' culture. And I need to recognize that about myself and stop harming my life.

It's on my list of things to do this weekend to clear out the cabinet under my sink. I don't share a bathroom, or have a significant other to roll eyes at my piles (my son does a good job at that). I save samples and unused items like that and give to the local shelter. Friends love going through my stashes - they do it every few months.

The goal this year is to stop charging. And to realize what I've done to an environment I claim to care about.

I got in the habit of buying a lot of skincare during Sephora sales, usually sets with things I wanted to try. I found a lot of favorite products this way, but I also would accumulate lots of deluxe sample sized things that sat - like you - in a box in my room. It got to be too much and I realized that the combination of lots of little things to try with the full sized products I regularly use just made it impossible to get through everything especially when these things have expiration dates. So I got rid of the box. I laid out all the products, looked at what I really wanted to try/use, and gave away the rest. The backups I decided to keep I put on my shelf. It helped me confront the reality of what I own.

I think when we let ourselves have a backups in a separate place it creates this idea they’re “out of inventory” but that’s not true. They can still go bad. They’re sitting there getting older.

I think it’s a different situation to have backups or things you always use or replace. For instance, I usually buy a back up of my favorite moisturizer on sale because I go through it at a regular pace. But I also know that I shouldn’t have more the one back up because by the time I finish two there will be another sale.

So one of my big goals for 2020 is to use up what I have left. And also next time a sale comes around only try one new mini skincare set. Just one because it takes time to get through these products and it’s not even good for my skin to switch it up so much.

I found a box of toiletries that remained unpacked from my last move (2013) that I am just now going through. I found a half bottle of baby oil in there and am using that as eye makeup remover (instead of buying). I'm about to finish a bottle of shampoo from there.

When it comes to makeup, I have an acrylic organizer (that I bought additional stackable pieces for last year). Now I won't buy makeup that does not fit within that system (I have one palette, BH Zodiac, that is too large for the drawers and just sits on the side. It will not be joined by others.)

In college, I worked for Bath and Body Works (I was living at home then). I bought so much shit there that I literally stored it in my trunk to avoid being called out by my mom. Last time I was shopping, I passed on lotions for 75% off during their sale because I have others to get through. I can only take advantage of their sales on lotion (I am using the last of my shower gel as I'm switching to bar soap for environmental reasons) if I'm on my last bottle (not even close).

Yep I have a box of shame. It’s mainly eyeshadow palettes and blush because they take so long to pan but I can’t stop buying eyeshadow palettes! I’m working on it for this year though!

I'm past any shame anymore. The shame would be feeling i had too much and buying more. Guilt and shame aren't healthy motivators for me. Wanting to save and using positive motivation to change my habits has been easier on my mental health.

Yes, they sit unseen under my bathroom sink in plastic tubs. I need to go through, throw out used things and donate unused things. Those aren't even replacements down there. I keep my replacements in a drawer near my vanity and actually go through those. My boxes of shame never get opened.

I have a box of things that don't work for me/I don't love/etc. It sits on my dog kennel and is almost never opened. I use it for gift giving or to pass stuff on to friends I know don't mind lightly loved makeup from me.

At this point it just sits there because I've exhausted everyone I know with makeup too, lmfao. I can't donate most of it because most of it isn't super new or even really lightly used anymore, it's well-loved stuff that I just don't enjoy (KVD products, older palettes, etc.).

Someday maybe I'll chuck them in the trash but for now it's better than them going straight to a landfill I suppose.

I have a Caboodle I keep my 'backup' stuff in which is mostly excess skincare and random treatments that I can't use yet.

My goal for 2020 is just to USE MY STUFF more, so I'm not TOO concerned with that aspect of it to be honest because it's not a huge overflowing trash demon for me just yet. That being said, I'm sure I'll add to it as time goes by and I use my makeup more as I'll be figuring out what I actually enjoy and what I'm just keeping for status/just because.

I've got a box (okay two shoe boxes) under the sink full of various products that are mostly finished. It's 80% skincare and hair products and 20% various medicines and first aid products. These are products that were replaced before they were finished but I want(ed) to finish them before tossing them so they ended up out of sight under the sink. I should probably finish up those products before buying anything new. I might try to use them up before my birthday in June (meds/first aid excluded of course).

I also have a vanity drawer of older products that fell out of favour for whatever reason. A bunch of products that I'm not yet willing to part with. Makeup purgatory I guess. It's not a terrible amount of stuff, but I feel guilty about it nonetheless. I haven't set a goal for this yet, but maybe I should make a decision about each product before my June birthday just like the skincare boxes I mentioned above. I won't attempt to pan any of them, but either put the product in my regular rotation or declutter it.

I guess you could say I've had several of those for skincare and bodycare. At the beginning of 2018 is when I started really getting into these things and trying more of anything I read about. At the beginning of 2019 I started a no buy (I failed, but it was a different kind of success altogether) with some of my backups in the bathroom, some in my room in two smallish boxes and some in another room, where I kept a lot of the things I shared with my mum. I've been an awful influence on her, but luckily now without me buying so much it's very rare that she buys multiples of anything, and when she does it's of something that she needs now and curiosity of more than one thing takes over.

Anyway, after a year of being really good about not buying skincare (it's makeup that I failed at) I've consolidated my two boxes into one with a little wiggle room and still a few shared backups in the other room with my mum, but I no longer have any extras in the bathroom. The goal is to have just the one box of extras, because I'll always have backups of certain items and I'm okay with that.

I’ve got a box that I keep on the floor of my closet full of backups. I’ve decluttered and tried to stop buying so many extra products, sets, things “to try,” etc, but the box is still pretty full. It’s hard to be critical about buying backups when you see something on sale that you know you’ll eventually use, even if it’s realistically going to be sitting in a box for months before you use up what you currently have on the go.

I used to have a drawer of just samples, and then two medium boxes of make up. Last year I moved so I spent a lot of time listing items for sale in FB groups, decluttering, or using stuff up. I made it a goal to use all my samples this past year and I'm almost there. Now I've gotten it down to just a drawer of extra skin care and a drawer of unopened make up like blushes and bronzers. I figure as long as it's unopened I can get through it eventually.

I have a huge makeup bag full of samples. I went through a phase where I would take advantage of any sample deal even if I wasn't even interested. Even if it meant breaking up a Sephora order into 2 in order to get more samples.... I don't do this anymore fuck that haha.

I gifted a lot of samples away during Christmas but I'm going to keep working through them!

I have this in the form of some drawers and more boxes crammed in a closet. Something that has helped me was to lay out some categories of projects and take pictures. That way I'm less likely to run into the issue of like, "I think I'm running low on this but don't want to dig through the drawers, better buy a new one!" and if I feel tempted to buy a new product, I pull up the pictures of the category and see if I can select a "new" one out of what I already own/ haven't tried yet.

I just put away most of my makeup stash in a plastic drawer of shame. It looks like a number of makeup bags stuffed with excess product. Today, I'm rummaging around in my clutter for a box to add excess perfumes to the drawer, and I'm removing actives from my skincare routine for the winter to repair my dehydrated skin, so they'll be joining the shame pile by the end of the day.

I'm also adding all of my bathroom backups from the bathroom cupboard, because I actually need that space to better organise my towels and the things that I do use everyday in the bathroom, as well as cleaning products, incense, that kind of thing.

So that large drawer (because it absolutely is tall and deep and wide! designed to store bedding and the like) will be absolutely full. I've accepted the situation, and I have no intention of decluttering. I'm on a strict RONB for the foreseeable future for MANY reasons, and I'm sure I'll enjoy slowly using things up over the year and making a little space in my drawer.

I'm hoping to move in 2021, so really the goal is to save money, stop bringing things in, enjoy what I have, and have less to move when the time comes.