Getting Creative: Repurposing Old Items What are your ideas?

[serious] I wanted to share some alternative ideas for what to do with your products other than the standard sell, give away, or throw away the trash — and I’d love to hear your ideas as well! I know a lot of people are taking time this spring and during COVID to get rid of old makeup, and de-stash things they don’t use. I saw a post recently mentioning that sometimes it’s hard to throw things away because it feels like a waste of money, or waste of product.

When things need to go in the trash because they cannot be used, are broken, start smelling badly, etc. - you can’t avoid that.

When things are still usable - outside of selling them, giving them away or donating them - there are still other things you can do! I’m going to share some more ideas below, but again I’d love to know your ideas as well.

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You can either swatch things and do the above (sell/give away/throw away) and/or repurpose them.

If you have a hard time with attachment, I would recommend swatching products, labelling them and then putting the things you swatched into a binder after putting the page/whatever you used to swatch them on into a plastic sheet protector, or laminating and hole punching the page.

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I personally love repurpose items! One thing I love to do is to use things for art. As an artist - I both throw away items and repurpose some. If a product is expired and no good, I’ll clean it and recycle it if the packaging is recyclable. As per repurposing;

For outer packaging (boxes, packets) — I often cut them up and use it for collage / multimedia pieces. I sometimes use larger boxes (like Sephora boxes in the mail) to store things, and sometimes I’ll even use more plain cardboard packages to wrap things.

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For bag style packaging — I’ll use these as travel bags, for gift giving (if they’re like a zip pouch style thing and appropriate to do so), for packing things in my bag separately, for holding all my electronic cords in my bag, for holding certain art supplies (esp when I’m going somewhere with them), holding lip care products, holding band aids, and I also have one for the “mini emergency kit” I made for myself. These are great for organizing things and don’t have to just sit away with no purpose! You can also donate them to shelters and schools if you are someone who has a ton of them (esp those with subscription makeup bags like Ipsy who end up with dozens of them).

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For unused or expired products (that aren’t gross and needing to be thrown in the trash, but shouldn’t be used anymore cosmetically) — I will use things like shadows and some liquid products by themselves or by mixing with water/another medium, and use them on things like canvas, multimedia paper, or on a sculpture. I actually used makeup powders as well as the brush tip of an empty liquid liner pen dipped in permanent ink in a pinch on a sculpture of a face. Things like powder products you don’t use, glitters, liquid lipsticks, liquid highlighters, cream products such as blush, highlighter, etc - if it dries down, you can likely use it on an art piece.

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For tools — makeup brushes or tools you don’t use? Tweezers not in their prime anymore? Use them for house projects or arts & crafts. Makeup brushes are great paint brushes, blending brushes (for things such as paint, ink, chalk & oil pastels, etc), makeup sponges of all types are also great for painting, powder puffs can be used to blend things, tweezers can help place things in exactly the right place or help pick up items (esp if they have glue on them or wet paint, helps prevent mess), etc etc. Old toothbrushes are often used to help clean things around the house too. Just brainstorm !

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For product containers/packaging — you can repurpose it into multimedia art, or if in a jar - you can use it for other things. I repurposed mini jars to keep Aquaphor and moisturizer in them when I went to school. I have a tin from another cosmetic I had that I keep a travel toothbrush and toothpaste in. Ive attempted little Polly pocket style things/mini worlds in empty compacts. You can make your own cushion products with an empty cushion and a compact you already have. You can make things into a mini flower vase. You can re-paint jars and use them for storage or gift giving. There’s tons and tons of options. You can also always recycle them!

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I just wanted to share this as there’s more options as to what to do with your products when you are getting rid of them. You just have to brainstorm and get creative! It’s still important to weigh whether you will actually use the item for this new purpose or not, but if you will use it for a new purpose, it’s better that than to go into a dumpster.

This post may sound a bit dumb or ridiculous to some, but hopefully someone else finds value in the ideas I have around repurposing items! Ultimately, I do want to stress that safety is priority and that should be considered when choosing what to repurpose, but that things can have a lot of use outside of their intended or “normal” use.

Anyways, I hope everyone is staying safe and coping well during these times, and that those de-stashing and cleaning are successful!

##What are some things you do before parting with an item? | OR | What are some ways you repurpose items instead of throwing them away?