Overwhelmed and Overflowing

 

A few years ago my daughters told me about a company IPSY , a beauty subscription service that delivers a set of personalized beauty products straight to your door. I would get 5 health and beauty samples a month based on my preferences. I was never knowledgeable about make-up. This was a great price for me to try new products and find what I liked. I loved the service, but then it became too much. My drawers and medicine cabinet were over flowing with sample products. 5 products a month for 12 months is 60 products a year. I did it for 2 years which was 120 small items and some full size products. I used and liked the majority of the products, but I am more of a naturalist and wear limited make up and generally wear it when I go out for dinner or an event or work. I gave some away. Then I had a great thought at first, I would pack one of each item in my "grab and go travel bag". It worked well, but I wasn't going anywhere consistently so the products remained and never ran out. My drawers and medicine cabinet became overwhelmed and overflowing. I ended the subscription and several months later I sorted through the products and only kept what I had used and enjoyed.

Isn't it amazing how I collect items, even when I am not trying- the gifts of hand soap, the jewelry cleaner that was on sale and the buy in bulk and save soaps. There are vitamins from well intentioned health consciousness times and the hair products that I tried that one summer. It is easy to collect, but challenging to get rid of. I opened my medicine cabinet last week and body spray I forgot I had fell out. Luckily, it didn't break causing my bathroom to smell like "Cashmere Snowflake" for all of eternity. I stood back and just stared into the depths of my cabinet. How is it possible I have accumulated all this sh.... stuff. I do a bathroom purge once a year where I pick up each item and discard all the expired and out dated products. How is there still so much? I will use it some day. When is someday? It has been years. My jewelry cleaner had dust accumulated on it's lid. Gross! I need to take action. I have decided that I am going to dispose of, repurpose or add the items in my medicine cabinet to a regular routine for use.

My first item - an old Vera Bradley contact case. I haven't worn contacts in over 6 years. Yet, I just couldn't part with this item. It was an odd attraction. Maybe it is because I loved the pattern or I remember the fantastic sale price from 12 years ago. Some how it has survived the purge each year like the Bubonic plague in the sewers of San Francisco in the early 1900s. No more. This snap clip container will find new life as the change collector in my car. Though I rarely have cash, somehow the console of my car collects pennies, nickels and dimes and the occasional quarter. As a I drive they slide to and from in my console. When that silvery noise gets on my nerves, I move it to my cup holder. On the occasion that my husband drives my car and needs a spot for his beverage, the change is relocated yet again. Eventually, I bring it up stairs and place it in my glass change box on my dresser until I count it and deposit it into my bank account. Now my change will have a quiet landing spot where it will be softly contained and easily relocated to my change box.

Sometimes, we just need to rid the excess in our lives, find a new purpose that may be out of the norm to have a soft landing in life.