Product Purge Time

I started my maternity leave on Monday and with baby not due for another few weeks (hopefully), I've been keeping myself busy by cleaning (next week will be about cooking freezer meals). On Wednesday, I focused on what I call my product cabinet, a Godmorgon cabinet from Ikea that is just for me and my stuff.

And I had a lot of stuff; had being the keyword.

Below is a sort-of-before photo, taken shortly after I started the purged, and the after photo (due to my ensuite layout, I can't capture the whole cabinet in one shot). OK, there is still quite a bit of stuff but it's been reined in quite a bit. Plus it's now better organized and sitting on freshly cleaned glass shelves.

Before

After

Here's how I organized things:
Top shelf: The odds and extras; extra containers of everything from contacts to face wash, along with some odd things like Husband's cologne, are placed on this awkward shelf.
Shelf #2: Blushes, grooming products, eyeliners and mascaras.
Shelf #3: All about the face; foundations, powders, moisturizers, primers, you get the idea. My hair brush and wide-tooth comb also live here for easy access.
Shelf #4: Lip products, eye makeup and foil samples; the lip products are organized by shade across three containers while the eye makeup is in two baskets, one containing my commonly used products and one containing the less commonly used. There's also a baggie with assorted foil samples (that I have to use up).
Shelf #5: Products related to body care, as well as face masks, call this shelf home.  There are also a few of my favourite hair products here for easier access.
Shelf #6: The nail shelf; I've attempted to group the polishes by colour; we'll see how long that will last.
Bottom shelf: The hair shelf; way at the back is a box containing curling irons and a flat iron while in front of it are various styling products (that I admit I rarely use).

Perhaps this isn't the most logical way to organize this cabinet but it works for me, giving me easy access to the items that I use the most. I do though wish that the inside of the door was magnetic, so that I could "hang" things like eye colours on it for even quicker access.

Purging was actually easier than I thought it would be. Was the last time I used the product over a year ago? Out it went. Did it look or smell weird? Out it went. Was it a product that disappointed me? Out it went.

I am really hoping to keep things this organized but who knows. Thankfully Baby has its own bathroom so I don't need to share my product cabinet with it.