There really is no comparison to the rush of walking in to a Bath and Body Works. You know that high you get from walking into a store with a sick sale during Black Friday? That was a feeling I permanently got walking into a Bath and Body Works…or an Ulta…or CVS or Walgreens. I had a serious problem when it came to hoarding beauty products, both makeup and normal lotion-y things in general. Plus, small beauty items like nail files and hand lotions make for great stocking stuffers and care package items so… I ended up with a whole ton of stuff.

As I have stated previously, we live in a culture that values the expense of things. If you ever watch a movie or TV show with a fancy, up-scale, elite New Yorker (ahem Gossip Girl), you could see rows and rows of perfume bottles, piles of makeup tubes and jars, and endless other beauty-enhancing products. This ideology that we need so much stuff to be beautiful and amazing is just flat out wrong.

I recently went on a cleaning kick for family members and friends. I have literally spent multiple days cleaning out every inch of friends’ bedrooms and what I have found is that it’s really hard for people to attack the bathroom (or beauty products, or what have you). Part of the reason is that we think everything in our bathrooms is useful, when in actuality, a lot of our bathroom is unhealthy chemicals, impulse purchases, and expired necessities.

As you simplify your life, don’t expel the bathroom from your cleaning ruthlessness! You would be surprised how much stuff is expired or gross. If you hate something but it was a freebie extra or a gift, it is absolutely OK to throw it out or give it away! You could potentially get away with selling them - some Plato’s Closets actually buy nice beauty products from you.

One other thing I would like to mention is visiting a dermatologist. Although you may not have horrible and painful cystic acne or even get pimples at all, I would highly recommend going. With all of society’s advancements in health and beauty, we as a species have developed a lot of intolerances. One lesser-known issue is that of “contact dermatitis” - the inflammation of the skin through simple contact with something your body rejects. My mom had this done about a year ago and we were shocked at what she was allergic to and where it could be found. For example, she is highly allergic to cobalt, which is found in not only beauty products, but also in food, like coffee and canned beans. We slather and preen ourselves to get rid of all these physical flaws when in actuality, it’s those very things we are doing that’s making everything else worse!

As always, take things at your own pace. Overall, there really is no need to have a bathroom full of perfumes and colognes you’ve been gifted for years. There’s no need to have four different sticks of deodorant. It’s time to not only be physically clean, but mentally and emotionally as well!