Less Waste, More Thought

Since I'm tired of taking all this stuff with me every time I move and it's kind of gross to give makeup away, I'm using it. Husband is kind of excited about this new change, i.e. pretty wife. I've decided that if it's almost gone, that should be the extra weight I get rid of first, especially if I have extras.

Part of the experiment should be to see how long it actually takes to go through a bottle of such and such to avoid accumulating so much and to estimate how much money you save by finding alternatives. I haven't bought shampoo in over a year because the volunteers at our Katrina camp kept leaving their sample size shampoos in the showers. I wonder how much money I saved on shampoo last year.

This also got me thinking...there's got to be some use for all the little bottles and containers that beauty products are packaged in. I know an outdoor leadership school that uses small bottles to pack spices in their cooking kits.

So here are 3 questions...does anybody else feel inundated by "stuff"? How can we avoid so much waste? (Obviously recycle, if available, but are there any reuse ideas?) How can we encourage friends and family to get us less wasteful gifts (it seems like everyone's fall-back gift for ladies is bath items or candles, which congregate in the cupboards or never get used...my mother in-law has 4 in her guest bedroom alone.)

Thanks!

Too Much Stuff

So here it is...I have too much stuff...and I don't even buy stuff. For instance--makeup. In the last 1 1/2 years, I have bought 1 mascara, 1 blush, 1 lip gloss, and 1 eyeshadow and I still have an entire box of makeup. I have perfume from almost a decade ago. It seems like every birthday and Christmas I get more lotion and perfume. The only thing that I do manage to use within the year is the Avon shower gel that my husband's grandmother gets me every Christmas.

So, the great whittle down experiment begins. I will begin to actually use all the beauty products that are piling up: lotion, foot lotion, teeth whitening gel, body powder, makeup, perfume, hair stuff, etc. I'm not buying anymore until what I have is used!

I've just spent 16 months working disaster relief in Mississippi...I'm not really a girly girl, but I'm kind of looking forward to pampering myself on a regular basis. This means wearing makeup everyday if I want to buy any more within the next five years...

The problem is...I've had some of this stuff for almost a decade...I'm TIRED of it. Some people would say, throw it away and start over, but not me. There is an amazing feeling of satisfaction when you use ALL of the chapstick.

So...before bed = teeth whitener, lotion, and chapstick.