Decluttering and becoming semi-minimalist. Living with Celiac wheat allergy and beauty products.

So this year i've been all about that minimalist life.

During the few minutes spare that i have where i'm not working, eating or sleeping, i am busy rethinking all my possessions and how they fit into the life i want to live.

This is about 1 hour a week spread out into a few minutes a day because i'm mostly too tired after work and lazy when i do have time. I wouldn't say im unmotivated... it's just a really big job to get done!

So as i have mentioned before, due to my sudden increase in allergies, to the point where it's almost illegal for me to NOT be put in a bubble, i have purged a whole lot of my beauty products.

Now, i use to be a beauty hoarder. I use to be a shopaholic. And this left me with boxes and boxes of beauty products stuffed under my bed, under my table, against the walls, anywhere that had space meant i had room to go and buy more shiny new things.

My first purge started a year ago when i got rid of anything labelled officially with wheat. My deadly allergy. I had already said goodbye to the yummy delicious foods i use to eat daily with no issues.  I had to now follow a celiac lifestyle.

It was after this that i realised how much was being wasted and how much i had to get rid of. Yet i still had 80% of my stuff available to use which painted a clear picture that i had more than enough. More than imaginable because i had bought things and put them away 'for later' and just kept buying.

During last year i had not really bought much besides replacing my daily moisturiser and my obsession with Lush. Lush had kept me entertained until i had a giant box of bathbombs and bubblebars under my bed and soaps spilling out all over the place and i knew this wasn't right as well. Not only that, i don't even take baths and was not getting the full effect using them in the shower. So it was not long till i realised i was wasting my money there as well.

With make up, i had a little obsession with Nars and acquired quite a few products from them, as an excuse that i was 'replacing' the stuff i had to get rid of.

This year i've realised i had to get rid of everything with Vitamin E because it's mostly sourced from wheat. Vitamin E is in pretty much 95% of all beauty products according to me reading labels intensely for the last 2 years.

I still use make up with Vit E but found my skin gets minor spots. My skin is at it's best when i just stay away from that stuff and ultimately, that is what i want. I don't want to have anything that i can't use and i want it all to be 100% safe.

So this year is the year i will purge the most. My plan to not buy any beauty products at all so far has gone quite well. 2 full months have almost past this year and the only beauty products i've bought are some witch hazel blemish sticks during the 40% off sale at Priceline because my current ones were dry as chalk and that stuff works miracles for me. I get so excited when i finish up a cream or a wash.

Here is a photo journey of my decluttering:

This has been cleaned! It was topped with so much stuff i could not see the surface before :(

(please don't judge my dresser, it's not my dream setup either!)

My dresser from IKEA. I had replaced my table with a deep 3 drawer dresser to be able to store all my make up and skincare. The top drawer worked fantastic for make up and i had skincare in the 2nd one. More skincare and misc. in the bottom drawer. 

However this soon did not work for me as the make up section had make up piled ontop of each other, the drawers were deep and hard to remember to use the things i had stored in the bottom containers of the drawers so i went to look for a replacement.

I wanted to find something a little taller as my new white stool chair lifted quite high so i had that option now. But i was after 4 drawers and not as deep as i felt the deepness wasted space.

In the end i could not find a good one that fitted my area so i decided to upgrade in the same dresser but with 4 drawers. I also decided that paying almost double to have them split in half was a good idea. It wasn't really due to the cost but it allowed me to have sections and be more organised. Also if i was to ever move soon or rearrange my furniture, the slimmer dressers meant i could work with all kinds of space even if i just used one in a smaller spot.

I loved how the black and white looked so modern and clean cut next to each other and was so tempted to buy one in each... but i knew better lol

So here is only half of my make up spilled all over my bed ready to be sorted

And here is my skincare... a lot i know. I wish i had 10 more faces to slap these on... i just don't have enough surface skin for all this!

This is all my 'backups' and doesn't even include the stuff i had out and was using! EPPP!

They all start slotting nicely into the drawers.

So far my progress has been good. One drawer i can manage to fit ALL my toners and on the other side ALL my cleansers. It's insane but to have a certain product in one place now makes me use what needs to be used quicker and know what i have.

I love this set up and how functional it has been for me.

I am still no where close to becoming minimalist as i still own plenty but my hoarding ways don't wish to be wasteful. I will use what i got this year since i will not be purchasing anymore.

I also did a little decluttering on my clothes. Earlier this year i decided i don't need to wear colours ever again. lol. Since i wear mostly black only for work, my everyday clothes just seemed to be black all the time and everytime i shopped, i opted for black to make it wearable for work too.

I also went and bought lots of functional casual plain t-shirts because i was tired of tops not matching my pants and what not.

This seemed like a really good idea 2 months ago but right now i feel like i'm in a fashion rut and i crave to dress nice but with no effort. I still don't know what i'm after but i feel a little motivated and inspired again. However i am still very reluctant to spend money/waste money! So no i will not be going on on a clothing shopping spree! Thank God lol

I also threw out a bunch of shoes. Some were very old, some were just styles i didn't like much and weren't going to wear again, some just turned bad. I also have decided that unless it was a good quality everyday comfortable leather shoe, it was not worth keeping or buying more of.

I have an insane amount of nice leather flats but tend to just wear the one pair until it's no longer wearable and then just move onto the next. So why do i need the same shoe with 5 backups of it? I do not know... I don't wish to be wearing the same shoe for the next 3 years! I also have a thing for really trendy funky fashion shoes atm. It is my slight weakness and i have purchased a few this year but will try to contain myself after going through so many shoes.

My sisters also had an insane amount of old shoes gathering dust and going bad so i was able to declutter those for them too which felt so SO good haha. I just love to get rid of stuff now and it feels insanely fun!

Old school computer box filled with old shoes! This box was massiveeee.

Sometimes i seek out things to declutter but i think i'm done. There's nothing that's absolutely rubbish left in my life so for now i will try to maintain instead.

I've also noticed this decluttering trend going around on the internet and youtube. I guess all us shopaholics finally hit a point where we just had too much lol It's hard to imagine the amount of money i was willing to let go of in one shop just to buy a large number of products that i didn't even really need or know about. It was more of the thrill of buying so i can own it. It was only exciting when i unpacked it and put it away to never been seen again for the next few years.

What do you guys think? Is becoming minimalist and decluttering a trend you've notice too? Like they say, the less clutter in your life means the less clutter in your brain. I can't wait till i'm 100% there. I don't plan to ever live a life completely minimalist with only a list of 20 possessions or whatever but i do want to follow the idea of it and not indulge in excessive consumerism which seems to be the case with the beauty community online. I still love it all but im not IN LOVE with it anymore. If you get the difference ;)

New Year, Same me... but better version? lol Resolutions of an ex-shopaholic. Becoming minimalist.

This year has been going on for a while now and i feel like a lot of me has changed.
Last year was such a blur. I was working more than i could deal with, living week to week just wanting the week to end quickly so i can relax my mind only for another week to come around and start the process all over again. And not even for much money mind you.
I finally took a week off over the Christmas period and rest a little. But alas, spent everyday going out shopping the sales and not enough to bumming at home. At least it was time spent with my family which i haven't been able to do because i work weekends :)

I've decided to take a cut to my pay so i can have Saturdays off this year. In the end it's a small price to pay to gain my life back.
I don't have too much goals this year besides really trying my best to get closer and more comfortable so i will be ready for marriage in 2 years. I'm not getting any younger! And i feel like it is something i've started to want and feel like i'm ready for in my head. Physically i am a little reluctant lol. I don't cope well with change and i like my little bubble.
Another goal this year is to keep decluttering! I've already started a little last year and my beauty products hoarding has stopped since last year. However i still acquired some make up here and there and bought some skincare here and there.

This year i've decided it has to stop! I am not allowed at all to buy any beauty products! I must use everything i own, and if i run out of something specific...i will have to find something in my hoardings that can substitute. Like a face moisturizer as body moisturizer instead.
I have insane amounts that i can't even stand it when i'm cleaning/organising anymore.
Of course i know this is not entirely possible and maybe will give myself a leeway of 5 things or so.
I feel like this is completely possible to do :)
I read minimalist blogs and feel so inspired. Although i know i've always been materialistic and i can't become minimalist completely!

I've trained my shopping habits to be extremely tamed :) It might be due to the fact that i've decluttered so much and realized how everything you buy eventually becomes junk. I try to not buy things i don't value highly anymore or that i don't need right now. Last year i felt a lot of guilt everytime i bought something i didn't need. Spending money felt painful because i had realised i wasted so much of it over the years.

Even with my clothes, i've thrown a lot of things out and was more willing to get rid of things i thought i would TRY and wear because they were still new. They sat around for over a year of me trying to wear them and they never got worn. So i bagged them all and sent them to the charity bins.
I revamped my wardrobe to be mostly blacks. There is harder any colour now but because i only wear black for work and am there mostly, colours just seem too much for me now. I go for plain colours and plain cuts now.
I want that simple classy look like models on their day off style. If you know what i mean lol

I am going to work hard on my spending habits and savings goals this year. I really want to be able to own a home one day and i feel like that is such a big goal of mine now yet it's so far away and pretty much impossible on my own. I know L can look after me but i want to be able to do my part too even if it's very little.
That's why i've been feeling guilty for wanting another bag lately. I've been eyeing a YSL one but cannot justify spending $4k on a bag and let alone carrying a $4k bag on my shoulders! The price just seems ridiculous for what it is and i feel like that amount of money is better saved. There is no rush either. I have the right amount of bags i need right now. So i've decided if i complete this year with no spending on make up and skincare i will let myself enjoy this luxury :)
I think waiting it out helps a lot too. My last bag i wanted at the beginning but not enough. When my birthday rolled around and i was able to get a bag i just chose that one and got it in a rush. I didn't feel enough joy out of it for such a expensive bag so i don't think i want to get anything now until i've eyed it 100 times and imagined how it would fit perfectly with my life.
If not the money can be better saved towards my future home!

So this is the me i want to be this year :) I also want to get back into cooking as i need it for my health and always enjoyed it as a hobby. I want to add as much to my life as possible so i'm not a empty shell that just goes to work everyday and sleeps when i can!
And i want to live a life where it isn't dependent on spending to be happy! :D