Bumming hard...

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

.. So, I was going through my shelf of toiletries and started taking things out of their bins/baskets and placing them into boxes in order to clean/sort/throw out some of the stuff. I mean, I can't take it all with me.

But man, I had no idea I had so much junk. Like, so much. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself:

To get an idea for size, those boxes are subway bread boxes. They hold 70 sticks of uncooked bread. There are four of them, and they are sitting on my bed.

That's a lot of toiletries. I was going through them and the amount of stuff I purchased (or others bought for me) that was completely unused was a bit horrendous. I was actually ashamed of it all. I hate wasting things, and all this waste was just staring at me in the face. I even contemplated taking some of the unwrapped things back and seeing if I could even get a gift card or something, but I dunno.

It's just horribly depressing how much money I waste on things I don't even use. It actually makes me mad. Once I throw it all out I'll feel better, but for now, it's sitting in my room, taunting me.

I don't know what it is about toiletries. I will always go out and buy a new face-cleaner, or new lotion, or fancy eye-shadow, only to never use it. I really need to remind myself that no matter what type of fancy lip-balm I will buy, I always fall back on two things: vaseline or burt's bees. I do have some lip stick and lip glosses that I use for fancy occasions, but I don't dress up that often. I rarely clean my face (I know, it's bad), and I need to stop buying hand and body lotions because I don't use those either. Siiiigh.

That's it, next month's toiletries budget is $15. I refuse to waste more money on things I don't need.

(On a side note, it's too bad my sister is leaving the same time as I am, otherwise I'm sure I could dump all this stuff on her and she'd love it.... haha)

6 comments:

Esme said...

I did the same thing, until a few months ago. It's so easy to pick up a lipgloss or eyeliner. Even now, I still find things in my drawers and go 'huh! I remember this and I don't remember ever using it. But I sure had big plans for it'.

Rina said...

Oy! I know what you mean!!! I Spring Cleaned my bathrooms and threw out so many toiletries...such a waste of money for stuff I haven't even opened. Lame! :(

Anonymous said...

I think homeless shelters will take some of this stuff... maybe an option to look into if you really want to get rid of it.

Leanna said...

Mike: That's a good idea! I never thought of that. I would much rather give it away to someone who is going to use it rather than wasting unopened product...

Bouncing Back said...

You can try a homeless or womens shelter or freecycle it.

Isn't it amazing what you "find" when you really look at what you have in your cupboards? Things we buy and collect....

Put the unspent money towards your trip!

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

I agree with the women's shelters. They don't get many luxuries and it's a great place to donate that stuff

Me, I used to have a ton of toiletries too - I ought to do a post of "Before" and "After"