Day 39: Lotion

What: Lotion

Why: You may think this is ridiculous that we are talking about lotion (of all things). Though, I am assuming that you have WAY more lotion than you have hands to use it. Lotion is one of those things we hang onto because we think we will use it when we run out of the other. Do we? We read an article in a magazine about what the “best” lotion is, go and buy it, but forget that we have 5 other types of lotion in the cupboard from the other article we read about what was best to use. Do you fall into that trap? Lotion then becomes an item we not only use, but collect, cluttering up our cupboards and purses!

How:
1. Find all of the lotion you own. Take them all out of your drawers, cupboards, purses, and off your counters.

2. Set aside the ones you use on a weekly basis.

3. As for the rest, here are some questions to think about:

• Was it a free sample from somewhere?
• Was it a gift? Will you use it?
• Is it half used and you have found a better lotion to use?
• Was it an impulse buy because you heard it was a “good” lotion?
• Do you have so many you know you will never use them all?

4. Time to purge and prevent!

• If the bottle is half used, be honest with yourself and ask if you will ever use it? If not, give it to someone or throw it away.
• DO NOT accept a free sample if you already have bottles sitting at home.
• Everybody’s skin is different. The magazines that say what the best lotion is, may not be right for YOU because your skin is different. Find one that works and stick with it. Don’t keep buying more!
• Think of the places you want to keep lotion – your purse, the kitchen counter, and the bathroom. Any other places, don’t keep it there. You could put lotion in every room of the house for convenience sake, but don’t do it – don’t clutter up your rooms!
• Use up what you have before you buy more. It will be so tempting to buy more, but don’t fall into the trap and temptation!

Confession of the Day: A few years ago, I realized I had lotion from YEARS and YEARS ago. It was so old it was discolored. How disgusting, right? To the trash it went. The past year I had little samples of lotion all over. I decided to use them all up, before I would buy more – I used free-sample lotion for quite some time before I had to buy a “real” bottle. The picture above is all of the lotion we now own. Wait, I have a facial moisturizer I use, but above is all of the hand lotions we use. It has been so refreshing to not clutter our cupboards with half-used bottles and lotion we will probably not use in time before it discolors! Clear those cupboards, drawers, and your purse out! Live with LESS!