Why on earth do I have so much nail polish?! Does anyone else have this many? It’s a ridiculous amount of polishes! It really doesn’t look like that many until I counted them – it was a bit of a shock. I haven’t painted my nails regularly since I lived in London, when this collection started growing. I used to do nail art and try different things – hence some of the bizarre colours. But now I work in a smart office I barely have any colour on my nails.
So it was time for a nail polish declutter. I laid the two boxes of polishes on the floor and went through each colour splitting them into a must keep pile, maybes and a don’t want (much bigger) pile. Actually, my keep pile began with 2 polishes before sifting the maybes. I piled up all my no’s next to Dex, one of my many doggy doorstops.
I then went through the maybes and decided on what colours I’d most likely wear again and got rid of any duplicates. I found that I had a few of the same colours from the same brands – I obviously at some point loved them so much that when I spotted it I just had to have it. I do remember trying to keep an inventory at one point so I could check before purchasing.
To whittle them down I asked myself the following questions:
- What does this colour say about me? – is it suitable for work?
- Will I wear it on the weekend?
- Is it easy to apply and lasts?
- Is it going to be a pain to get off? (e.g. glitter)
- Are there any other similar colours that I prefer?
I feel so good that I’ve managed to declutter 111 polishes. I have kept five base/top coats and oils, and I have 32 colours that I’m keeping for now. I’ve put them in a box in my dresser so they’re easy to reach; hopefully I’ll use them more often. By summer I’m going to look at all the wintery shades left and if I haven’t used them they will be tossed too.
Is anyone else trying to declutter? I’m going through one lot of items at a time. This one was hard as I feel I’ve probably wasted hundreds of pounds and I feel really guilty. It’s time to let go.
