How to Easily Simplify your Makeup & Beauty Routine

In last week’s post, I shared why I simplified my makeup collection and beauty routine. Including how it helps simplify my life, keep my bathroom clutter-free and gave you a look inside my minimalist makeup bag. Today I’m sharing an easy 5 step method you can use to simplify your makeup collection and beauty routine. Read on for my easy steps to take your makeup collection from overwhelming to simplified and organized!

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Why simplify your makeup and beauty routine?

You can read more about the benefits of simplifying, decluttering and organizing your makeup products here. But some of my favourite benefits of having a simplified makeup collection and beauty routine are how much easier it makes my life!

Getting ready is faster and easier when you can easily find the products you’re looking for. It’s easy to keep your bathroom clean, tidy and peaceful with fewer products. You spend less time getting ready in general when you simplify your makeup and beauty routine. Which leaves more time for the things that are most important to you! And simplifying your beauty routine makes it easier to love yourself – imperfections and all!

If you’re ready to simplify your makeup and beauty routine, follow my easy 5-step system to clear the clutter and make getting ready for the day a stress-free, simple and enjoyable process!

How to easily simplify your makeup and beauty routine

1. Gather all your makeup products

Gather all your products in one place so you can see what you have and sort accordingly. Seeing everything you own in one place can be eye-opening in itself. Sometimes we don’t realize just how much we have until we see it all together.

2. Get rid of anything expired or that you don’t like

Once you have all your makeup products in front of you, it’s time to get decluttering. Get rid of anything expired or that you don’t like. If you purchased something but don’t love it, either pass it on to someone who will use it or just throw it out. There’s no point in hanging onto products you don’t like and won’t use – they just add clutter!

Also, remember that makeup has a limited shelf life once it’s been opened. It can not only go bad by losing its color, consistency and freshness, but makeup can also harbour a lot of gross bacteria! Use the handy graphic found here to remember how long you should keep products after opening them.

3. Sort products into categories

I find it best to group makeup products into 3 categories based on how often you use them. In the first category gather up everything you use on a daily or very regular basis. These are the go-to products that you use all the time.

Next, gather the products you use occasionally. These are things you don’t use every day, but you still use fairly often when you are wearing a bit more makeup or dressing up a bit more. Think about what you wear for a night out, an important meeting, etc.

And last, gather everything you wear once in a while for really fancy or formal occasions. These would be products you use when you’re going to a wedding, a fancy event, etc. These are the few extra products you might use when you really want to kick it up a notch!

Once you’ve divided your products into these 3 categories, assess what you have and declutter again as necessary. It’s important to be really honest with yourself about what you realistically use and how much you need of each type of product. Be very selective about what you choose to keep. Don’t keep products that you intend to use, but rarely actually use.

Look at what you have and decide if you honestly and realistically use it all. For example, if you only wear lipstick a few times a year, do you really need 8 different colors?

4. Take inventory of what you have

Now that you’ve decluttered your makeup products and grouped them into categories based on how often they get used, take note of what you have. A great way to reduce makeup clutter and keep products from piling up is to use up what you have before buying more. Sometimes it can be tempting to buy a new product to try before using up what you have. But a super easy way to control bathroom clutter is by using up what you have first, before buying more.

Another great tip is to find your favourite products, then stick with them! When you find a product you like and it works well for you, buying and using that one product helps keep makeup clutter under control. When you only buy your favourite products, you know you’ll use and like them. It can take some experimentation at first to find what you love. If you’re still looking for the products you love, just make sure you either use up, get rid of or give away any products you have before buying more.

5. Set up systems to keep your makeup organized and accessible

I firmly believe that decluttering is a better solution for a cluttered and overwhelming home than organizing is. However, organizing is a great way to further simplify and streamline your life after you’ve thoroughly decluttered. Especially with makeup products. Once you have narrowed your makeup collection down to the products you use, love and are still fresh, using some simple organizational tools will help further simplify your life.

Because makeup products tend to be small, they can easily become lost amongst each other if they are just thrown in a drawer. Adding some simple organizational tools helps keep things tidy, easily accessible and just makes getting ready for the day easier.

Find an organizational system that works for you

How you organize your makeup products will depend on the amount and type of space you have, as well as how much makeup you have. Clear acrylic dividers can be a great way to organize makeup products and still easily see what you have. But there are many other great organizational solutions too. You can use baskets, bags, bins, trays, etc.

The great thing is that after you have thoroughly decluttered and categorized your makeup products, it will be easy to see what you have and what types of organizing tools would make the most sense for you and your space. And when you own fewer makeup products, getting and staying organized is so much easier!

Also, using some simple organizational tools like baskets, trays or bins can also help keep your makeup collection from getting out of control. The organizational tools give you an easy to see and a self-imposed limit for how much makeup you can have. If your basket or tray gets too full, items start falling out, it becomes difficult to find what you need or simply becomes hard to keep your makeup organized, you know it’s time to do some decluttering. The self-imposed limits these types of organizational tools give you are great visual reminders to keep the number of makeup products you have to an amount that works for you.

Easily simplify your makeup and beauty routine

Use these 5 steps to simplify your makeup and beauty routine to make getting ready for the day simple and stress-free. Declutter your bathroom and enjoy a clutter-free, simplified space that’s easy to maintain and makes getting ready easy!

Do you feel inspired to simplify your makeup and beauty routine? Have you already simplified your makeup and beauty routine? Leave a comment and let me know!