Step 1 – Realization

Hi, I’m Cammi and I’m addicted to keeping things. Not anything specific, just things in general. I came to this realization today while cleaning out my makeup drawer. There is a dumb lip gloss I have been hanging on to forever. I won’t tell you how long out of sheer embarrassment. I don’t even like the lip gloss. It’s too sticky and it’s not a great color. But I haven’t been able to bring myself to throw it away. Why? For dumb reasons such as:

1: What if I run out of my regular lip gloss and need to use it as a backup?
2: I’ve hardly used it and it seems like a waste to throw away a full tube of lip gloss.
3: Maybe one day I’ll try using it and decide I love it!

Dumb, dumb, dumb. Today the lid came loose and it spilled all over the inside of my makeup drawer. So I took everything out of the drawer and started scrubbing. Water couldn’t wash it away. Soap didn’t even make a dent – it was too sticky. I tried Dawn thinking it would cut through the “grease”. Nope, still a sticky mess. I had to use 409 on it to clean it up. Lots of 409…. And a makeup company thought I would want this on my face??? HELLO?! The lip gloss finally went in the garbage. And then I noticed something terrible. My bathroom was full of items just like the lip gloss. Lotion I would never use because I hated the smell. 10 year old eyeshadow I didn’t like the color of. 1 earring missing its match. A blowdryer that only blew cold air. (What if one day it started blowing hot air again??) Bubble bath that dried my skin, but I wouldn’t throw it away “just in case”. “Just in case” of what?? So I did it. I threw it all out. And it was a painful experience. I went back and forth taking things out of the garbage and then forcing myself to throw them away again. But I’ll survive. In the end my cabinets (and husband) will thank me for it. Now if I could just let go of all my size 2 clothing still hanging in the closet….