I watch declutter videos on Youtube like a TV series. I think it’s so fun to see what items people have in their collections, realizing they have too much stuff, and deciding what to keep and what to donate. I’ve been doing it my makeup for the past few months as I create my Best in Beauty list (you can check out my foundation collection and mascara collection). But I decided to do a declutter on my nail polish collection too as it was getting out of hand!
I’m pretty happy with myself as I almost decluttered half of my collection! I’ll show you what I decluttered, what I kept, and some tips to help you be more ruthless when decluttering!
1) Group by colors, not by brands.
I find a lot of videos I watch for decluttering is based on brands. I feel like it doesn’t work as well because you might end up picking the same shades from every brand. So I laid out all my polishes based on color!
2) Use plastic nail files to swatch.
Usually I can swatch makeup on my hands when I’m doing a declutter, but for nails, I don’t want to paint my nails and then use remover ten times in one day! Buy these plastic nail swatches from Amazon, usually around $5 for 200, and you can easily compare colors!
3) Do the math.
You should base how many to keep on how often you paint your nails. Since I usually change up my colors once a week, that means even at 52 polishes, I’m only wearing everything once a year maximum! Isn’t that crazy once you do the math? It seems wrong to keep products that I don’t even use more than once a year!
Nail Polishes Decluttered: 40
(everything on the left side, plus 4 from the bottom row in the right, plus a few unpictured)
Nail Polishes Kept: 59
(everything on the right, plus 8 polishes I’m currently using unpictured, 6 top/base coats unpictured)
How often do you declutter your collection? How many nail polishes do you own?