Tag: Hoarding
Mediterranean Fall
When you get those GOOD coupons in your email…50% off selected fall items, 3 wick candles 2/$22 and an additional 25% off your purchase…you gotta go!
I picked up two candles – “Smoked Berries & Incense” and “Topaz Waters”. I let my husband smell them – he wrinkled his nose and banned them from the bedroom. Awwwww!
I showed restraint and picked up three 50% off hand soaps – “Topaz Waters”, “Moroccan Fig & Honey” (my husband HATED this one), and “Malaysian Pomegranate”.
On a related note, I switched out the summer scent – “Aloha Orchid” – from my powder room and replaced it with a winter scent – “Sparkling Pink Champagne”. My son got really upset – because it didn’t smell as good. Soap is a very divisive issue in our house.
Extreme Bedroom Makeover
So….my nail polish collection has gotten a little bit out of control. I’ve been fine the last few years, storing them in a plastic caddy, but then I filled both sides and had to get another caddy for remover and tools and then even that was not enough. I’ve got polishes EVERYWHERE – on the floor, on my vanity table, still in stacked subscription boxes…not to mention scattered through the rest of the house.
It’s not just the polishes that are the problem – it’s the subscription boxes. Since I’m a hoarder, I can’t throw any of the boxes away because I NEED them. I use them to mail stuff, to put gifts in and I’ve also started covering them with fancy Duck Tape to use for storage. The problem is that I get boxes faster than I can use them. Not to mention all the samples that come in those boxes – they are stacked up everywhere as well.
Again, Angie is my inspiration. I had been really considering getting a HELMER from IKEA (the nail blogger holy grail of nail polish storage), but I don’t quite have THAT much polish. (The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Obviously, I’m not there yet.) Angie suggested getting a RÅSKOG instead – it lets you see what you’ve got. We finally made the long trek to IKEA yesterday and I picked one up – after visiting my grandparents, who are conveniently buried across the street from IKEA. (It’s like they planned it.)
I put all of my polishes into the bottom two trays – including my Julep Color Caddy. I may end up booting it if I run out of room, but it’s so pretty! I tried to clean up the lotions and other stuff on my vanity – I dusted and culled a few old bottles. What I really need to do is clean out the drawers, which are filled mostly with jewelry – important stuff I inherited from my mother and grandmother, but also stupid stuff, like my elementary school jewelry. That’s a project that would take an entire weekend…at the very least.
The vanity itself was my grandmother’s. The finish is horrible – scratched and scuffed – but I don’t have the gumption yet to refinish it like I did my other vanity. (I did a red and black crackle finish on the other one – it’s beautiful, but it was a pain in the ass.) I went ahead and put all my boxes underneath it, I don’t sit at it, so really it’s just storage.
I’m very happy with the result. I expect I’ll outgrow my RÅSKOG soon, but I’ve got room for another…
Soap Addict
As the Bath & Body Works Semi Annual Sale winds down, the deals and coupons get a little better. The best stuff is gone and they want to get rid of whatever is left.
I’ll admit it, I went to Bath & Body Works yesterday and didn’t buy anything. I’m so glad I didn’t, because this morning, I got an email that ALL soaps are $3 today. That’s a sale I can get behind. I’m not even going to list all the scents I got…because I bought 14. That’s right…14. The current coupon is either $10 off $30 or $20 off $50. You know what I did…
In addition to the 14 soaps, I picked up a 75% off “Coconut Lime Breeze” Body Cream for my desk at work, a 75% off “Citron for Men” Shower Gel for my husband (because he always complains that I buy crap for myself and the kids, but never for him) and 2 50% off “Honolulu Sun” Hand Creams for my purse.
$35.15 <throws microphone down>
Saturday Shopping Fun
Another Saturday, another shopping marathon with Lily.
First stop was Ulta. I needed another Zoya “Remove +”, because I finally created my dream nail polish remover system. Last week, I bought another up&up “nail polish remover dip-it”. I emptied it and refilled it with Zoya “Remove +” – this is the absolute best way to remove nail polish. It’s soft and gentle and doesn’t smell like Chernobyl.
I also picked up Ulta “Ultimate Brunette” Shampoo and Conditioner. I exclusively use John Frieda “Brilliant Brunette”, but I wanted to give Ulta’s version a chance – it was $4.99 and BOGO. With my $3.50 off coupon, this purchase put me at Platinum status – $400.89 to be exact. Woo hoo!
After McDonald’s, my Eye Doctor and Rack Room Shoes, we hit Bath & Body Works for my 3rd round at the Semi Annual Sale. Mini Candles were 5/$10, so I picked up “Beach Cabana”, “Pink Petal Tea Cake”, “Fresh Picked Strawberries” and 2 “Red Lava Guava”. I want to exfoliate, so I grabbed a 75% off “Apricot & Honey” Body Scrub. 3 more 50% off Hand Soaps (NOT AntiBac) – “Sea Side Bloom”, “Endless Summer” and “Honolulu Sun”. Last, I let Lily pick another travel body spray – 75% off – she chose “Tokyo Lotus & Apple Blossom”. This week’s coupon was 20% off $25, so I got all this for about $20. I’m running out of room for soap.
I did manage to go to Big Lots after that (Zone Bars!) and NOT buy any nail polish. We did look…nothing tempted us.
Pretty full shopping day and spent under $100…
AntiBac is Back
It’s that time again…Bath & Body Works Semi Annual Sale.
Just as I expected, B&BW pulled out the old discontinued Antibacterial Soaps for the sale at $2.50 each. I controlled myself and only bought 4…mostly because I know I’m going back and didn’t want to go far over $40, so I could use another coupon later. I snagged “Dancing Waters”, “Peach Bellini”, “Aloha Orchid” and “Berry Sangria”.
They also had discontinued shower gels and lotions for $3, so I got 2 “Black Raspberry Vanilla” Shower Gels. The shower gel is strangely more vividly purple than usual – I wonder what that means??? I also got a bath scrubby and a Strawberry lip balm – both 50% off.
This may look like a lame haul, but I also got a bunch of gifts…and I cannot exactly share those, can I?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but several scents, including “Carried Away” and “Be Enchanted” were 50% off…which is a sure indicator of impending discontinuation. My BFF was devastated when I shared the news with her…she is already making plans to order in bulk…
Extreme Bathroom Makeover
Makeup. Makeup everywhere. Makeup on the counter. Makeup in makeup bags, stacked and hanging from the towel rack.
Did I mention that this is my husband’s sink? My sink is surrounded by face wash, deodorant and hair crap.
My makeup collection had outgrown the bags and had spilled onto the counter, even after “the purge”. Even though he rarely complained about the fine layer of powders and streaks of eye shadow in his sink, I was much more vocal about the prospect of beard hairs sprinkled all over my stuff. My stuff that was technically in his area…
Last Sunday was a monster trip to Target to take advantage of an additional 5% off coupon that I had been awarded via my son’s frequent and varied prescriptions. (I guess I can thank Impetigo for my coupon?) I decided on a plain white armoire and a cadre of wire mesh baskets, drawers and bins.
The bottom shelf has two large bins. One holds foundations, BB Creams and Primers; the other has powders and blush.
The middle shelf has a compartmented basket, with lip and eye stuff in the front and all of my shadow palettes in the back.
The top shelf is my favorite. I have random stuff in the drawers, like individual eye shadows and sharpeners. The reason that it’s my favorite part is that I get to display my mother’s jar. She used to keep eyeliner and brushes in this jar and so do I. It’s a milky white glass cold cream jar – you just don’t see those anymore. The jar has ELCAYA in relief on the side and ELCAYA NEW YORK on the bottom. Google told me that Elcaya Creme was a fancy cold cream sold in the 1910s and 1920s. It was $4, which is like $50 in today’s dollars.
Every day, I think of a question that I wish I could ask my mother. Today, I wish I could ask her the story of this jar. It couldn’t have been used by her or even her mother. If I had to guess, I’d say that she picked it up at a flea market. Most weekends, we would go flea marketing, looking for furniture to refinish. I never thought about why until now. The “cynical me” says that it was because we were poor. The “whimsical me” says it was because my mother preferred things with a history. The “realistic me” says that it was because of “blue laws” and flea markets were the only place really open on Sundays back then. It’s probably a combination of the three…
It’s not fancy or anything, but it works. My husband gets his side of the sink back…kinda. I still do my makeup on his side, I just put my stuff up after I use it. Everybody wins!
Hoarding Exhibit 3: The Shower
If my AntiBac collection was exhibit 1 and my lotion basket was exhibit 2, then my shower stall is exhibit 3 in .
“Pure Paradise”. “Mad About You”. “Butterfly Flower”. “Paris in Bloom”. “Carried Away”. “Black Raspberry Vanilla”. “Carried Away”. “Into the Wild”.
Oh…and up top, Lush Pure Rose, Herbal Essences and Caress “Daily Silkening” Body Washes…and “Carried Away” Sugar Scrub.
I’ve got more issues than National Geographic.
The Purge
After painting my nails, I decided to clean out my makeup drawers…you know, to make room for more makeup.
For years – nay decades, I’ve been searching for the perfect foundation. I scooped up all the failed attempts – Revlon Colorstay, L’Oreal True Match and whatever other liquid, powder and concealer and chunked it.
All the old eyeshadow, blush and lipstick, I put in a box for Lily to play with. There were about a dozen Clinique, Lancome and whatever “Gift with Purchase” lipsticks that my mother had given me. Since she died nearly 9 years ago, I figure that I had held onto them long enough.
I found enough old razors to shave a Sasquatch – gone. I found 3 boxes of Sally Hansen mustache bleach – ha! Gone. A squeeze bottle from when I used to dye my own hair…lord knows I won’t be doing that again. I found an unused pregnancy test…I kept it, but not sure why.
As good as buying stuff feels, throwing stuff away feels even better! I’m not quite back to square one makeup wise, I kept all of the Urban Decay eye stuff, no matter how old. I’m not quite THAT strong.
I also learned something very important today. Don’t ever tag a pic #Purge on Instagram. Apparently, that’s what anorexics, bulimics and cutters use to tag their posts. I clicked on the tag and was treated to pics of bleeding forearms. WTF teenagers? What happened to getting wasted on Mad Dog and Strawberry Hill and giving yourself tattoos with India Ink?
Adventures in Gifts with Purchase
So I bought $24 worth of Ulta eye makeup I didn’t really need in order to get a “gift with purchase” that I didn’t really need. (I did, however, NEED more Zoya polish remover, plus I had a $3.50 off coupon.) That’s what it’s like to be a hoarder.
I bought an Ulta eye crayon in “Devil’s Food”, hoping it would last longer than the eye shadow I’ve been using for my smoky eye. It’s fine so far. Amy found hot pink (the package said “Primrose”, but I think it might be fuchsia) eyeliner and I nearly snatched it from her. As soon as we got back to Amy’s house, I tried the hot pink eyeliner. She said that I look like I have a raging case of pink eye. (No, I did not take a picture.) The good news is that now I can dress up like Bob Costas for Halloween. I also got a new eyebrow pencil, but it’s not any better than the Cover Girl pencil I’ve been using, which is $5 cheaper.
Instead of eye makeup, I wanted to try Ulta powder foundation, but they only have like 3 colors. I spent 20 minutes smearing it on my inner arm and nothing matched, so fiddlesticks.
The “gift with purchase” had a little of everything – eye shadow, mascara, eye liner, lipstick, blush, brushes, nail polish…and primer. What’s the deal with primer? Everyone is out with a primer these days…
Inside a Hoarder’s Purse
So I switched purses the other day…I didn’t quite realize the extent of the lipgloss hoarding situation that was going on inside of my purse…they were all stashed in a zipper pocket on the front of my old purse, but my new purse didn’t have the same pocket…what do I do?
WHAT DO I DO?
Surprisingly, I couldn’t find a makeup bag at home that would work – they were all either too big or too small. (My mom was addicted to Clinique and Estee Lauder “Gift with Purchase” – but she would end up giving half of the shit to my sister and I.) Then I remembered a mini Estee Lauder bag that I had stashed at work. I had been using it as an emergency vaginal care kit, but hey – what’s more important? Lipgloss or panty liners?
I was planning on listing the names of all the lipglosses in my purse, but the names wore off long ago. Boo. Most are Liplicious from Bath & Body Works, so just use your imagination and think of a name yourself.