It’s Time to KonMari Your Makeup Bag: The Life-Changing Magic of a 5-Product Regimen

“Keep things because you love them—not ‘just because.’” There lies the simple guiding philosophy of Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing consultant whose book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, has sold millions of copies around the world and made Kondo an unlikely household name. Her art of decluttering is designed to transform your entire house, paying special attention to your closet, but the basic principles are easily applied to another thankless task: cleaning out and organizing your makeup bag, which so often grows packed with stale mascara and caked with powder by winter’s end. Here, four ways to apply the KonMari method to your dopp kit—and bathroom cabinet, if you’re feeling ambitious—plus five staple products to start off the season fresh.

Spring-clean in one fell swoop.
“Tidy a little a day, and you’ll be tidying forever,” Kondo intones ominously in her book. Instead, your task should be done ikki ni—“in one go”—and by pushing through the Herculean task, the dramatic transformation will inspire a spiritual change in you (i.e., no more hoarding lipsticks).

Sort by category.
Kondo’s komono, or miscellany, category includes skin care and makeup, and each should be examined fully, one at a time. KonMari experts will subdivide even further, taking all their cleansers, then toners, then serums, et cetera, going through each distinct product type, instead of by location: makeup bag, then moving on to the medicine cabinet, then vanity, and so on.

Discard, discard, discard.
The central focus of the KonMari method is to throw things away “all at once, intensely and completely,” until you’re left only with those things that “spark joy.” Don’t get hung up on inane splurges, like that $100 perfume you never wore: After thanking each object for playing its part (even if that part was just a brief shopper’s rush), get rid of it, so that you might replace it with something you do love and actually use.

Say no to samples.
Do you hoard sample shampoos and cleansers to take when you travel but, instead, have tiny piles of products shoved under the sink? “To use possibly outdated cosmetics, especially when you are supposed to be enjoying your travels, seems rather foolhardy,” Kondo writes. Indeed—why bother?

 

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