For The Product Junkies: How To Downsize Your Product Stash

Happy Friday everyone!

This post is dedicated to product junkies in recovery or attempting to do away with their lavish product lifestyle *wink*. I'm talking mission elimination. If you realised that you have too many products, or simply want to trim down and keep a standard few, keep reading to discover how you can do it without feeling like you just lost a part of you (lol)!

1. Function

The best question to ask is: Does the product work well, a.k.a does my hair love it? If not; toss, giveaway or sell it . If you can't decide whether or not your hair likes it, better to let it go. The aim of this exercise is to retain products that your hair absolutely loves. There is no use in keeping things that just barely work, or need a lot of "fixing" in order to be the bomb.

Might I suggest that this is a great opportunity to retain 2-in-1 products* such as bentonite or rhassoul clay (cleanser and conditioner),  oils which will work as sealants, scalp oils and preshampoo treatments, and conditioners which manufacturers say can be used as both treatments and leave-ins. Multifunctional  products will reduce your stash and save your cash.

2. Quantity

 When downsizing you want to limit your products to one in each category;

1 Sulfate free shampoo

1 Clarifying shampoo

1 Balanced conditioner

1 Moisturising conditioner

1 Protein conditioner

1 Leave-in conditioner/moisturiser

1 oil

1 heat protectant

1 setting lotion

3. Maintaining the current stash

Reducing your products is the easy part, the hard part comes in maintaining your now reduced stock. Implement a buy-to-replace policy. Only buy a new one when you are out of the existing type. E.g if I want a new sulfate free shampoo, I make sure I have finished the old one, or there is literally 2 or 3 cm left in the bottle.

Bonus tip. If you really, really want a new product ( and I mean REALLY), opt for the sample size as a tester. They are usually free or available at minimal cost. This has the effect of reducing the craving for a new product purchase whilst having little impact on the size of your stash. But just so you don't get out of hand with your product purchasing, set a limit. For example one sample size product every two or three months. And stick to it!

You will find that not only will you have reduced your stock, you will reduce on the amount of money you spend on products.

If all else fails and you can't let go, invite  hair friends over - they'll steal all your products from you, then you can go about point nr 2, and buy one of each category. You're welcome!

*except two in one shampoo and conditioner. This is really bad for your hair actually. I sense a demystifying post coming up

How do you go about downsizing your product stash?