How To Throw Everything Away

A great Sunday evening activity

Jun 25, 2023

Last weekend I threw out two unfortunately large garbage bags of expired beauty products. My boyfriend worried the weight of them would break some component of the trash shoot, so instead they were placed next to the trash shoot very gingerly for safety. The whole process filled me with such a level of existential dread that I broke open a pack of EarlyBird’s watermelon-flavored full-spectrum hemp gummies to take the edge of.

The impetus came from a reader question, as many ideas often do:

Thank you to this reader for the inspiration.

I certainly have rules, but was I following any of them? And could I credibly give advice if I knew I had a literal closet of products I swore one day I would use and that day was probably two years ago?

I gave myself an entire day to get the task done. I ordered Chinese food and downloaded The Summer I Turned Pretty as a soundtrack. And then I dug in.

A disclaimer before I go any further. As a former editor, I still receive my fair share of gifting — for which I feel very grateful — which means I am likely dealing with more product on my hands than your average beauty civilian. I try my absolute level best not to throw out product that I don’t like or doesn’t work for me. Friends and neighbors get the pick of the litter I don’t want or need. (Opening a product and testing it makes donation hard unfortunately.) But I am only human and do have a tendency to hang on to more than is necessary. It’s easy to become a maximalist with all this access, but when it comes down to it (say it with me), you probably don’t need that. Simplicity can feel boring, or it can feel like perfection. It all depends on your perspective.

There are plenty of SEO-optimized stories on the internet about when to throw out old beauty products. But I think a more personal perspective might be helpful if you, like me, find it incredibly taxing to determine what really, absolutely, positively should probably go.

First thing’s first:

What does the label actually say?

I keep a lot of my unused product in the boxes they came in so that I have the full product literature should I ever need it. The ingredients are useful, but more importantly, SOME boxes will be stamped with actual expiration dates. We love this. It makes cleaning out very black and white. If the brand is spending the time to stamp an expiration date (which is not required unless it’s an OTC product with drug facts), then there’s a reason. Most likely, the actives have lived out their useful lives and the product is no longer of any use. This is paramount with things like SPF, vitamin C, and acne-fighting ingredients like retinol and benzoyl peroxide. Past due they might not hurt you, but they certainly won’t help either.

Then you’ve got the number of months a product can be open. You’ll notice a jar icon with a number inside it. That’s how many months you’ve got until your air exposure warranty runs out. In addition to active ingredients losing their potency, this is when you have think about how strong a product’s preservative system is.

This brings me to the one rule I’m particularly strict about:

Anything past-due in the “all-natural” genre has to go

I don’t know the bounds of the “clean” definition anymore, but if the products are boasting an all-natural ingredient list or “nothing artificial”, you could be dealing with a weaker preservation system. Best not to risk using it if it’s been around for a few years. Time to say goodbye.

(I’m less strict about products that are completely anhydrous, like face oils that come in dark glass bottles and never see the light of day — those can actually keep for a good long while, but do as your heart tells you to do.)

Learn what can go the distance and what can’t

Piggybacking on the above, certain products just have a short shelf life (like vitamin c in a dropper bottle). Buy/use/chuck accordingly. Others, at least in my book, get a bit of a pass. Moisturizers that are just…moisturizers? I keep ‘em around. If they pass the smell test (and a patch test if I’m feeling responsible), they can stay for a little longer than their date may say. PARTICULARLY if it comes in airtight packaging.

Jars are longevity’s worst nightmare. Anything that isn’t airtight and that you constantly dip your fingers into gets a side eye. If you’re going through it quickly — I use the same moisturizer every day — your time from start to finish will probably outpace the preservation system. That’s good!

For whatever reason, makeup and haircare almost never go in the bin. I’ve got lipsticks from 2014 that I won’t part with. I also don’t use them that much, so your mileage may vary here. I did open a cream blush/highlighter duo the other day that clearly just didn’t work anymore, so check for consistency issues before you mess up a perfectly good beat. But these products definitely linger in my cabinet. Maybe don’t follow my lead here.

For anything you’re wavering on, I like to ask:

Are you actively afraid to use this product?

This sounds more obvious than it is — but it works. I’ve got conventional (not 100% natural) products that look fine, smell fine, and I have fond memories of. But they’ve been sitting for a bit and my skin has changed and how long ago did the pandemic start and and and…? Now I’m afraid to use them.

The fear is multifaceted: I’m afraid of breaking out, obviously. But on the other side of that coin, I’m afraid of ditching the one miracle product that could have solved all my skin problems in one go. The likelihood of that is slim (or non-existent), but its emotional hold is strong. So I say: Use the fear to guide you and then get rid of it — the product AND the fear. If you needed the product, you would have used it. There’s a reason it’s sitting there and that reason is you’ve moved on. That fear is not worth the brain space its hogging. Reclaim the space for yourself. Plus, you never know when you’ll need the space for something new ;)

Curious to hear how and when you decide to toss your products. And how you keep them organized! Get at me in the comments, please.