2020 Low-Buy and Empty Project

Hey, all!

I can’t believe it’s that time of the year again! Another year, another goals! Well, actually, I believe to start something good we don’t have to wait for a new year, we can just start whenever we want to. But, it’s true that it’s easier to start doing something in a time where we can easily monitor or evaluate our progress, and new year it is!

Firstly, I want to start this post with a reflection of what I’ve done last year. Last year, I decided to do a low-buy 2019. This low-buy was applied to not only beauty products, but also clothing, home decor, amenities, etc. My rules were simply I was only allowed to buy replacements and I can only buy new stuffs on June and December with the total $100 budget each of those two months for all the things I want to buy, with some exceptions. The exceptions were another $100 budget for beauty products and a Fossil bag that I really wanted (regardless of its price) that I asked my mom to buy for me on her trip to Europe. My mom did buy me the bag (yeay!) but she didn’t have time to buy me the European beauty products, so I transferred the budget to my purchase schedule. So, did I manage to fulfill my 2019 goals?

I bought some new stuffs on May with the total of around $200, and bought some more new stuffs on November during Black Friday sales and on December during the year-end sales with the total of around $170. So, I can safely say that I managed to hold out my desire to buy new things for most of the months I wasn’t allowed to. On my first purchase of the year, I managed to limit myself with the pre-determined budget, but on my second purchase, I admit that I just want let myself free. It was so torturing to hold out by the end of the year so just I gave up. I didn’t buy any new home decor, but I received some as gifts from my family and friends. I also didn’t take any note of clothing that I purchased this year, so I failed in this matter 😦

So then I reflected, what made it was so difficult to hold out? After evaluating myself, I realized that it was difficult because I didn’t make any goals related to what I have and I didn’t try my best to use them. Therefore, this year, I add my focus. I want to not only hold out my purchase, but also to really use what I already have in my collection. Hence, this year I will do not only a low-buy like last year, but also an ’empty’ project!

2020 Low-Buy Rules

This year’s rules are going to be:

• The rules are only applied to beauty products
• Replacements-only purchase from January to October
• Purchases of new stuffs are only allowed on November and December with maximum budget of $150
• Exception: makeup brush, Colourpop Flutter By palette, one beauty box subscription. I’ve been meaning to buy a new makeup brush set because currently I have only one brush for each brush category. So after I wash and dry them, I always use them immediately. Therefore, all of them are so worn off right now. I need to buy a new set so I can use them alternately. As for Flutter By palette, I wanted to pick it up with my last CP order, but it’s sold out at that time. I might pick it up the next time it’s restocked (and on sale 😁). And lastly, there is one beauty box subscription I’ve always wanted to try since last year, and I think this year I’ll try to cave in. I’ll only subscribe for one month, tho, because I just want to test the water.

That’s it! I actually wanted to restrict some items I’m allowed to buy, but this year I want to focus more on the Empty Project, which I will elaborate more on the next section. So I just want to go easy with myself this year. I don’t want to make goals that I can’t fulfill and torture me, because then I will not enjoy doing them!

So without further a do, let’s move on to the more exciting part (at least for me), which is the Empty Project details!

2020 Empty Project Details

To get the whole idea of what I actually have in my collection, I started this project by inventorying all of my makeup collection. And the result shocked me >.< I indeed have much more that I actually need. Especially, I’m not an MUA, I’m just a regular girl who enjoy playing with makeup. I wrote all of my makeup collection like this:

In total, I have approximately 179 makeup items, and those are only makeup. I haven’t listed my skincare collection, but, I don’t have that many skincare collection to begin with. I maybe only have one or two items per category of skincare. So far, I don’t have hard time using up my skincare products because I’m using them regularly. Therefore, I don’t plan to inventorying my skincare collection because I’m pretty sure I’ll finish them anyway.

Among these 179 items, I chose 20 items that I really want to finish by the end of this year. I call this list as ’20 Empties in 2020′. And here are those items:

Those items I chose because I have them for too long now and I actually so close in finishing them but I keep forgetting them because I recently found new items I like more. As I said before, this year I want to start easy because it’s the first time I’ll do an Empty Project and I don’t know my endurance in finishing makeup items yet.

As you can see from my inventory above, I’ll also take note of the usage of each products. So my goals this year would be:

• Use up all products in ’20 Empties in 2020′ list
• Use all products in ’20 Empties in 2020′ list for at least three times a month
• Use all lip products in ’20 Empties in 2020′ at least once a day
• Use ALL products in my collection at least once this year
• By the end of this year, products in ’20 in 2020′ list that are not finished will be de-cluttered because I have them for too long at this point, and there’s no point in holding them up any longer

That’s all! So simple, right? I don’t have any plan to pan any eye shadow pan yet because for now, I want to see how I’m doing all the goals above. If, for let’s say six months, I do better than I expected, it’s possible to add more goals down the line!

So that is it for my 2020 Low Buy and Empty Project rules! How about you, guys? Are you doing similar project this year? If you write about it on your blog, too, kindly link it below! I’d love to see other people’s project as it gives more inspiration to me and we can also cheer on each other along the way!

Until next time!