Decluttering Shopping

Those boxes can give back.

In fact, I think my cats love them as much as I do.

It’s time to clear out our makeup bags and declutter our cosmetics drawers—as a summer challenge, I dare you to pare down your morning routine to ten products or less. For au natural beauties out there, this is easy, but for product junkies, it may be difficult to part with all the options. Either way, less products will mean less time spent getting ready, a lighter bag, and a cleaner cabinet.

I like to think I’m a pretty savvy Amazon shopper. I regularly surf for Lightning Deals and take full advantage of Subscribe & Save and no-rush shipping discounts. So I’m a little shocked I didn’t know about this well-kept secret sooner. Have you heard about Amazon Trade-In? Amazon’s Trade-In program lets you turn in used items in exchange for Amazon gift cards and discounts.

When I saw Elise Blaha Cripe post about a no-shopping year on her Instagram stories, I was intrigued. She linked to this New York Times article by Ann Patchett, who had in turn been inspired to pledge not to shop for a year by a friend of hers. I felt like I was following a chain-linked sisterhood of women who had extricated themselves from the hamster wheel of shopping and I wanted in on it. My interest became a decision: I’m not going to shop for clothes for a year, either.