One-by-one Stash Sorting

Oh my gosh, Holly!! What happened to your stash!? Were you robbed!? :o

No no, guys, it's okay. It's all still right here, see?

Recently I've been dealing with some stress, and coupled with the extra humidity around my parts lately, I've been having a real difficult time with polish. I put on three different manis in a row, one after the other, for three days, hating ALL of them.

"WHAT DO I EVEN LIKE ANYMORE~!?" I found myself asking. "I really thought I liked this one.." I said about polishes I've had for years.

Finally, in almost an act of desperation, I scooped everything off my shelves and put them into purgatory-land box. They're not going away yet, until I try them on, one by one, and decide how much I enjoy them and put them back on the shelves. So far I have a handful that I've worn very recently and specifically remember thoroughly enjoying. So eventually I'll get through all of them and be left with only my favorites. For sure this time! <3

(Temporarily) Smaller Stash Pics

I've been feeling the urge to purge recently. I've also been through a depressive episode, so I didn't want to make any lasting changes until it passes completely and I know I'm 100% in charge of my decisions. But.. I really, REALLY wanted to get my stash down.. So, time for a temporary solution!

Step 1: Get a box.
Step 2: Pull ALL your polishes onto the floor and put them in a big pile. (Okay, not PILE, per say, 'cause I hate when polishes aren't right-side-up, but put everything in one big group.)
Step 3: Pick a handful of your very favorite polishes and put them to one side.
Step 4: Pick a couple of polishes that have been frustrating you lately, or are not-as-great sisters, and put then to the other side.
Step 5: Continue through the rest of the stash!

Here's what I wound up with:
62 polishes + 13 untrieds into the box
35 Indies + 41 commercial + 7 untrieds back on the shelf

That's a stash of less than 100! Eeek, I'm so excited!

The box will go at the bottom of my closet, and I'll check back in after a couple of months. I'm sure that some of them will come back when I start to miss them, but maybe a majority of them will end up permanently purged! We'll have to see!

Here's how my stash looks now. That's commercial on the left (with minis on the bottom shelf), indies on the right, and untrieds on the top shelf of the indies shelf.

New Year's Resolution Organization

Remember how my New Year's Resolution this year is to use up some minis and play with my frankens more? Well, check out what I did to help me with that:

The other side of the closet still has all my indies and nicer polishes on it, but this side, I cleaned out the shelf and put all of those drugstore polishes off to the side, covering them up (yes, with a tissue) so that I couldn't see or think about them.

These are the only polishes I'm gonna allow myself to use for a while. It's like I'm pretending to have a tiny stash! :D

Bottom shelf is all the minis.

Next up are frankens.

Third shelf are full sized bottles I have back ups of, so I can still use those, too.

Fourth shelf are untrieds, which I can use once and then add to the rest of the stash.

And fifth shelf, of course, are treatments, oils, base, and top coats.

I'm excited! :3

New Polish Rack

I love the polish rack I was given for my birthday, but it was already too small for my stash when I got it. I considered purging until it fit, but then I hauled a lot instead. So I decided to just buy a second one.

If you don't have one of these guys yet, seriously consider it. It's cheap on Amazon, it looks great, and setup is effortless. Just place the four screws in the holes and hand-tighten the nuts--took me literally less than three minutes.

What took a lot longer was the reorganizing, which I tried for an hour before I got it the way I wanted it. Here are the final results:

Rack 1: Higher ends and favorites. Indies on the bottom three rows. Then OPI, BL, and Illamasqua. Next is Revlons, SH CSM, and Zoya. Top row is WnW Megalast, China Glaze, Urban Outfitters, and Orly.

To the side are untrieds along with removers, files, cuticle oils, and other miscellaneous nail stuff.

Rack 2: Lower end drugstore polishes, etc. Bottom row are frankens, Color Workshop, and Sally Girl. Next is LA Girl and LA Color, Confetti, and Essence. Then some L'Oreal, Cover Girl, KleanColor, and WnW Fastdry. Then SH DS, NYC, and NOPI. Second to last row is all SC, and top row is SH S&P and Essie. (Yeah, I'm not as fond of Essie as other girls are.)

To the side are top coats, base coats, matte TCs, and treatments.

Very pleased to have everything in its place finally!

Polish Rack

I'm pleased to present my new nail polish rack!

It was a birthday gift from my aunt. <3 This is the one here, $23 on Amazon. It's pretty sturdy and easy to put together without any tools. There were screws, but they just slid into the holes, and the nut screws in on the other side. You can do it with your fingers.

As you can see, my pretties fit in very nicely, just not quite all of them. I was able to fit about 65 in (the little space in the front is a reserved parking spot for a lovely I have coming in the mail), but I have somewhere between 80 or 90 polishes, plus the top and base coats I lined up along the side.

So I'm trying to decide if I want to purge or just get another rack.

I'll probably do a little of both, actually. If I had another rack, I could spread things out and make it a little neater, putting brands and collections together but separated from each other. I have another shelf beside this one where I could put it if I do a little reorganizing. I just hope having another rack with extra space doesn't encourage me to buy more. I'll just have to spread everything out neatly.