Cosmetic Confessions: Organizing My Makeup Palettes - When My Compulsions Collide

Okay, guys ... where to begin. I like things organized, but I'm not the type that can't handle a little mess here or there. Having 2 sons and a husband, it's kind of just the way it is. What I can't handle is my makeup not being well organized (specifically in PALETTES) in such a way that makes sense to me. I will literally pre-plan, organize, reorganize and still agonize over organizing my makeup in palettes.

As you can see, here we have the compulsion to organize creeping up. But then on top of that, I have this strange quirk where I won't actually de-pot or put individual pans in a palette until I'm 100% about how I want things to be. I have a LOT of stuff to organize so it's not a matter of putting things in 1 palette, it's organizing things across a stack of palettes. I get overloaded with questions like:

• Should I organize by warm vs cool?
• Should I organize by color?
• Should I organize by undertone and color?
• Should I organize by finish?
• Should I organize by most often used together (smoky eye palette, neutral eye palette, etc.)?

See how exhausting and complicated this process becomes for me? Once these questions start bubbling, I get stalled in my process of organizing. On the one hand I want things organized, on the other hand I won't actually organize them until I'm sure about how I want them all organized.

This is horrific, but I admit that I have drawers of individual pans and stuff that needs to be depotted just WAITING to be organized. So bad.

I've admitted my problem--the first step! Now I've officially decided I am going to force myself to start chipping away at the things that need to be put in palettes. I have committed to myself--and now to you--to begin working on these ridiculous compulsions and get stuff done!

Here's my 3-step program for myself to address how I'm going to get myself on the road to palette organization recovery ;)

Step 1: Choose 1 palette to fill to start

I'm going to start small and work my way up! I'll start working on 1 eyeshadow palette just to get myself moving in the right direction.

Step 2: Not stress 

As annoying as it is that some palettes are more difficult to switch around for me without damaging products (MAC palettes I'm looking at you!), I'm going to stress less about getting it right the first time!

Step 3: Not continue to allow things to stack up in my drawers

From now on I'm going to try to stop purchasing new products that need to be put in palettes unless I already know what palette(s) I want them to go in. And if I do purchase something because it's too fabulous not to and I don't have a plan for it already, I'm going to put it in a temporary palette instead of keeping it in "the vault to be organized" so I'm forced to do it sooner. 

I think this is a first good move for me! 

What about you? Do you struggle with organizing your makeup? Do you struggle with not organizing your makeup and wish you'd get it all organized and neat?

I want to hear your makeup organizing woes!