Okay, so I love stuff.  Clothes.  Beauty products.  Oh, and bags…LOVE some bags.  And stuff for the house.  Even cleaning supplies.  After we got the floors done I bought a Swiffer vac – I am telling you people, IT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE!  Even James and Kev are addicted to it.  Yesterday James ran it twice.  There is something about keeping that floor perfect that makes us all happy.  All it takes is a few minutes with the swiffer vac followed by a few minutes with the wet jet, and we are in swiffer-heaven.

I used to be a shopping fool.  I will admit it.  I was always wanting something new…buying bullshit that I thought would magically make my life better by making me or my house look better and therefore increase my own worth as a person.  The last few months I have gradually turned into this weird, practical person.  I actually decide if I should buy something based on whether or not I will actually use it…if I will get my money’s worth out of it.  Whaaa?

Yesterday I went up to scrub our bathroom while I listened to the Colts game.  I will say that I do enjoy football season to an extent, but not to the extent that I can just sit and do nothing but watch football.  I want them to win and take a sincere interest, but I would never plan my entire Sunday around the game. 

Anyway, as I was cleaning I decided to really clean.  I threw out tons of haircare products that I have had for years and never used.  Moisturizers that were dried out and free samples of crap that I picked up just because it was free and never opened it.  A broken contact lens case that looked like a lady bug.  Make-up went in the trash so fast it would have made Dolly Parton swoon.  Something has switched over in me, and I had to get rid of the stuff.

It’s so strange.  I used to keep tons of make-up bags and train cases and ziploc baggies filled with random make-up and face crap all over the place.  I used to have 5 different kinds of body wash in the shower caddy.  I used to have 12 different kinds of hair care stuff under the sink.  I have found that I always go back to the same stuff, and the new stuff I bought because it smelled good or was on sale or had prettier packaging gets wasted…suddenly I just stopped buying all of the other crap.  So after some major organizing yesterday, here is what remains in my bathroom that I cannot live without:

*Neutrogena classic face bar (the orange one that cost like $2 that I haved used since high school)

*Swiss Ives Apricot Scrub (I have also used since high school and is also super-cheap)

*Oil of Olay moisturizing body butter ribbons body wash (it’s like lotion and the fantastic smell stays on your skin all day – I LOVE IT!) 

* Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum ( I am almost done with my second economy bottle – this shit is like a miracle if you ever straighten your hair)

* Chapstick (really, why do I bother trying new stuff?)

* Jergens Natural Glow (Whoever thought to mix self tanner with lotion, I love you!)

Of course there is more left in my bathroom than just those items.  Essentials of a non-habit forming nature.  I just thought it would be fun to list my favs.  It feels good to be slowly decluttering my life.  I have a primitive looking wooden sign atop the tv downstairs that reads “simplify.”  I am trying to live up to the mantra.