save 18 hours a year by optimising makeup storage
Problem: Rummaging around for makeup every morning
Every morning, I wasted at least 3 minutes rummaging through a giant box of makeup items trying to find what I needed, in the order I needed it.
Requirements:
- Fit: All my products should fit easily.
- Speed: Makeup should be in the order I need to use them, and I shouldn't need to move one product to get to another.
- Cleaning: The container should not get dirty easily, and be easy to clean.
- Price: It should be relatively cheap!
Attempt 1: the vanity case
| Requirement | Rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fit | ✔ | Big enough to fit everything in one of the many compartments. |
| Speed | ✘ | I had to shove stuff in arbitrary locations depending on where it would fit, so still had to rummage all over the place to find the right item. |
| Cleaning | ✘ | It's lined with fabric, so brushes and leaky makeup stained the inside and made it really gungy. |
| Price | ✔ | £12.50, not bad value for a proper metal case. |
Attempt 2: the drawer organiser
| Requirement | Rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fit | ✔ | Fit everything in, with a tall section at the back - and bonus earring storage! (Which unfortunately didn't fit my dangly ones) |
| Speed | ✘ | Still fumbling around for the products each morning, as some were stuck under others. |
| Cleaning | ✘ | It looks easily wipe-clean, but the plastic still got powdery and grimy where it was in contact with brush heads. Lots of small hard-to-reach corners, and couldn't be dismantled for washing. |
| Price | ✘ | At £36 this was pricey. In hindsight I got punked, the same product is about £10 on AliExpress / Temu. |
We clearly had to move away from boxes, where product get jumbled and stuck under each other, and towards a line-up of products.
---Attempt 3: the line-up
Literally just lining the products up in order
| Requirement | Rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fit | ✘ | I'm lucky enough to have a counter that fit all the products in a line. However, I'm clumsy and kept knocking them over. |
| Speed | ✔ | Having the products in chronological-use order made it much easier and faster to get ready in the morning. |
| Cleaning | ✔ | Just one surface to wipe down. |
| Price | ✔ | Free! |
👑 The winner: the component bin
We were close with the line-up, but needed something to stop the products falling over. I tried to find one of those floppy-disk holders with dividers from way back, but they're apparently a super expensive vintage item on eBay now!
Tried and failed to find a bigger one of these endangered species
There were makeup holders that fit in drawers with removable adjustable dividers, but lots of my products were tall, and I don't have a bathroom drawer! After a lot of research, the answer was component bins. These are mainly used in warehouses for picking/packing small items, or storing small electrical thingamajigs.
The ~£10 component tray from Plastor
| Requirement | Rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fit | ✔ | Found a component box large enough to fit my daily products, with enough dividers for each step in the routine. |
| Speed | ✔ | Products neatly arranged in order of use - and easy to put them back where they belong without knocking everything over. |
| Cleaning | ✔ | Removable dividers and dishwasherable. Brushes stand up vertically so don't get mess everywhere! |
| Price | ✔ | ~£10, and made of very thick plastic. |
The most efficient result so far!