The sense of satisfaction that settles in after a thorough round of cleaning and organising is unparalleled, especially if it is something that you have been putting off for a while now. Usually it’s the most used spaces, nooks and corners in your house that tend to get messy and stay messy, when every morning’s resolution to fix it that evening is followed by another day of procrastination. If this sounds like your makeup collection, we have a few good ideas for storing makeup that will give your precious products the worthy storage and display it deserves.
As a space that is part of your morning ritual and process of feeling good about yourselves, ensuring that your makeup is well-organised and stored can add to a good start to the day. Making some time to organise and store your makeup also means an opportunity to refresh your collection. This is why the first step should be to declutter which is the mantra that professional organiser and founder of Declutter Dollies, Dilly Carter swears by.
On her Instagram, she recommends mindful shopping as a precursor to decluttering and effective organisation. "Call me Scrooge, but my job is to slow your spending on useless things that will fill your home and drawers and go out of date before you even use them, or finally end up in a charity bag or the bin!" she adds. Decluttering is also the primary principle of achieving Feng Shui to rejuvenate spaces. This means letting go of expired products, free samples and rarely used items that a loved one might cherish instead.
Storing and organising your makeup does not have to be expensive, involve renovating your entire room or come at the cost of purchasing a zillion things from Amazon. Most of our ideas include creative uses of things you may already have lying around your house, making effective use of existing storage spaces and DIY hacks to breathe fresh life into your sacred makeup routine.
Ideas and tips for storing makeup
1. Know your spaces
Having a good idea of what kind of space you have to spare is key to effective storage. If your makeup collection occupies a tall shelf and you are low on surface area, your ideas should explore vertical solutions like stacked boxes, layered shelves and stands with multiple pockets. On the other hand, if you have more flat area to spare, then you can work wonders with just a drawer accessorised with shallow boxes, dividers and partitions.
2. DIY dividers and boxes to store makeup
If you are not in the mood to purchase a whole bunch of storage boxes and shelves, you need not look further than your own kitchen or kid’s room to find everything you need. Plastic paint boxes and ice trays can be repurposed to store eye shadow jars. A carboard box stacked with upcycled tissue paper rolls or paper cups can serve as partitioned containers for brushes, liners, etc.
3. Use your walls
Free walls and doors hold immense potential as spaces to hang shelves and storage units from. Cloth based or plastic options which can be suspended from hooks can serve as an accessible and easily adjustable storage area if you want to keep changing the way your space looks. This is great for bathroom makeup storage as well as it will keep your products dry and handy.
4. Use travel kits as makeup organisers
If you own a travel bag dedicated to storing makeup on the go, it might be worth exploring the option of making the bag your daily storage unit as well. These bags come with a lot of inbuilt pouches and shelves which could be handy for small spaces. At the end of the day, the travel kits will also be worth the money as you are using them everyday.
5. Reuse tins to store makeup
Biscuit tins or any pretty container with a lid can be repurposed to divide and store products on your table. The shallow lids can act as separators for tall bottles while the deeper bottoms can store products like lipsticks and smalls creams.
6. Reuse glass jars to organise makeup
The substantial number of clear glass jars that can be collected in a household that uses Nutella, pasta sauce or candles can easily serve as a line of identical containers that can hold your long-stemmed brushes or liner pencils. All you need to do is make an effort to buy similar products to add to your collection of jars that can look prettier on your vanity if filled with pebbles, marbles or even pearls.
7. Use souvenirs and collectibles on your dressing table
If you are in the habit of collecting coffee mugs, bowls, plates or similar trinkets from your travels, then your makeup collection can serve as the perfect place to showcase your souvenirs that can also hold small essentials like lip balms, glosses and small tubs and tubes of creams.
8. Repurpose chipped cups to store makeup brushes
If you don’t have the heart to throw away your favourite mug which now sports a chipped rim, it can be the pop of colour or a statement piece on your vanity that holds small brushes or tubes. Just make sure the containers can hold the weight of the products you are putting in.
9. Hang tote bags on hooks near your vanity
Do you own an iconic cloth tote bag you got from an event which has been collecting dust in a corner of your cupboard? It could be the perfect holder for all your beauty blenders and sponges. Hang it from a hook next your vanity and you can show off the bag while also reaching for your products with ease.
10. Arrange makeup palettes like CDs
An idea to store eyeshadow palettes is to stack them like CDs or repurpose office stationery like letter holders that can keep them organised and handy.
11. Use labels to organise your makeup
If your makeup storage is more vertical, then labels are your saving grace. You can choose to store your makeup based on colour, purpose or occasion and labelling the shelves accordingly can keep your collection neat and organised.
12. Keep the everyday essentials handy
One tip to save those previous minutes in the morning while you are getting ready is to keep a separate container or shelf dedicated to the products you use everyday. This will keep them neat and accessible in one place.
13. Separate rarely used products
If you have that one bright palette or lip colour you bought to match that one dress and has since then been sitting idle, it might be time to make a separate stash for those rarely used products and dedicate a separate area for them. This will declutter your main area and also keep the special products safe.
14. Use pouches for storing makeup in small spaces
Pouches are portable, handy and compact to organise and store makeup as they can be labelled and stacked to utilise any space well. You can go with identical pouches which are also colour coded to match your room to create an aesthetic space for your makeup routine.
15. Maintenance as part of the routine
The key to sustaining your storage efforts is to incorporate maintenance as part of your routine. Returning the products to the right places, decluttering and refreshing your collection in regular intervals can help you to always glam up in a space that is equally glamourous.
Akhila Thomas is a digital writer at Yours.co.uk. With a background in literature and journalism, she loves writing about art, culture, health, wellbeing, fashion and lifestyle. She is an avid reader, and a good plot can keep her up for hours. She also likes to travel and explore new cultures and cuisines.