To use or to chuck insane accumulation of toiletries?

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I am not a hoarder. Except seemingly I am an accidental one when it comes to toiletries

I am having a declutter and have found that I possess:

7 bottles of various shampoos in varying states of emptiness
6 x conditioners as above
7x bottles of retinol lotions and potions, mostly unopened
5x unused bars of fancy soap
4x hand creams
A whopping 17 x bottles and tubes of various hair serums, gels, creams and mousses.

In addition, loads of random things like pillow spray, bath essence, body milk and essential oils that I have no idea what to do with.

Most of these are gifts, or bought in desperation when I was having a bad hair/skin day.

There’s hundreds of pounds worth of stuff here!

Should I:
A) Keep it and work my way through it over the next 6 months, as not doing so would be wasteful. (YABU)

B) Bin / donate everything unwanted and free up two whole drawers at the bottom of my wardrobe. (YANBU)

Before anyone suggests it I am not going to re-gift anything as I pride myself on giving thoughtful gifts!

I've done the same just this week, consolidated liquid soaps and body lotions etc to make room in the bathroom cupboard. I'm trying to get through all the liquid soaps so I can move on to using the bar soaps I've accumulated. If I really didn't like a shampoo I've also used them as toilet cleaner rather than throwing them out.

I would work my way through it. I have lots of moisturiser as I buy it on offer and forget how much I have already!

I have a family member who for years has stockpiled shower gel, hand soap and body cream all decent brands bought from qvc as she can’t refuse the deal of the day offers. She passes it on to be in bulk for Christmas and birthday presents so I now have enough to probably last 2 years and I have convinced said family member not to buy more due to the amount I have stock piled which should last several years and even longer for the bar soaps. It won’t go off so sits in baskets on the top shelves in the waldrobe, fills the shelves in the bathroom cupboard and I even have some in a box under the stairs. In the long run using the stock pile will save me money plus the brands are more expensive than I would ever buy for myself so when I am having to reduce my shopping bill by down branding and buying basics it is nice to still be able to pull a nice L'Occitane bar of soap out of the stash for a bit of a treat.

So many good ideas, have just consolidated my shampoos into 3 bottles - brilliant!!

I have so many unused retinols because I have a habit of complaining about my wrinkles and so my sister and friends keep buying them for me! And I am too nervous to use them because I heard that they actually increase skin damage with them if you don’t use spf, which I don’t because it makes me break out (I have 4 bottles of spf too!!)

I would just work my way through them and not spend anything on toiletries until I had used up all that type. (I'm currently working my way through about a dozen hand creams I've bought / been gifted.)

I'm gifted a lot which make me itch so off to women's aid I go

You could have a look here for organisations near you that take donations: www.toiletriesamnesty.org/

Hygiene poverty isn't just plain soap and shampoo and toothbrushes, and all kinds of other things are welcome too

Also second putting it on Olio, you’ll get rid of most of it!

Use the retinol (it is wondrous stuff). Start with the one with the lowest concentration and work your way up to the highest (avoids the whole 'shedding like a snake' situation).

Use or post on Olio app.
Some people don't want to spend for a whole bottle of something it turns out they don't like so by picking up they get a 'tester'.
Don't chuck anything it's wasteful 😊.

Oops someone's posted about OLIO....my bad.

Oops someone's posted about OLIO....my bad.

I get a real sense of satisfaction using something up. Love getting to the end of a product!

Refuges, Women's Aid centres, food banks, refugee centres would take them I'm sure

Only 5 bars of soap? Pfft. Amateur.
Soap is better for seasoning, ie leaving to harden off, they last longer and don’t go soggy. Stick em in your knicker drawer like your granny did.

I was in a similar position recently. I decided not to buy any more until I'd used it all up. Saved me a fortune.

Unless they're the same, don't mix them! I've tried it a couple of times. First time the shampoos seemed to react with each other and went awful, second time I had the itchiest scalp I've ever had. And that was with mixing the same brands!

A), obviously. Stops you being so wasteful and saves money. I do this every so often, after ‘beauty’ binges, and it’s more satisfying than the buying them was in the first place.

I use the consolidation approach too.

If I’ve got dribs and drabs of anything vaguely moisturising and I include serums, eye creams etc I consolidate it all into one tub. I use an empty Body Shop body yoghurt tub, mix it all up with a spoon and use it as body lotion. I’d be tempted to put the retinols in there too and just use it on my body.

Mine is in a pump action tresemme shampoo and conditioner.

Body lotion is in an old Baylis and Harding and god only knows what is actually in the hand lotion pump by the sink.

If it smells ok why on earth would you Chuck it out?

I put unwanted bubble bath and shampoo in the hand soap dispenser. It's all the same really.

I use conditioners I don't like on my hair before I wash it as a mask.

I've taken hand creams ( I have so many due to my previous beauty box addiction) into work for the women's toilet - they get used up really quickly that way and others have started to do the same. I do the same with unwanted room sprays.

I have the same problem, I've started using old half used bottles of shampoo, bubble bath etc to wash recycling, sinks, floors not what they're intended for but everything smells nice

My local boots has a hygiene toiletries donation bank so drop them off there instead of throwing out.

Could you actually get thru ALL of that in 6 months? Would take me many years. #SoapDodger

I can relate. I have over 50 bottles of shampoo and conditioner, 30 tubes of hand cream, 25 different deodorants, 10 face serums etc (mostly unopened). it all takes up a floor to ceiling wall unit, a 7 foot cupboard and a large bathroom cupboard. And this is after halving my collection over the last year. Come the apocalypse I will be able to keep the whole neighbourhood going!