The Creativity Project: the Use it Up Year Update
How am I doing on using up what I have without buying more?
I’m not going to lie, I have FOMO when it comes to my crafting supplies. I love to pick up new items because I will totally use this thing this time. Unlike the last thing I bought and didn’t use.
At the beginning of the year, I set out to challenge myself to use up what I have. I set this up as partially a no buy, but I didn’t want to restrict myself completely. So I’m allowed to buy new things so long as I use up what I already have.
Seeing as the year is half over, I figured I would check in on how that is going.
One: fill up 12 notebooks. I’m happy to say that I have used up 6 notebooks and am really close to finishing two more.
That being said, I have purchased a notebook and a Happy Planner even though I have my bullet journal and haven’t used up my commonplace notebook. The Happy Planner is a similar layout to what I drew in my bullet journal without the hassle of having to draw the pages myself. I’ve been not using my bullet journal because of this. The notebook is to replace my commonplace notebook when I fill it up as I am in the last fifth of the notebook.
Two: Use up half my stickers and washi tape. Not even half done. I’ve used up a few rolls of washi tape and a couple sheets of stickers, but I’ve still got miles to go on thinning down the collection.
I did also buy a few stickers from a local artist at an event earlier in the year before I used up a sheet of stickers. So I’ve failed this one. But I’m still hopeful that I can use up some of my collection to make some space.
Three: use up all the little bottles of lotion and chap stick that I have laying around. I have very specific tastes in chap stick and lotion, but I have been gifted both from friends, family, and some of my old students. Obviously, I don’t want to throw them away. I have been slowly using up all the little bottles of lotion and I only have a couple more sticks of chap stick before I’m out.
One of the positives to this is I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, I prefer my original Classic Strawberry chap stick to any other.
Four: reorganize all of my craft storage. We did end up moving craft storage to another room and I pulled out a lot of the notebook boxes out so I have a better handle on what I have so I can utilize it better.
One of the biggest places I have used up items is in my pen collection. I am super picky about my writing implements, so when I find something I love, I buy the hell out of it. I’ve corralled my pen collection and have been ripping through my Pilot G2 pens (and ink cartridges) like they are going out of style. In this half of the year, I only bought one pen to test out, as opposed to the ten or so pens I’ve used up.
I’m not going to lie, I really thought this challenge was going to be harder, especially because I love browsing craft stores and online for cool new items. But using up what I already own has been fun in its own way. The challenge might get harder when I start getting low on supplies or when the stores put out their back to school supplies, but I guess we’ll see.
I know that by the end of the year, I will be going through what I still have and donating some of what I didn’t use (like the grand majority of my composition notebooks because I rarely use them).
How have you been dealing with your excess supplies? Are you doing a No Buy challenge or are you one of the people who finds joy in being surrounded by all of the pretty things? Let me know!
