Back in the fall, I looked around me and started feeling…uncomfortable. Something in my life felt uneasy. It took me a while to even put my finger on it. Staring at the shelves in my bathroom, I began to slowly recognize my source of discomfort: plastic. So much plastic.
Don’t get me wrong – I love recycling (although there’s so much information about how little material is actually recycled, and there’s a multitude of reasons why), and I tend not to go crazy buying beauty products because a) I’m living that #BUDGETLIFE and b) I have eczema and chemical sensitivities that make me cautious when it comes to trying out anything new. There’s nothing quite like having to throw out $60 of brand new makeup because something made your eye swell shut and your Optometrist can’t pinpoint which of the products caused it.
But even with all that, I still found myself swimming in travel-sized hairsprays, multiple half-used bottles of lotions, and huge containers of hated hair conditioners that could last me for months at a time. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more sensitive to how my behaviors affect the planet. Looking around my bathroom (and under the sink, and in my kitchen cabinets), I felt disheartened. I may be only one person, but small changes do make a big difference.
Two factors led to me on a new journey:
- I had a doctor’s appointment. For my 32nd birthday, I decided to gift myself an appointment with a dermatologist so I could find out what my skin needed most in a daily routine. Knowing I’d be needing to get new skincare products, I wanted to make room on the bathroom shelves.
- I wanted to be more sustainable in my daily life. Working toward reducing my overall plastic consumption and switching to products in minimal or sustainable packaging felt like a worthwhile goal.
Here’s the thing: I didn’t want to just throw it all out and start over. That felt wasteful on a level that was far worse than the amount of plastic taking up space in my life. So I decided to start a “project pan”.
The term came out of the beauty community. “Panning” or “hitting pan” meant using up enough of the product that you could see the bottom of the container, eventually evolving to mean using up a makeup product entirely. Therefore, a “project pan” means using up everything in a category before buying more. It’s a way of mindfully consuming and preventing your hard-earned dollars from expiring while collecting dust in a drawer. So I gathered up all the products that I wanted to include in this effort and got to work.
Here’s what I discovered:
- Things suck a little less when you’re determined to use them up. That terrible hairspray that leaves visible residue? Meh, I’ll just wash my hair tomorrow. It felt so good to hear that faint hiss-sputter when I got to the end of the can that it didn’t matter how much I hated the product while I was using it.
- There’s a LOT more product in there than you think. I have long cut open my toothpaste to get the last little bit out, but this applies to pretty much anything else in a bottle or tube. Cracking open my foundation, I found at least 8 more applications, despite being unable to pump out another single drop. Don’t be afraid to cut or break open a product – there’s likely more in the container than you can see, and then it’s also easier to clean out and recycle (if the packaging is actually recyclable.)
- You can be very creative with how you use products. I had a liter-sized bottle of hair conditioner that was just so-so. I began using it as a shaving cream and it was great. I tried using products in ways different from their original purpose, and it was totally okay.
- Mix it up with products you actually like. Rather than using a very drying shampoo every single time, I switched back and forth between it and a really gentle shampoo. At night, I’d apply the natural deodorant that didn’t seem to keep me dry or smelling fresh, but then apply a more effective deodorant in the morning. Trying to use up products shouldn’t feel like torture.
- Some things aren’t worth “panning”. There were a couple of things that I knew were either expired or were going to cause more issues than they were worth. It’s okay to toss something that you know is going to make you break out in hives. It’s okay to give friends or family the chance to take something off your hands.
Sharing my project pan experience on Instagram helped me too. If you check out my highlights, you can find my “Project Pan” stories and see what all I’ve “panned” so far. I continue to replace products with more sustainably packaged items when I can, and have committed to using up products before replacing them. I’ve also begun to “pan” food items in my pantry and spice cabinet. I hope to also do this with craft supplies. You can start a Project Pan in pretty much any area of your life, and I strongly encourage it.
What do you need to “Project Pan”?
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