What Is Project Pan?
With the first month already coming to a close in the new year, my for you page has been flooded with “how to’s” for realizing your resolutions. As someone who didn’t make any resolutions, one in particular caught my eye: Project Pan.
After scrolling on TikTok for more time than I would like to admit, I have come to understand Project Pan as a way to reduce your consumption by using and finishing the products you already have. It’s only until you’ve reached that satisfying “pan” layer and all of the product is finished to the best of your ability, can you then purchase replacements.
Project Pan became popular as an online trend within the TikTok beauty community in 2021 (hence the pan reference), but can be traced back to a 2015 Reddit Page r/ProjectPan as its starting point. It has since expanded to include skincare products, stationery items, kitchen products, and anything that has a life cycle with a need for replacement.
How People are Enacting Project Pan
There seems to be different levels of Project Pan, which leaves you some room to decide what you want to get out of it. Do you want to cut open your bottles and scrape out the products until there’s nothing left? Do you want to use up the majority of the product because you struggle with that? It’s up to you to decide! The ultimate goal is to use more of the products you already have at home before buying more.
Project Pan can be as easy as sorting through your open and unused products, separating them, finishing what you have opened, and then replacing it with another one of your unopened products.
You can make it more intricate by creating an excel sheet with different categories of the products you want to use up, detailing how much you save with Project Pan, or saving the empty products to be donated to recycling project centers.
A good starting point would be thinking about why you want to start Project Pan.
Why People Start Project Pan
Consumption can be considered one of the leading human activities of the 21st century. In 1955, LIFE Magazine published the article Throwaway Living, one of the first teachings of disposal and overconsumption. No longer were resources scarce, and one didn’t need to reuse items; no, the war was over, and they should live! But more importantly, they should spend. But spending became the silent killer, still plaguing our current era.
In the age where there are over 300 brands that produce 100 different versions of one face cream and even more people telling you to buy the 301st version (because it’s apparently better than the rest), no one can blame you for buying more than you need. Or buying exactly what you want, no matter how much you already have. We have been conditioned (literally taught) to subscribe to the ideology of buying, but Project Pan aims to reduce the amount you buy and overconsume.
Project Pan isn’t an ideological force meant to position you on the economics or morality of consumption (it can if you want it to), but it’s meant to remind us to use what we have before we buy a different version of the same product. By slowing down and pushing ourselves to use everything in a bottle or pan, we can appreciate how much of a product we actually have and how much our money is providing for us. How we are providing for ourselves.
Being mindful and minimizing the amount you spend doesn’t have to limit the joy you have when it comes to buying new things, it gives us space to be grateful for what we have given ourselves.
Importantly, it gives us space to reflect on how much we actually use. It can take a lot longer to finish a product than we actually realize. When we use things to their entierty
No matter your reason for wanting to do Project Pan – be that decluttering, feeling good about finishing a product, saving money, giving yourself permission to start over with new products afterwards, helping the environment by reducing your carbon footprint – it’s a great initiative to start.
Tips to Succeed with Your Project Pan
- Create A Wish List
Whenever you see a new item – like a new Fenty lip oil shade or a new Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream – write it on your wish list. This helps motivate you to finish the product you want to replace with the reminder of what is to come. It’s like a reward system!
You can even save the money you would’ve spent without Project Pan and splurge on a really nice replacement.
- Cleanse Your Subscriptions
I don’t know about you, but I get what feels like at least 5 emails from Sephora, Shoppers Drug Mart, Aritzia, and Bath and Body Works daily. Getting an email detailing all the promotions I want to take advantage of can hinder my motivation to only purchase new items when I need them. Unsubscribing to these emails, or putting them in a special folder, can help reduce the urge you get when you have a reminder that you can buy, buy, buy whenever you want. Out of sight, out of mind!
- Shop In Your Own Home
Speaking of out of sight, out of mind, separating your open products from the shiny, new unopened ones can help reduce any temptations to ditch Project Pan and dive into the ones you’ve been patiently (sometimes painstakingly) waiting for. Once you do, put the unopened ones into a bin or box and store it out of sight. Once it’s time for a refill, you can go shopping with your own products! It will feel similar to going in-store to peruse and pick up new items, giving you that familiar burst of dopamine.
- Document Your Progress
Take photos of all the products you start with, then compare them to the ones you take in 6 months – it will make you feel super accomplished! Over time, you will see your consumption and waste go down. You can also create a document with all of the products you’ve finished or another with the total money you’ve saved! See the link below for a great example!
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSa5H4BCa
- Create New Uses for Old Things
It might be hard using the same boring product that you’ve been wanting to get rid of for the past two months. Boy, am I all too familiar with that feeling. But just because you have the product, doesn’t mean you need to use it in traditional ways. Use old conditioners or soaps as shaving cream, old perfumes as air freshener, lipsticks as blush, soaps for bubble baths, face cleansers as body wash, etc. Be creative and don’t be afraid to use products beyond what they are marketed for (within reason, of course)!
…
When I started Project Pan, I felt my mindset shifting with how I used my products. It’s influenced my relationship with consumption and my understanding of how to utilize what I already have. I feel more excited about starting a new product and have become more grateful for the amount of choice I have when buying. I feel less wasteful and more conscious of the waste I leave behind.
“I feel more excited about starting a new product and have become more grateful for the amount of choice I have when buying. I feel less wasteful and more conscious of the waste I leave behind.”
I hope you can experience some of these changes too.