As the new year begins to ramp up, I’ve been feeling pretty inspired to create some new year’s resolutions for myself, or at least goals that I want to stick to throughout the year. And one of the biggest trends that I’ve seen on TikTok this year, called “Project Pan” has actually inspired one of my goals for 2025 to be more mindful of my consumption, and to focus more on using things I already have, rather than going out to buy new things.Â
If you haven’t seen the “Project Pan” trend, essentially it’s a series of monthly videos that follows people trying to use up their beauty products each month. The main idea is to get people to use up all of the products they already own before they go out and buy new ones, to prevent products from piling up and never being used.Â
Speaking from my own experience, I definitely have piles and piles of beauty products (especially skincare and makeup) that pile up because I just love to try new things and the newest social media trends in beauty, and I feel like sometimes I literally cannot resist the urge to buy something new. My impulse buy is always a new little lip product, I am always buying a bunch of new lip glosses that I don’t need.Â
So, I have started my own “Project Pan” for 2025, and included a couple of products that I just want to make sure that I use up, like a couple of perfumes and body sprays, moisturizers, and of course some lippies. But the whole idea of this trend had me thinking about how I could apply this idea to other areas of my life as well, which is what really got me inspired for this limiting-consumption new years resolution.Â
Beyond beauty and makeup, there are other areas where the urge to buy is just so strong sometimes, and the biggest other ones for me are clothes, and then journaling supplies (which I know sounds so random, but just hear me out). I always buy more even though there is no possible way for me to use what I already have, left alone after incorporating more things into the mix. Especially with clothes, I have so much that I just never wear, which is just so unnecessary. And the journaling one is so random, but I love to buy fun little pens and art supplies to make cool spreads in my journals, and my art drawers are literally overflowing even though I use the same four products every time.Â
Recently, the state of my stuff has just been ridiculous, and has been so messy that it’s starting to stress me out (I’m someone who needs a clean safe space to feel calm). Normally all of my things are so organized and everything has its specific place, but I have literally just run out of storage room for all of my stuff. There just isn’t room for everything anymore, and this was a big wake up call for me.Â
I also think that with social media, the trend cycles have begun to spin so fast, and I find myself getting stuck on the wheel, and sucked into buying things, much more often than necessary. And although I think that there are multiple issues with social media (I could literally write a whole entire article on this), this is one that I am noticing is impacting me more. I get so caught up in what looks cool on other people on social media that I want to buy things to look like just, and I feel like this happens to me every other week because of how fast things change. I just think that this is a habit I finally need to break for myself, and especially because another one of my goals for this new year is to save money, breaking it will definitely be necessary.Â
So, this year, I am going to focus on going through my things, donating stuff I know I won’t use, and being more mindful and intentional about what I am using on a daily basis. And hopefully, after a year of buying less and using more of my stuff, my drawers and closets can be returned to their original state.