Rescripted

Women's Health, Your Way

Ask & Search With Clara

Welcome to a new standard for women's health answers.

GIRLHOOD / Am I the Only One Who's Constantly Running Out of Things?

Am I the Only One Who's Constantly Running Out of Things?

Am I the Only One Who's Constantly Running Out of Things?

Is it a universal girlhood experience to constantly be running out of things? Shampoo, moisturizer, magnesium supplements — you name it. Almost every day I'm thinking gotta order that, or digging through a cabinet looking for a backup that doesn't exist.

I like to consider myself a product-minimalist. I tout EltaMD's tinted SPF as my holy grail, and I have exactly one bronzer, one blush, one mascara, used until it's completely gone. I am not a nine-products-on-the-counter person, mostly because I've always been acne-prone, and if you know, you know how that story ends.

And yet I still run out of everything, always, at slightly different times, like the whole system's hanging on by a thread.

For a while, I assumed this was just what being an adult woman is: a thing I was supposed to have figured out by now, like everyone else apparently has. But honestly, I think it's an ADHD thing. If a product isn't directly in my line of sight, it doesn't exist to me. I'll walk past an empty shampoo bottle in the shower for four days straight before my brain connects "empty" with "I should order more," and it's been a week since I've seen wash day (which, no judgment if you've been there too).

What bothers me most isn't the running out. It's how wasteful it all feels — the last-minute Amazon order, the guilt of buying something in a panic instead of using up what I already have, the sense that a more organized version of me would've seen this coming.

I don't have a system. I've just accepted that I'll always be a little behind my own bathroom cabinet, buying what I need exactly when I need it, and never a day before.

If you've somehow cracked this, genuinely, tell me. I'll take any tips.

More from GIRLHOOD

Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem died eight days apart this month, and admittedly, I didn't know much about either of them beyond the headlines — Dolly's rhinestones, "I Will Always... Read more
Call it PMS, or call it my complete inability to engage in small talk, but somehow I often feel lonely amongst a large group of friends.You would never know it.... Read more
If you've been here any amount of time, you already know I'm a voracious reader. I spent the early part of my career in publishing, and I truly believe there's... Read more
You should know: I am the complete opposite of a hoarder. The seasonal closet purge is one of my favorite pastimes, and fall is hands-down the best season to shop... Read more
The other day, I woke up, fed my three kids breakfast, took them to 9:45 mass, and then rushed the older two to a birthday party at a sports place.... Read more
By now you've probably seen it: the Good Good Golf x Callaway ad that opens with a man sprinting across a golf course to shove a woman to the ground... Read more
Raise your hand if you still think about "day to night" when it comes to picking outfits.I mean, has that Cosmo-era advice ever even come in handy?I recently came across... Read more
You know what I haven't been doing lately? Blaming things on my ADHD.Not because it went anywhere. I was diagnosed in my mid-30s, the same year I finally understood why... Read more
If you're anything like me, you can't stop scrolling #lindsayclancy — not just for the trial itself, but for what's underneath it: thousands of women saying some version of "I... Read more