Assess the work process rather than each individual substance, usually cuts down the number of assessments required.
As an example - spray painting

The base paints are likely to be the same basic substances e.g.toulene/white spirit. No point in assessing red paint, blue paint, green paint etc.

At the risk of repeating what others have/will say here’s my twopennath.
There seems to be a consensus however which is always reassuring especially when Chris Packham is part of it.

In my area we collected about 500 different safety data sheets before we stopped. The controls for these fell into a couple of categories mostly because of the small or tiny volumes we are using.

So now I don’t do COSHH assessments I do task assessments and if the task uses a chemical I put the necessary controls in place to manage the risk associated with that task in light of the risks associated with the chemical(s) used, the amount used, its concentration, formulation.

So now we control the task rather than the chemical. That way you’re able to cover all the hazards associated with the use of a large number of chemicals without useless, valueless mountains of paper that no one will ever look at.

Hope this helps.

Graham