Do You have a Halloween Decorating Hangover?
Every Halloween, you know what happens. You just just a little more carried away than the year before. Halloween is coming in a close second from Christmas in terms of consumer spending, and the results are visible in the front yards of many family neighborhoods. Where a few pumpkins and a paper skeleton used to suffice, many yards now sport mock graveyards complete with motion-activated creepy figures, fog machines, sound effects, and spooky lighting.
Come November 1, these fantastic Halloween displays lose their spooky appeal, and you may find yourself wondering if the dollar store threw up on your lawn. You may find yourself pondering your cramped garage or overflowing crawl space, and wondering what exactly you're going to do with that pirate skeleton housed in a cardboard coffin that was the "perfect" purchase for your pirate graveyard just one week ago. Too often, we give up and throw away these treasures. With a little thought and organization, you can hang on to your collection, and build on it year after year without all the waste (and wasted money)!
Plan for After the Holiday - Before the Holiday
As you start your shopping leading up to a holiday, think ahead about storage. Have a plan for the overall "look" of your house and/or yard, and be strategic in your purchases. If you have very little storage space, you can still go for big effects in your decorating. Use fabric and plastic to cover large areas - netting and cheesecloth (some already dyed and holey in the package for Halloween) can cover large areas and have multiple uses. They can be folded and rolled small for easy storage. If you are choosing larger accessories, make sure they are durable, and will store well. Use black building paper and a simple stencil to create bats or other spooky shapes, which can be stored flat. Avoid regular cardboard and paper - if left outside for a day or two after Halloween, even under cover, you risk developing mildew or mold when you store those items.
Get Storage Containers that Work
There are no limits to the sizes and shapes of storage containers available today. While you may be able to make do with cardboard boxes, plastic storage containers will keep your decorations dry and offer solid protection from crushing. Take a stroll through the storage aisle at your local Walmart or other department store, and you'll find a variety of inexpensive options. If you are an apartment dweller, a flat under-the-bed storage container might work well, or if you're planning to stack several bins in your garage, shed, or crawlspace, you might want a few deeper totes with snap-on lids.
Think Ahead When Storing
After Halloween comes the big kahuna of decorating - Christmas. Once the Halloween decorations are packed and heading to the crawlspace, avoid the natural urge to cram them in anywhere out of sight and close the door. Store your Halloween totes behind your Christmas goods, or come December 1 when your family is waiting with shining faces for the decorations to appear, you risk instant dissolution of the festive mood with crawlspace-induced language (of which Santa does not approve).
Taking these few simple steps can make a big difference for your Halloween inventory year after year - instead of starting over each year, you can build on your collection. You can also enjoy your Halloween without the guilt of all that waste. Save that guilt for overdosing on your kids' Halloween candy.
Suzanne Laird - I have 2 decades of diverse education and work experience in addition to being an avid writer and lifelong learner.
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