I Gotta Organise...Halloween!

Halloween – personally my favourite time of year, but that’s probably because it’s my birthday! I love the spooky feeling in the air – which to be honest, is getting spookier the older I get! 

But as with most seasonal events, Halloween can dredge up a scary amount of clutter. While the kids are having a wicked time dressing up, you’re shaking in your boots trying to figure out how you’re going to store all this gruesome paraphernalia before the Christmas decorations need to come out! If only there was a large cauldron to throw it all into. 

Well never fear, you don’t need a magic spell, instead follow my tricks to a more organised Halloween! 

Devilish Decorations: 

Halloween decorations aren’t the same as Christmas decorations for two reasons, firstly I don’t think they need to be up for as long as Christmas decorations, and secondly Halloween decorations can be a lot more ‘bitty’ than Christmas ones. 

So that you’re ready on time, remember to place ‘putting up the decorations’ on your to-do list. And every to-do needs a ‘when’, so take note of what day and time you would like to spookify the house and stick to this plan. 

What goes up, must come down again and when they do, you’ll need somewhere to home the decorations until next year. Have you picked out a spot in the house for them? If not, have a think and make some room for them. If you’ve bought new decorations this year, do you have enough room in your current storage or do you need to get a new storage box? 

Cackling Costumes: 

If you’re little ghosts and goblins are getting dressed up this year, to buy or not to buy is the question. Buying a costume will save you time but may be positively ghastly on your pocket. Whereas making the costumes with the kids can be a fun activity together. Either way, as with the decorations, you’ll need to schedule in the time and you’ll need a list of what you need. 

If you decide to buy, pick a day and time for shopping and make a list of not only what you are looking for but where you are going to look. If you think it’ll take visiting more than one shop to complete the costume, plan your route ahead of time. This will keep you on track, will stop you getting distracted browsing for other things and will avoid impulse buying. That way you will get out and get home with all your costume shopping done.

Now, unless you’re a wizard at costume making, this activity is going to take more time. So with ten days to go it’s time to get started! As with buying the costume, if you don’t have the supplies at home, make a list of what you may need and set time aside to get out and stock up.  Pick a day or time a few times over the next few days to sit down with the kids and create the masterpiece. 

After Halloween, like the decorations, you will need a home for these costumes. While you might be able to let the costumes go in a few months time, the kids are more than likely not going to want to part with the costume initially. You may indeed have quite a few costumes that have accumulated over the years and they will all need a good home. Here are a few of my solutions: 

1. A simple storage box could be used. Make sure the box is big enough to hold all your costumes. You may like to get two storage boxes – one for girls costumes, the other for boy costumes. I particularly like the Ikea “Samla” boxes. The lids aren’t the best in the world, but the see through nature and the various sizes of the boxes always work for me. This one pictured below is my favourite, it always holds more than I think it will, and yet it’s narrow form fits my shelves well. 

www.ikea.com

2. If you have enough hanging space in your cloakroom or wardrobe, you can hang up your costumes. Costumes by their nature can be bulky, covered in threads and feathers, and with trinkets hanging from them. So if they are hanging up alongside your other coats or clothes, this will make the entire space very cluttered in appearance. 

To neaten it up, get coloured plastic bags, and place a plastic bag over the costume – like a garment bag or suit cover would do for your suits. The coloured bags are to avoid the dull dirty look of a black plastic bag hanging in your wardrobe. Place a photo of the costume on the outside of the bag. 

 

It may be an idea to get the kids involved in organising their costumes. Get them to dress up in a costume & take their photo. As you’re arranging the costume on the hanger with its cover & the photo of them in it, they can be changing into the next outfit.

 

You might find that by trying on the costumes, they may be too small for them, are missing a piece or are just not liked anymore. If so, let them go and create some space!

Having the costumes all hung up neatly together and well labelled, will make it much easier to keep them organised over the coming years.  

www.hsw.ie

3. Alternatively, you could use this handbag organiser. 

Place the costume into a plastic bag and fold it neatly. Place the costume into a pocket and place the photo of the costume on the outside. 

                       

And there you go, organising for Halloween is not so frightening after all! 

Happy Halloween! 

Sarah