Life Is Spooky Enough. Your Holiday Storage Shouldn’t Be.
5 tips to keep your Halloween decor and costumes from giving you a scare
Every October it’s the same story. You pull the bins down, dig through tangled lights and loose cobwebs, and somehow the one piece you wanted is nowhere to be found. A little planning and inspiration now can make Halloween, and every holiday after it, much easier to unpack and put away.
Tip 1: Take a holiday inventory
Before you start organizing, make a list of everything you already have. How many times have you walked the seasonal aisle, fallen in love with a new piece, and gotten home to find you already own something just like it? (Do we really need another ceramic jack-o’-lantern?)
Knowing what you have makes decorating faster and keeps you from spending money on duplicates. Write it down or type it up, and keep the list somewhere you can check before your next shopping trip. Your phone’s notes app works well.
Tip 2: Choose the right bins for Halloween Decor
Once you know what you have, sort it into bins. Clear bins let you see what’s inside at a glance. If you need something sturdier for heavy or fragile pieces, the classic black-and-yellow totes hold up well. Home Depot carries a wide range of sizes and styles.
Group like with like: lights with lights, tabletop decor together, outdoor pieces in their own bin. Wrap glass and ceramic items in old newspaper or bubble wrap so they make it to next year in one piece.
Tip 3: Label everything
Nothing is worse than tearing apart your neatly packed bins to find the glass pumpkin for your mantle. Labels solve that. Use a label maker, a Cricut, or even paper and packing tape. List the main items on each label, or number your bins and match them to your inventory list from Tip 1.
Tip 4: Use adjustable shelving
Holiday storage comes in all shapes and sizes: tall inflatables, short bins of lights, flat boxes of wreaths. Fixed shelves force you to work around the space you have. Adjustable shelving lets the space work around your stuff.
Move shelves up for oversized bins, down for smaller ones, and add or remove shelves as your collection grows. Keep the current season’s bins at eye level and the off-season ones higher up. When Halloween wraps up, swap in the Christmas bins. Every bin gets its own spot, and nothing gets stacked five high and forgotten.
Tip 5: Give costumes a home of their own
Costumes deserve better than being stuffed into the bottom of a bin. Hang full costumes in breathable garment bags so they don’t get crushed or wrinkled, and store masks, hats, wands and other accessories in small clear boxes so the pieces stay together. Label each one by name or size so everyone can find their own.
Before you pack them away, check for stains and wash what you can. Costumes the kids have outgrown can go to a hand-me-down pile, the dress-up bin, or a donation box, so someone else gets to wear them next year.
Ready for a halloween decor and holiday storage space that works year-round?
At Saint Louis Closet Company, we design custom storage with adjustable shelving and hanging space that fits your family. Schedule your free design consultation today.
