EXCLUSIVE! Avoid Halloween Clutter From Gobbling Up Your November

Filed Under: Perezcious Parenting Tips Exclusives!

Avoid Halloween Clutter From Gobbling Up Your November

If your Halloween wasn’t scary enough, it’s time to start storing those plastic pumpkins, spiders, death masks, witches’ cauldrons, devil pitchforks, skeletons, tombstones, autumnal wreaths and mummies. Oh my!

You can stop being scared, professional organizer and Perezitos.com correspondent John Trosko is here to help! John writes:

"Seasonal décor are hard-earned investments and should be protected! If the items are specific to Halloween, they should be culled, organized, boxed, bagged and labeled together as a grouping. Not only will you save time when you pull them out next year, but setting up will be fun and bits and pieces will be projected from damage.'

Use these tricks not only for organizing your Halloween décor, but for other holidays like Christmas, Easter and Fourth of July!"

Here are John's Halloween Décor Storage Tricks:

· Use color-coded orange boxes available at your local Wal-Mart or Target. Color-coding by the season makes sense because the color communicates what is in the box. Clear bins are an option because they allow you to see what’s in them without opening the box and you later you can always add more.
· Snap and place a set of photos inside one of the boxes so you’ll be able to refer to them for next year.
· Review decorations and costumes for use, damage and over-accumulation;
· Consider donating unused décor to your favorite charity;
· Completely dry out decorations and make sure items are reasonably clean;
· Remove batteries from animated figures (to avoid corrosion or leakage);
· Wrap anything sharp and seal with removable blue tape;
· Use clear “contractor-size” lawn and leaf bags to contain giant-size outdoor décor;
· Use zippered baggies to contain hardware and manuals (label the bags);
· Check for frayed wires on the fog machines and electrical units;
· Make use of cable ties to control unruly cords;
· Wrap fragile collectibles in packing paper or acid-free tissue;
· Collect scary music CDs or playlists and leave with decorations;
· Store flammables (matches or lamp oils) away from your décor;
· Package Halloween plates, serving ware, utensils and trick-or-treating candy bowls with regular décor so everything is together in one place;
· Use labels on the outside of each box to identify the contents.

Our organizing expert says once you have this system in place, you’ll find that decorating and storing your seasonal décor gets done in a snap. Your time won’t be gobbled up hunting for things you thought you already owned. It will all be there!

What tips and tricks can you share for storing holiday décor and creating a less stressful holiday?

Tweet your spooky thoughts and chilling challenges to @johntrosko [ http://twitter.com/#!/johntrosko or visit John’s blog OrganizingLA.

[Image via WENN.]

Tags: costumes, halloween, help, holiday, house, john trosko, pumpkin, pumpkins, tips, twitter