Halloween is definitely one of the holidays whose roots are buried the deepest in popular culture. As such, it is significant like no other holiday (aside from maybe Christmas and Thanksgiving). Still, whereas the latter two are holidays that you’re supposed to spend in a family dinner, Halloween has always been a bit wilder and more reckless.
Naturally, this means that afterward, you’re left with a bit of a mess, both in your head and in your home. Here are five things you should do to sort it out.
Turning a New Page
Halloween is not the part of the year during which we lead the cleanest, healthier lives. The fall depression often kicks in early October, which makes a lot of people engage in comfort eating, potentially even drinking more than they should. While it is supposed to be a joyous festivity, Halloween is usually the culmination of this slow process.
So, instead of waiting for your next New Year’s resolution, what you need is to turn the page right away. However, before heading to the gym, you might want to deal with the hangover and overall detoxification caused by the previous period. Here are some habits you need to change right away for maximum effect. You need to:
Keep in mind that all of this sounds simple on paper, but in practice, it’s not so easy to pull off. Give yourself time and don’t start too ambitious in order not to get discouraged. The sooner you start, the better.
Plan a Quiet Day
Before you start this major transformation and take actions to deal with all the leftovers from Halloween, you could plan one quiet day at home. Stay in bed the entire day and binge-watch your favorite show. Don’t answer your phone and try your best not to leave the house. You can spend this day listening to your favorite music, playing video games, or enjoying some other indoor hobby of your own choosing.
Keep in mind that both during the preparation stage and during the party, you probably spent a lot of time with more people than you’re accustomed to. Therefore, your social energy might be depleted. Doing something opposite might help recharge it a lot sooner.
Sure, you may not want to be alone the whole day. After a massive party, there’s nothing wrong with inviting a couple of your closest friends and looking for some brunch party ideas. This is a perfect compromise between socializing and doing something quite the opposite to the previous wild party.
Clean Your Home
After a successful Halloween, you are inevitably left with the scariest part: a mess to clean. It is still a tedious chore, whether it’s a mess left by the tricksters or the aftermath of your own party. But there is no need to get spooked out as there are a lot of tips that can make it at least a bit less painful. So, after you’re well-rested, you should probably get to it as it will be a lot easier to clean while the pumpkin stains are fresh.
First, you’ll want to deal with the trick part of the trick or treat. Removing the residue toilet paper, and you want to do this before it rains, can be done by wrapping the end of a stick in duct tape. If there was egging involved, pick up the eggshells and hose the place down.
Now there is the treat part. Candy can leave sticky stains on walls and furniture. Instead of scrubbing it, you should soak a rag in hot water and press it to the stain. Humidity and heat are supposed to loosen it, so you can just wipe it afterward.
In the end, you are left with the mess in your own house. Vacuum glitter, confetti, and feathers left from the costumes remove pumpkin stains with dish soap, use rubbing alcohol to clean fake blood, and you’re all set to start thinking about fall decorations for Thanksgiving.
Decide What to Do with Your Costume
While a Halloween costume is an incredibly important part of the tradition, it does have one major flaw – you’re unlikely to wear it again (at least anytime soon). Even if you and your friends organize a masquerade every year, you can’t just appear wearing the same costume time and time again. So, what are you going to do with the costume? There are several options.
One last thing worth mentioning is that these costumes are also great for cosplay, prank video calls, and similar other events. Moreover, costume swapping is a thing worth considering—all in all, plenty of options.
Reuse Pumpkins
A lot of people carve pumpkins prior to Halloween as a decoration. Now, while fresh pumpkins are a delicious treat and a universal ingredient, the last thing you want is to eat a pumpkin that has been sitting outside for God knows how long. So, what do you do with them?
The first thing you want is to save the pumpkin seeds. When roasted properly, these can turn into a proper treat. All you need to do is sprinkle them with salt, add a bit of olive oil (or butter), and there you have it. Instead of turning them into a snack, you could also use them to make pumpkin seed pesto or topper for guacamole, etc.
A pumpkin stock is another fantastic idea. Why? Well, mostly because you can freeze it and keep it somewhere safe so that you can reuse it in one of your post-Halloween recipes.
Just because you can’t eat the pumpkin after it’s been outside for a while, this doesn’t mean that the local critters will be as picky. You can cut it into small pieces for the foraging animals. If you know a farmer, you can ask them to take the pumpkins off your hands. For pigs and goats, a pumpkin is one of the best treats there is.
Lastly, if you’re dabbling a bit in gardening, you can process the pumpkin in question and turn it into compost (or at least add it into a compost).
In Conclusion
Keep in mind that your post-Halloween activities will greatly be determined by the type of Halloween that you have. Therefore, if you have a kid-friendly party, you might not have a hangover to deal with. If this year passes without neighborhood pranksters, the cleaning part will be a lot simpler. All in all, you now know what you’re up against and can proceed to make necessary plans.
About The Author
Stacey is a freelance writer living in Minnesota with her cat, and she’s passionate about yoga, languages, home improvement, and drinking strong coffee. Find her on Twitter @StaceyShann0n