Tips for Taking Down Halloween Decorations

Goodbye to Halloween: Putting the Décor Away

Happy fall from the same-day junk removal experts at Junk.com. Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to make room for your next big decorating scheme. You might be itching to start your Thanksgiving day setup, or maybe you’re really ready to jump the gun and put up all your Christmas décor. In any case, it’s been a week since Halloween and now it’s time to lay all the ghoulish ghosts, black cats, pumpkins, cobwebs, and undead to rest until next year.

What is the Best Way to Take Down Halloween Decorations?

Putting up the Halloween decorations might have been so much fun that it didn’t feel like work. Taking decorations down is often another story. If the task seems overwhelming, you might be tempted to let the plastic skeletons reach out of your lawn until Christmas. The way to conquer any massive task, and get your neighbors to stop giving you the side-eye, is to break it down into manageable pieces.

Here are some best-practices for taking down Halloween décor.

• Wash Outdoor Decorations Before Storing: Any decorations that have been sitting outside such as fake coffins, witch dummies, or scarecrows should be cleaned before they are put into storage for the year. Pesky bugs could hitchhike into your storage area if items are not cleaned properly. To avoid pests taking over your Halloween decoration bins, always make sure everything you put into storage is clean and dry.

• Compost Jack-o-Lanterns and Pumpkins: Any organic decorations like pumpkins and gourds should be used as compost. Remove any non-organic decorations from your jack-o-lanterns, break them apart, and put them in your compost pile or bin. If you do not have a regular compost bin, you can also bury your pumpkin leftovers in your garden and let nature take its course. 

• Take Down Cobwebs Carefully: Fake spider webs can really set the eerie mood at your Halloween parties, but taking them down can be a hassle. Check your manufacturer’s instructions for removal. Often you can ball up the cobwebs and use a lint roller to pick up any final stubborn pieces on walls or furniture.  If your cobwebs were outside, make sure to gather up as much of the material as possible because it can be dangerous for wildlife to get caught in or ingest synthetic webbing. 

Some Tips for Taking Down Halloween Decorations

Simplify your life and make Halloween decorating all the more fun next year by following these final tips for taking down Halloween decorations.

• Declutter Your Halloween Decorations Every Year: When taking down decorations, take stock of your items. Is anything damaged or no longer usable? Did anything stay in the storage bins the whole season? Carefully choose what you want to keep, and make a plan for donating, recycling, or disposing of whatever no longer fits into your life.

• Keep an Inventory of Your Items: An inventory can help you organize and keep track of your decorations. If you go all-out for Halloween, run a haunted house, or just want to make sure you don’t buy any duplicates, then keeping an inventory will help you set up and tear down every year. You can use a spreadsheet software like Google sheets or an app like Itemtopia to record the condition and location of each of your decorations.

• Choose Sustainable or Reusable Décor Options for Next Year: Taking down disposable synthetic cobwebs was a pain, wasn’t it? Next year, choose a more reusable option to save money and keep more waste out of landfills. You can make spooky-looking webs with old bedsheets, gauze, or cheesecloth that you can store and use every year. When you’re shopping for new décor, look for items you can easily store and enjoy for the long haul.

Big Halloween Junk? Call Junk.com

If your haunted house needs a serious teardown or you’ve got one or two bulk Halloween junk items that just need to go then you can call the same-day junk removal experts at Junk.com.

We’ll haul off 99% of nonhazardous junk, including assorted Halloween junk like your massive zombie wood cutouts, plastic tombstones, and giant wooly spiders. Since Junk.com always aims to practice sustainable disposal, we’ll evaluate items we cart off to see if anything can be donated or recycled before we responsibly take out the trash.

Get a free, no-obligation quote on site by using our online booking tool.