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Ready, Set, Reuse! Halloween Edition

By Marisa Belger for Green Goes Simple

Halloween can lead to a lot of waste. Try these three simple ways to breathe new life into the spooky stuff.

Expand the Dress-up Box
Everyone loves a good dress-up session, so why leave the costumes for late October? After the last trick-or-treater has gone to bed, wash each costume and add them to your kids’ existing dress-up box. (Vampires and ghosts can surely mix with the cowboys and princesses that already call the box home.) If you don’t already have a box, create one by using a clean plastic bin. When a rainy day has your brood stuck inside, see who can come up with the funniest, scariest and most creative costumes. Or, beat winter blues with a spontaneous costume party in February or March.

Create Candy Wrapper Art
Put those candy wrappers to creative use by making wrapper string art. Collect the wrappers (the more colors the better!), rinse them with warm water and lay them out on a towel to dry overnight. The next day, unroll a long piece of string or ribbon and wrap it around each wrapper, leaving a couple of inches between each one. Hang the completed banner in a doorway or string several across a bedroom ceiling. The effect is like a row of Christmas lights, but with sweeter memories!

Repurpose Those Pumpkin Buckets
Those plastic jack o’ lantern buckets used for trick-or-treating don’t have to gather dust until next year. Cut a few holes in the bottom and paint the bucket with waterproof paint for a homemade plant receptacle. You can also have kids transform the buckets into their own customized art-supply holders by painting the outside or wrapping it in fabric.

Photo Credit: @iStockphoto.com/sjlocke

Marisa Belger’s work has appeared in Travel + Leisure Family, Natural Health, Prevention and TODAYShow.com, where she wrote a column about eco-friendly living. She was an editor at Lime.com and collaborated with author Josh Dorfman on his bestselling books, The Lazy Environmentalist and The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget. She is the managing editor of and frequent contributor to Green Goes Simple.

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	<h2>Blog</h2>
<h1>Ready, Set, Reuse! Halloween Edition</h1>
	By Marisa Belger for <a href="http://www.greengoessimple.com">Green Goes Simple</a>
		Halloween can lead to a lot of waste. Try these three simple ways to breathe new life into the spooky stuff.

Expand the Dress-up Box Everyone loves a good dress-up session, so why leave the costumes for late October? After the last trick-or-treater has gone to bed, wash each costume and add them to your kids’ existing dress-up box. (Vampires and ghosts can surely mix with the cowboys and princesses that already call the box home.) If you don’t already have a box, create one by using a clean plastic bin. When a rainy day has your brood stuck inside, see who can come up with the funniest, scariest and most creative costumes. Or, beat winter blues with a spontaneous costume party in February or March.

Create Candy Wrapper Art Put those candy wrappers to creative use by making wrapper string art. Collect the wrappers (the more colors the better!), rinse them with warm water and lay them out on a towel to dry overnight. The next day, unroll a long piece of string or ribbon and wrap it around each wrapper, leaving a couple of inches between each one. Hang the completed banner in a doorway or string several across a bedroom ceiling. The effect is like a row of Christmas lights, but with sweeter memories! Repurpose Those Pumpkin Buckets Those plastic jack o’ lantern buckets used for trick-or-treating don’t have to gather dust until next year. Cut a few holes in the bottom and paint the bucket with waterproof paint for a homemade plant receptacle. You can also have kids transform the buckets into their own customized art-supply holders by painting the outside or wrapping it in fabric.Photo Credit: @iStockphoto.com/<a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=351711" target="_blank">sjlocke</a>
				Marisa Belger’s work has appeared in Travel + Leisure Family, Natural Health, Prevention and TODAYShow.com, where she wrote a column about eco-friendly living. She was an editor at Lime.com and collaborated with author Josh Dorfman on his bestselling books, The Lazy Environmentalist and The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget. She is the managing editor of and frequent contributor to <a href="http://www.greengoessimple.com">Green Goes Simple</a>.
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