Drop everything. It's almost Halloween.
It’s spooky time, which means not only will your kids be requesting costumes and begging to carve pumpkins, but you’ll be getting in on some of the fun, too! If you're anything like me, the fall season gets you pumped up and excited for all the seasonal activities that you cherish every year. Family weekends of decorating the house, going pumpkin picking, eating harvest food at farm stands and making Halloween crafts are things that many parents look forward to doing with their kids. But often, these wonderful October activities can become a headache when things don’t go right.
Costumes get dirty. Your son’s jack-o-lantern rots sooner than you’d hoped. Messes arise in the kitchen quicker than you can say trick-or-treat. But many of these little hiccups can be fixed with simple solutions that will ensure you have a problem-free spooky season.
Halloween Crafts & Cleanup
1. Costume Care
When you first purchase clothing, especially a Halloween costume, there are often lingering manufacturing chemicals that can cause irritation to the skin. And when you mix chemicals with kids putting their sleeves in their mouths and capes up their nose, it can become an issue. Make sure to wash away any harsh chemicals before letting your child wear their costume by putting them through a gentle cycle in the washing machine. You can add ½ cup of white vinegar to the wash to completely remove chemicals, soften the fabric and make colors even more vibrant.
White vinegar is also a perfect remedy for stains. Soak Halloween costumes in white vinegar as a pre-treatment to running a washing machine cycle. After a 30-minute soak, wash the costume as usual and the stain should disappear on its own. For severe stains, do a little scrubbing before putting it through the wash. And voila! Stain gone.
2. Preserve Mr. Pumpkin
Your kids begged and pleaded to carve their own pumpkins this year. And with your help, they achieved their perfect design — maybe they even named their pumpkin because of how proud they were. The last thing you need is for their jack-o-lantern to rot prematurely or for squirrels to begin tearing it apart. To prevent rot and keep critters away, coat the inside and outside of jack-o-lanterns with a mixture of white vinegar and water. This solution will temporarily preserve the pumpkin and stop wildlife from meddling with your children's creations.
3. Make a Witch’s Potion
Kids are constantly learning things about the world, and part of learning and growing is experimenting. They’ll start to test their parents to see what they can get away with and try new foods to discover their favorites. During the Halloween season, kids love to try out different crafts and activities. Your son may want to be a mad scientist and your daughter may want to be a witch, both of which brew special potions. Make their dreams come true by allowing them to discover the art of "potion-making." Here is a fun little experiment that you and your family can play together:
- Get some test tubes
- Put a teaspoon of baking soda inside each tube
- Put a couple drops of food coloring into each tube
- When ready, drop a tiny bit of white vinegar inside
- Watch the solution fizz up!
4. Ghost Balloons
Speaking of experiments, this is another really fun one to try. Again, this involves baking soda and vinegar, so make sure you have these two products on hand. Here is what you do:
- Get an empty water bottle
- Get a white balloon
- Draw a ghost face on the balloon
- Fill it with 1 Tablespoon of baking soda
- Fill the water bottle with 1/2 cup of white vinegar
- Attach the balloon to the top of the water bottle, allowing the baking soda to fall inside and make contact with the vinegar
- Watch the balloon expand!
Read more about this experiment.
4. Clean Countertops
With any holiday often comes baking and crafting, and with Halloween comes making actual finger cookies and concocting magic potions. But crafting can create a giant mess. Be prepared beforehand so cleanup will be quick and easy. Something like Orange Oil wipes away messes made from flour, sugar or any sticky or greasy residue from potion-making. Clean countertops with the oil to cut through messes, make your countertops shine and give your entire house a heavenly fall aroma. You can even add to the wonderful smells by making a stovetop simmer in addition to using orange oil around your home.
5. Remove Sticky Decorations
If you’ve ever used stickers, Halloween slime or wall clings, you may have had issues with removing the remaining glue. Using Orange Oil on these surfaces cuts through any sticky or gooey remnants from decorations and will save you from the headache of scrubbing for hours.
Halloween is Almost Here...
It's almost here, so start preparing now for the next week of festivities leading up to what some people call their favorite holiday. Make a plan and be ready for the fun activities ahead of you. And don't forget to have some great products and cleaning supplies on hand for after all the fun is over.
