It’s the spooky time of year that kids (and adults!) love. The popularity of Halloween is growing year by year. What was once a simple case of dressing the kids up as witches and ghouls can now involve dressing your house up to be the scariest in the neighbourhood.
Skeletons that welcome visitors with spooky greetings, strings of lights, lifelike bats, tombstones, and chilling blow-up figures are amongst the wide variety of decorations that are now common across Ireland.
Of course, these aren’t cheap, and for the rest of the year, they will have a terrifying effect on your storage space.
This is where a self-storage unit can help. These offer a cost-effective solution that doesn’t just keep Dracula safe in his coffin for the year but can also help with all seasonal items.
We have self-storage units of all sizes available throughout the country, and to make sure you get the best from your unit, we have put together this handy guide to ensure your ghosts and ghouls are in prime condition to spook the neighbours again next Halloween.
Why use self-storage?
Once thought of as a means of simply storing old furniture, more people are utilising the sheer versatility of self-storage units by storing all types of items. From off-season sports gear, to simply using them as an overspill storage solution, they offer a clean, dry, secure, cost-effective, and even climate-controlled answer to how to store space-consuming items.
This includes your Halloween decorations!
How to store your Halloween decorations
Once the spookiest night of the year is over, it is time to get on with the task of exorcising your home of all the demons and cobwebs that have adorned it for the past few days.
Here are some tips to help you store your Halloween decorations.
Clean everything
The first thing to do is to make sure everything is clean and dry before it goes into storage. November is a damp time of year, and this means that extra care should be taken at this step.
Storing any damp item will lead to mould, especially if it isn’t disturbed for another year. So, ensure that damp items are aired for a day or two and completely dry before storing.
Cleaning is equally important – next Halloween, the last thing you want to encounter is a half-eaten toffee apple stuck inside a Frankenstein mask. That is truly terrifying.
A good tip is to sprinkle a little talcum powder on rubber masks and other rubber decorations to stop the rubber from becoming sticky.
Organise
Chances are, if you use a self-storage unit, it isn’t exclusively for the use of Halloween decorations. So, to ensure that everything is easily found and in good condition, it is important to be organised.
Label your boxes – If you are using storage boxes, then labelling is key. It is surprising how often this is overlooked; people often think that they will remember exactly what is in which box. But the truth is that over a year, boxes will be added, things will be moved around and come Halloween, the first nightmare you will face is finding the decorations.
Strings of lights –The tendency is to just cram these into a box and worry about the tangles next year. Save yourself some grief and also keep the lights in better condition by wrapping them around something, the carboard inner from kitchen roll, or even just a rolled-up newspaper. Anything that will stop them from becoming an obstinate ball of knotted wire.
Wrap smaller decorations –Smaller and more fragile decorations should be wrapped in paper or bubble wrap to protect them in transit and storage.
Stack the boxes correctly –Always place heavier boxes at the bottom of the stack and lighter ones at the top.
Use good boxes
A good sturdy box is essential to keep your decorations safe. Skimping and using substandard boxes can lead to the structure of the box being compromised, and this, in turn, can lead to your neat stack of decorations becoming a jumble of tangled spider webs and headless skeletons.
There are two main choices when it comes to what type of box to use. Plastic boxes offer more strength but at the cost of breathability. If you are using plastic boxes, then ensuring the stored decorations are bone dry is even more essential.
Cardboard boxes are an eco-friendlier solution and offer breathability, but to reiterate, these should be of good quality.
Conclusion
A self-storage solution is a perfect way of decluttering your home of seasonal items. With the popularity and expense of Halloween decorations growing year by year, it can also save you money by allowing you to keep them in prime condition and roll them out year after year.
At U Store It, we offer a range of self-storage solutions to suit all requirements and budgets. Why not call us today and see how we can help keep all your seasonal items clean, dry, and safe year after year.
