Minimalism in a Season of Waste: Spooky Season Wins!

I'll admit it, I have no one to blame, but myself....Halloween has always been my favorite holiday and seeing my kids embrace it...is amazing, but also hauntingly annoying and sometimes the clutter is exhausting. Maybe its the spookiness, maybe it's because I love fall, maybe it's the creativity, maybe it's because there was no big stressful family meal involved... who knows. (that said I'm a also a firm believer in one "event" per holiday, Halloween is Halloween so our family says no to Halloween parades, single use waste that is trunk or treats, and all the other things. We trick or treat and that Halloween. You do you).

I wanted to share a recent article that resonated with me. I really love Sustainable Minimalist and this article about "Peak Junk Season." 

My son is very creative. This can also be really annoying...because he has great plans...some may remember...the water feature, the horse barn. A lot of plans, with a lot of hopes...that sometimes get well, crushed.

So when I saw his latest Canva creation.... I was excited because, I too, want the best house on the block, but also my Halloween pinterest DIY board has never been completed, and also like ohhhhh no, because I knew what this would entail. A lot of "When can we do this?" etc etc. Every year we have a modest Halloween budget. We usually add one "nice thing" to the list because those foam headstones do not last...(and do not help the environment). In fact, I think our "nice headstones" have even been borrowed by neighborhood folks for set props.

Well that skeleton in the foreground was to go in a coffin (obviously) and he picked out this.... well no offense if you own this..but I was in no way going to spend $36.99 on a (tacky) fabric coffin that is going to blow away in a storm.

My husband "Fine we'll build one. I'll go to Home Depot." Me "No way you are spending money on new lumber for a coffin for an 11 year old" Side bar: we then had a lot of googling about coffins versus casket definitions. Sorry, things took a dark turn... Me "just grab the pallets out by the side of the road behind North River Feed." IYKYK. Now I have ideas, but I have little to no skills in the woodworking department, so I'm just an annoying person that makes plans and has my husband execute them.

So dad did the framing (yes, the 2x4s were new), grabbed some free old fence scraps at Armstrong Fence (bonus, already weathered!)...

Obviously he had to measure his little brother in it.

 

I don't know where I recently read this initially, but 71% of kids 8-12 years old have never held a sharp knife. So while I don't want to judge other parents, part of my personal sustainable life ethos is getting messy, being resilient, learning how to DO THINGS and not just ordering stuff on Amazon. Knowing how things are made, how food is grown is SO important. If you are a parent, please check out Johnathan Haidt's work (there are lots of other good ones too!) Scared of your kids using knives? Just send them over to Stem Cell Robotics.

So now we have a full size coffin (yes it has hinges) to take up and down our bulkhead annually, scare neighbors and unsuspecting workmen that go in our dirt basement.

As if you didn't think my family was weird enough. Here's the current set up with something I actually did do... upcycled bottles, chalk paint, labels and a little modge podge. The skull is plastic (we reuse it every year though and one day I'll pass it down to my children)...and the dirt my kids dug up from the yard (cool thanks for grabbing it from the middle of the lawn), and the hatchet...well it's our hatchet. That said, get creative with things you already own, thrifted objects, found objects, and more! You don't need a whole new set of decorations every year.

Am I more proud of the upcycle or Halloween-ness? It's unclear. 

PSA: DONT USE THE FAKE SPIDER WEBS OUTSIDE (so bad for the birds) and COMPOST YOUR PUMPKINS!!!!!