As part of a military family, I have 25+ moves under my belt. Since we move all the time, it’s important to my family to maintain family traditions by decorating each holiday with our treasured and familiar decorations. No matter where we live, we know it’s our home when the decorations my children can remember from years (and houses) past come out and decorate our new house.

Over the years, I’ve learned tricks to protect my decorations when they’re packed away for storage. These tips also protect the decorations from damage when they’re moved across the country or the world.

#1 Use easily identifiable boxes or tubs

Most of us store our holiday decorations away with many other boxes in an awkward to access area. Store your decorations in boxes that are easily identifiable by color or by large easy-to-read labels to that you don’t waste time shuffling boxes around trying to find your holiday decorations.

#2 Use plastic tubs

I prefer to use color coded plastic tubs to store my decorations. I’ve lived in climates with bugs, humidity and more bugs. Using a plastic tub helps protect my decorations from the environment. I have a friend who had her basement flood. Fortunately,  plastic tubs protected her decorations from the water (her other items in cardboard boxes were ruined).

#3 Create a content list for each tub

As you pack each box or tub this year, take a few minutes to jot down the contents. Place the content list inside the box on top of the contents. This will help you find the exact item you need in the future (for that school project in February or blog post in August). The content list will also help you pack items away next year because you’ll know exactly which box they’ll fit in.

#4 Place fabric or paper items in resealable plastic bags

I always place any items with fabric or paper in a resealable plastic bag. This helps protect the item from bugs and moisture.

#5 Label each bag with the contents

I label each plastic bag with the contents so that I know which decorations go where when I pack away the decorations.

#6 Use bubble wrap to protect items

I wrap any items that might be damaged in storage or moving in bubble wrap. I’ve found these padded envelopes that mail-order prescriptions come in to work perfectly (and save money and the landfill).

#7 Place smaller items inside of larger items

I always place smaller items inside larger items so that I can pack more into each box. This also helps secure the items so that they won’t rattle around as much.

These tips have worked for me as we’ve moved all over the world and stored our decorations in all kinds of climates. I hope that you find these tips storing and organizing your Halloween decorations make the job a bit easier this year and a lot easier next year when you begin decorating. Have a very happy Halloween.

Susan

Organized 31

Be sure to check out more packing and moving ideas from Susan over on her blog.

Packing Christmas Decorations to Survive a Military Move

Packing Moving and Storing Shoes

Tips for an Organized Pantry in a New Kitchen

The post Tips for Storing and Organizing Halloween Decorations appeared first on Ask Anna.

The farms are stock full of a variety of apples this time of year, most of which are perfect for caramelizing and dipping. There are no limits as to what you can top them with. The best part about it is how easy these treats are to make. So easy, I even include my children in the process. Here are the easy step by step instructions:

After gathering supplies and toppings, insert sticks into the apples, line cookie sheet with wax paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Unwrap caramels (this is where the children really help me out) then melt in saucepan with 2 Tbs. water. Stir over med-low heat until melted and smooth.

Dip apples in caramel, using a spoon to spread and cover them completely.

 After apples have set and cooled on cookie sheet for a few minutes, fold in excess caramel on bottom.

(I’m sorry I didn’t get a good picture of them cooling, I was too preoccupied with the children.)

Now the fun part! Roll apples in topping.

*Note: I pressed them in a little to help them stay on.

The post Easy How to: Classic Caramel Apples appeared first on Ask Anna.

I’ve had this orange tub for years. When I’m not using it for parties or Halloween candy, I use it to store mittens, hats and other loose items in our coat closet. To get ready for Halloween, I grabbed the orange tub, some cardboard headed for the recycle bin, scissors, black construction paper and double stick tape. And be sure to schedule all of about 5 minutes to complete this organizing project.

I cut the cardboard to fit into my tub and then cut notches into each piece.

The notches allow the cardboard to fit together and stand up in place.  I made one larger section for candy and 2 smaller sections for my non-peanut and non-candy treats. I cut out a jack o’lantern face from the construction paper and add it to the tub with double stick tape.  The double stick tape allows me to easy remove the face after Halloween and return my tub to its coat closet organizing duties.

I handout Halloween gift certificates to our neighbors with peanut allergies. I put the gift certificates in DIY Halloween envelopes. I also hand out decorated fruit cups for the toddlers that come out trick-or-treating (using orange colored fruit cups makes it easy to decorate them as jack o’lanterns).  And finally, I do have candy to handout to the majority of trick-or-treaters.  The first year I had separate treats to hand out, I had each one in different bowls. I found that three different bowls were difficult to juggle when a hoard of trick-or-treaters arrived.

Having everything in one bowl makes handing treats out to the hoards so much easier and that makes everyone much happier.  I hope organizing your Halloween candy helps you and your trick-or treaters have a very Happy Halloween.

Susan

Organized 31

I love Susan’s idea to organize your Halloween candy! You can find more of Susan’s Halloween treat ideas over at her blog.

Halloween Deviled Egg Eyeballs

Nut Free Halloween Treats

Halloween Pencil Case

The post How to Organize Halloween Candy appeared first on Ask Anna.

With the weather turning colder, the weekends sometimes seem longer, and not in a good way.  My boys are stuck inside a lot more and with all their pent-up energy, they turn into tornadoes, terrorizing each other – and their dad and me – on their destructive path through the entire house.  Last Christmas, I started making my Countdown Jars and they have been a lifesaver on more than one occasion.  Since I started making them around Christmas, there wasn’t a Halloween version yet… Until TODAY!

Now, when we’re stuck inside, we have a quick go-to list of activities to do together.  Some of them get us out of the house and some we can do at home.  Some take almost no preparation and some require a little more effort.  And my kids love the surprise of picking an activity out of the jar.  If we can’t (or don’t want to) do an activity when they choose it, we just pick another one.  Getting to choose again is usually so much fun that they don’t even care we don’t get to do the original activity.

Materials Needed:

• – Clean jar or other container to store the activity slips
• – FREE download of my KIDS’ HALLOWEEN ACTIVITY JAR
• – Scissors or paper cutter
• – Tape or glue to adhere the label to the jar

Directions:

• – Print out the Halloween Jar Activities.
• – Cut out each colored rectangle and the square jar label with the scissors or paper cutter.
• – Fold each activity in half or in fourths, whichever you prefer, and put them in the jar.
• – Apply the label to the outside of the jar and you’re all set for some Halloween fun!

This set includes 10 activities plus the jar label – perfect for a weekend activity or those after school evenings when there’s just a little too much free time and you need something to entertain the kiddos for a little bit. If you’d like to download the entire set (36 activities) you can get it in my Etsy shop.

You can check out a full 31-day countdown calendar in my Etsy Shop, which includes 31 Fall and Halloween activity prompts!  It’s a great way to countdown to Halloween with a little fun everyday!  Activities are aimed mostly at toddlers and pre-schoolers; however there is also a blank template you can use to fill in your own fun activities.

Happy Halloweening!

Krista

While He Was Napping

Here are a couple other Halloween projects that Krista has done. Head over to her blog to check out all the details.

DIY Halloween Chalkboard

DIY Witches Potions

DIY Spell Book

The post Kids’ Halloween Activity Jar appeared first on Ask Anna.

#1 Candles

When you walk into a home and the air is filled with the fragrance of spiced apples, pumpkins or something freshly baked, you are automatically swept into a blissful place. The number one way to make your house feel like Fall is to fill your home with the scents of fall. I love the Better Homes and Gardens candles at Walmart because they are inexpensive and smell AMAZING. It’s also easy to pair them with the Better Homes and Gardens wax cubes that you can use in a burner (I use a Scentsy burner) so even if you can’t have a candle burning, your house will still smell delicious. Michaels also has yummy seasonal candles, they are a little more expensive but also last longer.

#2 Choose a Fall Color

It’s easy to go overboard with color since there are so many beautiful Fall colors. My advice is to pick one, or two, colors and stick with those. By doing this your guests will be drawn to those colors throughout your home and notice every decoration you have, even if it’s not very many. For example, we have a lot of teals and grays in our house, so this year I decided to decorate for Fall with deep purples, oranges and whites. I switched out the colored dishes on the open shelves in my kitchen, I added a a few decorations to our dining room table and I purchased inexpensive pillow covers at IKEA to transform the pillows on the couch.

Most of my decorations were things I already had but I did purchase a few new key items, like all the deep purple flowers. You save a lot of money if you repurpose old decorations and only purchase a few new things that coordinate with your color scheme.  Even though I didn’t spend a lot on decorations, my house still looks like fall and is inviting for our guests.

#3 Lighting

Summer is a time for bright lights and lots of sunshine but when Fall comes around it’s time to tone it down a little. We have dimmers on all our main lights which allows us to bring the light down just a little to “set the mood”. Dimmers are a great way to play with the lighting in your house and they are also very affordable and easy to install. You can even buy lamp dimmers on Amazon to dim all your floor and table lamps!

The other way to get your Fall lighting perfect, is to add candles. Once the weather cools down I add candles and tea lights in just about every room in our house. I buy tea lights in packs of 100 and go through them in a couple months! I recommend the unscented tea lights because you don’t want them to interfere with the smell of your seasonal candles.

#4 Front Porch

The last, but certainly not the least thing, to think about is your front porch. Your front porch is the first thing your guests will see and it’s the first impression they will have of your Fall decorating. You don’t need to go overboard and put out tons of decorations, in fact I like to keep mine pretty simple.

Placing a fall wreath on the front door and adding lanterns and/or pumpkins is all you need. Keeping your porch decorations simple will make decorating it affordable, but will have a big impact on welcoming your guests!

Now it’s time for you to decorate your home! Buy a few key decorations, or use what you already have, either way you’ll be saving money with these tips, which means more money set aside for Christmas!

Disclosure: I have included affiliate links in this post but if you purchase through them you will not pay a cent more than you would otherwise. Thank you for supporting Ask Anna!

The post How to Decorate for Fall on a Budget appeared first on Ask Anna.