Our friends at ServiceMaster give their advice on how best to tackle the monster tidy-up challenge of a Halloween party. Here’s their advice:
Getting the Nursery Halloween Party Ready
A Halloween party can be messy, get organised before the big day.
A good idea to help keep your carpet clean from spilt drinks or dripping (fake) blood, plastic sheeting. At the end of the party, you can just pick up the sheet and clean outside and reuse it. Be careful not to create a slip or trip hazard though. You can even put plastic sheets or covers over your furniture and equipment to protect them. The children could even help by decoring the covers before the party to make them extra spooky.
Starting the clean-up
Here are some tips to make your setting look BOO-tiful after your Halloween party.
If one of your guests spills some “ketchup” on the carpet, act fast and do the following:
- Using a bit of kitchen paper or a tea towel, blot the area to soak up any excess liquids
- Scrape the surface to get rid of any solids
- Rub a small bit of washing up liquid onto the stain. Work your way from the outside, into the middle
- Use a damp tea towel again to blot and remove the soap suds.
If you cannot get to the area fast enough or don’t realise it’s there until the next day then you could call in professionals, such as the experts from ServiceMaster Clean to help.
If you are doing some pumpkin carving, layout newspapers to minimize the mess. The great thing about newspapers is they are compostable — so when you are done the carving, you can just roll up the whole mess and throw it in your green bin. Or if you are feeling more charitable, squirrels love pumpkin so why not take them out to your garden, or local park and leave them as a treat to the local wildlife (if it’s a public park be aware of local littering rules). The children would likely love to see the gradual disappearance of the pumpkin carcases and perhaps they might even attract some new wildlife into your garden. The Woodland Trust also have some advice on what to do with pumpkins seed, read their tips here .
The next stage is to get the hoover out and make sure you get into even the smallest of areas, like the sides of the seating and behind bookcases because you know for a fact someone has dropped some nibbles down there.
Happy Halloween