r/ZeroWaste • u/caitlowcat • 11h ago
Tips & Tricks Halloween Costume
i’ve always made my sons Halloween costume because it‘s just such a waste to purchase a pile of synthetic material for one evening. I also hate how commercial American holidays are and on principle I refuse to buy a costume and we’re only making homemade decorations. So this year we’re going to be ghostbusters and he wants to be the Stay Puft marshmallow man. Found a DIY costume tutorial and asked on Buy Nothing for the materials I don’t have Including a GIF of the character. Someone messages me privately saying they have the costume in his size that I can borrow. Done and done! The ultimate zero / low waste tip is to rely on community and ask for what you need.
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u/3orangefish 7h ago
I wish it was more normalized to have swap meetups for this stuff.
Also, now that I am older with too many responsibilities, I decided to just have a Halloween “uniform.” I had a cute skeleton set before I gained some weight. When I switched to a cute witch outfit I wear while changing up the accessories with what I have.
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u/caitlowcat 5h ago
So you should do this and I may too. I have a pretty strong moms group where I live and a mid-September Halloween costume trade is such a great idea!
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u/IKnowAllSeven 3h ago edited 3h ago
Our local library has a costume swap ( and formal wear swap!). When I was president of PTA, we did a costume swap at the school. We asked for old costumes and “ potential costumes” I supplemented the donations with purchases of “ costume like” items from thrift.
It was a lot of work
To do the costume swap but it was really
Enjoyable.Also, look for Just Between Friends sales! They are pop up events where everything is consignments
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u/caitlowcat 1h ago
Gosh I always hear about people’s libraries being extra cool - don’t get me wrong, we adore our library, but they could step it up.
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u/IKnowAllSeven 1h ago
It’s a ton of work to put it on! I know that’s why a lot of Libraries don’t do ir
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u/IKnowAllSeven 2h ago
Just another zero waste idea for kids…
We did playground night for the kids school when I ran the PTA. It goes like this: we did it in the playground. We had a hot dog guy come and sell hot dogs (also brats, veggie dogs and lemonade). And then we had boxes. So many boxes. All size boxes. Refrigerator boxes. Medium boxes. Amazon boxes. Just piles and piles of boxes. And box cutters which we gave to a select number of dads and moms who were willing to slice boxes if kids requested (add a door here or a window there or a hole there). It was absolutely the easiest and best family fun night we did. And at the end of the night the boxes went in the recycle.
The parents were like “Are these stations we rotate through? What is the process?” I was like “There’s boxes. The kids play with the boxes. The end. It’s not that deep.”
I think parents liked that it was easy for them AND the kids.
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u/gaymythicalcreature 4h ago
Lool minecraft puff marshmallow and use white boxes /? U could use a muscle suit costume and DIY from there
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u/StarlightDreamer9 11h ago
I hate all the polyester costumes - my kids dressing up box is mostly thrifted hats, animal headbands and other accessories because she doesn't grow out of them so quickly and she can pair them with regular natural fibre clothing in appropriate colours.