Along with lots of sweet treats and fun, Halloween always brings interesting cleaning challenges, like candy stains and gunk from your pumpkins – not to mention those devilish trick or treaters!
Here’s a rundown of how to clean up common Halloween spills:
- Candy kisses on your rug. First, scrape off any excess candy. Mix a few drops of dish detergent into 1 cup of warm water. Blot the stain using this solution and a clean microfibre cloth. If the stain doesn’t come up, blot with a mixture of 1/3 white vinegar and 2/3 water. Finish by blotting with warm water.
- Pumpkin mess. Before you even carve your Jack-‘o-lantern, put down newspaper for easy cleanup. Too late? Use a spoon to scrape off as much pumpkin gunk as possible, then scrub with a solution of dish washing liquid and warm water.
- Glitter, glitter everywhere. Vacuum up as much of the glitter as you can. For the remnants on your hardwood flood, try gently rolling Playdoh over the mess to pick up sparkles. This might be a fun chore for your kids too!
- Silly string. If your front porch and shrubs were decorated with silly string, clean it up as soon as you can in the morning. Most of it should come off with soap and water, then remove any residue with a cotton ball dipped in warm water.
- Toilet paper. Toilet paper helps to make little ghostly figures, but it can be tough to remove – especially if it gets wet. Clean up toilet paper decorations before it rains. If the “decorations” were put in your tree and were not your doing, carefully use a ladder and a stick wrapped in duct tape (sticky side out) to reach it.
- Eggs. If your home was egged overnight (hopefully it hasn’t), pick up the eggshells, then hose down dried egg from the surfaces. Cover resistant stains with a rag soaked in white vinegar and water. Remove after fifteen to twenty minutes, and wipe down the area with a dry microfibre cloth.
