Thread: How to get free Halloween decorations (Trash finds).

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So you're walking into a Halloween store and notice how expensive a lot of the decorations are. You see something you like and when you pull open your pockets, all you have is a few dollars and some lint. After all that, you end up going home and crying due to the fact that you just can't afford Halloween.

Well, I'm here to try to help you. How? By giving you a few ways. All you need is a little creativity, a car and a little LESS dignity.....

First off, never be afraid to ask your family, friends and coworkers if they have any decorations they don't want anymore. You never know til you ask. I've received several inflatables and a "you should have asked sooner!".

Second. Try looking in the free section of Craigslist. Don't just look for Halloween stuff. Look for stuff that can be converted to decorations. Old tools, metal chains, barrels, mannequins..... Beggars can't be choosers, but an true artist can work with anything.

Finally, there is trash day. You heard me. Trash day. Every week, I've have come across old garden tools, blow molds, organs and fully working inflatables. You can use some items for the body of your monster or a scene in a haunted house.

So go ahead and post your trash find!

yea this has been my method for years. why pay full price when there is so much out there to get for free? many local town 'dumps' also have a section for things that are not quite dump worthy.

i get a ton of stuff off craigslist and of course there is yard sale season. thats why i love the 'what did you find' type of threads. its so cool to see what everyone manages to scavange

I usually place a want ad for low cost items in need or search freebie on CL. I also browse local community yard sales.

One of my co-workers is downsizing her display stuff & I now have a full sized wood & metal coffin sitting in our warehouse, waiting for someone w/a truck large enough to pick it up for me!

She's also selling some of her stuff & I get dibs on it when she gets to that storage area.

We have bulk trash pick up twice a year & I'm always scouring the neighborhoods w/Halloween in mind when that happens.

I just found a wheel chair that I'm going to put a corpse in. It works still too. Can't believe someone would throw that out!

OMG I look for stuff all the time! I found a basket in the middle of the street today, but someone smooshed it before I could get to it. Blah!

The best thing I have found yet!!! was 2 absolutely HUGE bags of foamy noodle looking things that must have fallen off a truck on the freeway. It was just by the exit on the grassy part between the exit and the frontage rd. I think it is some type of insulation or something and they are black and round and about an inch in diameter and super long, I think the whole bag is only 1 or 2 strands! I CAN"T WAIT TO USE IT THIS YEAR!!! WOOO! Not sure what to do, but I think it would go over my whole front yard.

J

I just found something off a different freeway exit. It is a plant that looks like a broom. The roots are still attached like growing out of the bottom, but it is all woody and awesome. I might paint it. We'll see.

J

SimplyJenn, I can't be sure from the small picture but that looks like one of the branches that falls off certain types of date/palm trees. Would you like me to send you a few truck loads of them?

Good idea on using it for a prop. I can picture a long row of them sticking up and looking really creepy in the dark.

That would be awesome, but not in the budget right now. Thanks you tho.

J