Decorating question, please help.

I usually won't put too much out during the beginning of October, as we have an annual neighborhood-wide garage sale on the 2nd weekend of October. As we almost always participate, I don't like having props I want to keep, out on display. This eliminates confusion, mistakes and possible theft (yeah, we will invariably have things stolen from our garage sales, but c'est la vie).

After the garage sale, I'll put out some fun items for people to enjoy - some cutesy items and an inflatable or two (YES. I DO have inflatables. My grandson digs 'em). These stay out until the morning of the 31st.

The weekend before Halloween, I'll hang up the lines I'm going to need to hang my floating candles and flying skeleton torso. Sometimes, I'll even add a floating candle or two to start things out. During the week leading up to the 31st, I'll also put out some of the more "not-so-obvious" items for my set up, and add a floating candle or three each day, to build up towards Halloween. Some skulls may show up here or there, but nothing major.

The morning of the 31st, the inflatables come down, and I get to work on putting out my set up. I like to do it during the day when no one is noticing the change, so when everyone comes out for ToT'ing, our house has transformed into "that great Halloween house", from just another place on the street.

Everything is out until midnight, when I bring everything back in. The only things left out are items I'm willing to lose (we live in a nice area, but there's spoiled middle-class little pieces of **** that are happy to steal and destroy just to cure their boredom. I've lost things to them in the past).

We start putting stuff up on Oct 1st. The only things that go out on the 31st are the electronic props. We lost a jumping spider to rain one year... he sorta worked after we dried him out, but the poor guy was never the same.

99% of our props we make ourselves, and one of our design requirements is they have to be 100% waterproof, so we can put any non-electronic prop out whenever we get around to it. We do have an issue with a Jeepers Creepers Creeper that has a rather massive wingspan, and he goes on the roof. A couple years ago, we had a tropical storm blow through with 40-50 MPH winds and the Creeper decided to fly off the roof. So we now put him up later in the month after the weather calms down.

As for theft, I write about this every year... go to Lowes or Home Depot and get yourself some Doberman window alarms. They're about the size of a Pringles can lid, cost about $10, and emit a screeching 100db alarm when jostled. Just turn them on, slip them into a prop, and they'll last for close to three years. Cameras suck at night, you gotta sleep sometime, but those alarms will send anyone who trips them running in a hurry. $10 isn't free, but it's better than paying to replace an expensive prop.

I've got a more complex cemetery set up this year than ever before, so I've been wondering about setup. I plan to set almost all of it up October 1, because the anticipation is killing me!

For my birthday my boyfriend built me this amazing pine coffin:

It's really heavy, so I don't think it could easily be stolen, but I'd be devastated if it were, so I'm thinking of putting it up close to the house and locking it to the porch with a subtly placed bike lock or something of the sort. I'm going to weatherproof it so it can stay out 24/7 in the Iowa fall.

I have also been working on a cauldron setup (photos to come). It's all attached to a platform, so I think I'm going to set that up but move it into the garage every night? The cauldron/coals/frame are weatherproof, but the cauldron creep isn't. I'm also in a new neighborhood this year, so I'm not sure what kind of traffic and/or troublemakers we'll get.