Halloween Help

Happy Halloween, fellow parents of trick-or-treaters!

Although technically candy is consumable, the size of the haul your kids bring home on Halloween can put it into the category of clutter.
 
How do you deal with it all?
 
Well, you could just not deal with it and let the kids keep and eat as much as they want. My main problem with this strategy is that having so much candy in the house is way too tempting for my husband and me! (The kids won’t notice anything missing, right?)
 
OK, so assuming you’d like to tame the candy beast a bit, here are some strategies that work for me:

1. The Halloween Store 
We've used this strategy since my oldest was very little. The day after Halloween, I set up the Halloween Store: a tray of items that my kids can buy from me using their candy as currency. Depending on the size of candy haul, items range in price from 1 piece of candy to 10. My kids love the Halloween Store!
 
I make sure the stuff isn’t totally clutter-y junk. Some ideas include: sugar-free gum or mints, fuzzy Christmas socks (so they can wear them before Christmas), hair accessories, pens/markers, notepads (this year: 11” post-its that I found on clearance), stickers, and small toys.

2. All-you-can-eat for One Week (or two weeks if you're a softie like me)
This way, you don’t have to police the kids’ eating habits (Relax, it’s only one week – just make sure they floss and brush.) and the candy doesn’t stick around for too long.

3. Get the leftover candy out of the house
My husband often brings it to his college students, but if you don't have that outlet, I suggest bringing it to a Halloween Candy Buy Back location. They take your leftover candy, you get either some cash or products, and they send the candy to our troops through Soldiers’ Angels.

Click Halloween Candy Buy Back to find a location near you or contact me and I'd be happy to collect your candy and bring it back for you.