Halloween Cleanup: Wax, Cobwebs, Pumpkin Goo & More

Halloween

It's November 1st. Somewhere in your house there's a Snickers ground into the rug, a jack-o'-lantern quietly turning into soup on the porch, and enough fake cobweb stuck to the shrubs to catch a small bird. (Unfortunately, it actually can. More on that in a minute.)

Halloween is the only holiday where you spend weeks making your house look dirty on purpose, and then have to clean all of it up. Here's how to do that in one morning, room by room and mess by mess, without losing your mind or your favorite tablecloth.

Start With a 10-Minute Sweep

Before you treat a single stain, grab a big trash bag and a laundry basket and walk the whole house once.

  • Trash bag: candy wrappers, broken glow sticks, used napkins, the vampire teeth nobody will ever put back in their mouth.
  • Laundry basket: costumes, capes, anything with makeup or fake blood on it, and stray pieces of decoration that belong somewhere else.
  • Kitchen counter: leftover candy, all of it, in one bowl, where you can see exactly how much there is. (This is the scary part.)

Once the clutter is gone, you can actually see the real messes. Now go after them.

A living room with a basket labeled 'clutter";

How to Get Candle Wax Off (Almost) Anything

Candles in pumpkins, candles on the mantel, candles that tipped over at 9 p.m. when the dog went after the doorbell. Wax is the number-one Halloween mess, and the fix is the same idea every time: harden it, scrape it, then melt out the rest.

On tablecloths and clothes: Put the fabric in the freezer (or hold an ice cube in a zip-top bag on the wax) until the wax is brittle. Scrape off as much as you can with a dull knife or an old credit card. Then lay a plain paper bag or a few paper towels over the spot and press with a warm, dry iron. The wax melts into the paper.

Keep moving to a clean section of paper until nothing more comes up. If there's a colored ghost of dye left behind, pretreat it with a stain remover before you wash it, and check that it's gone before the item goes in the dryer. Dryer heat sets stains for good.

On carpet: Same routine. Ice, scrape, then paper bag and an iron on low. Don't let the iron touch the carpet fibers directly, especially on synthetic carpet, unless you want a small melted crater to go with your stain.

On wood furniture and floors: Harden the wax with ice, then gently lift it with a plastic scraper or credit card. Never use metal. Whatever film is left, warm it with a hair dryer on low and wipe it away with a soft cloth, then buff.

In glass votives and candle holders: Pop them in the freezer for an hour. The wax shrinks and usually pops right out. Wash off the residue with hot, soapy water.

Fake Cobwebs: Get Them Down Before They Get Anyone

Stretchy fake cobwebs are cheap, spooky and a nightmare to remove. They're also a genuine hazard for birds and small wildlife, which can get tangled in them outdoors. So the outdoor webs come down first, today.

  • Outside: Pull them off shrubs and porch railings by hand, wearing gloves, and bag them right away.
  • Inside: Twirl a dry broom or a duster into the web like you're winding spaghetti on a fork. A lint roller picks up the wispy leftovers.
  • Don't vacuum big pieces. Those fibers wrap around the brush roll and you'll spend the afternoon cutting them out with scissors. Ask me how I know.

Pumpkin Guts and the Jack-o'-Lantern Situation

halloween-pumpkin-carving

Fresh pumpkin goo on counters, tables or floors: Scrape up the solids, then wipe with warm, soapy water. If it's dried, lay a wet, soapy cloth over it for a few minutes to soften it first. See Tricks for Treating Halloween Stains for tips.

Pumpkin on fabric or carpet: Pumpkin leaves an orange stain that's a lot like an oily food stain. Scrape it, blot it with a few drops of dish soap in cool water, rinse, and repeat. Don't rub. Rubbing just pushes the orange deeper into the fibers.

The porch pumpkin: Get it off the step before it collapses. Take out any candles, wax and fake decorations, then compost it or toss it in your green-waste bin. If it has already left a slimy ring behind, scrub the spot with dish soap and water. Wipe moldy residue with white vinegar.

Face Paint, Makeup and Fake Blood

Halloween makeup ends up on towels, pillowcases, collars and, somehow, the ceiling.

  • Grease paint and cream makeup: These are oily, so treat them like grease. Work a little dish soap into the stain, let it sit 10 minutes, then wash in the warmest water the care label allows.
  • Fake blood: Rinse from the back of the fabric with cold water as soon as you can. Most fake blood is basically syrup and red dye. Pretreat with stain remover or soak in an oxygen-bleach solution, then wash. Check before drying, and repeat if any pink is left.
  • Glitter: Glitter is forever. Get what you can with a lint roller, packing tape or a damp paper towel, then vacuum. Accept the rest.

Candy in the Carpet (and on the Couch)

Chocolate: Let it harden, or help it along with an ice cube, then scrape off what you can. Blot what's left with a teaspoon of dish soap in a cup of cool water, rinse with plain water and blot dry. Hot water melts chocolate deeper into the fibers.

Hard candy and lollipops: Sugar dissolves in warm water, so this one's easy. Dab with a warm, damp cloth until the sticky spot is gone, then blot dry.

Gum and taffy: Harden it with ice, then chip it off with a dull knife.

Smashed Eggs on the House or Car

If your house or car got egged, move fast. Rinse with cool water, never hot. Hot water cooks the egg proteins and practically glues them on. Then wash gently with dish soap and a soft sponge. Egg left on car paint can damage the finish, so don't leave this one until the weekend.

Put Halloween Away So Next Year Is Easy

The best gift you can give future you is to put the decorations away right, instead of all of it in one box.

  • Wipe everything down first. Dust and candle soot on decorations turn into permanent grime in storage.
  • Wrap string lights around a piece of cardboard so they don't come out next October as a single giant knot.
  • Toss the broken stuff. The skeleton missing an arm? The cracked plastic cauldron? You're not going to fix them. Let them go.
  • Label the bin "Halloween" in big letters, and put the things you'll need first on top.
  • Costumes: Spot-clean them, wash per the care label, and store them in a labeled bin for dress-up. Or donate the ones the kids have outgrown while they're still in season for someone else.

What to Do With All That Leftover Candy

Keep a reasonable amount. Be honest with yourself about what "reasonable" means. Freeze some of the chocolate for holiday baking (it keeps for months), and donate the rest. 

daily-home-reset-final

Many dentists' offices run candy buyback programs, and some organizations send donated candy to troops overseas.If this morning felt like an emergency, it doesn't have to. 

The Daily Home Reset is my 15-minute-a-day system for keeping your house clean, calm and chaos-free, holidays included.

It's built around short daily bursts instead of weekend marathons, and it includes a room-by-room reset routine plus an Emergency Reset for when company's coming and the house is a wreck. 

Keep Going

  • Laundry Guide: See our guide for tips on removing clothing stains.