Give Halloween Costumes New Life at Your Library!

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Make Halloween greener by hosting a costume swap at your library! Halloween costumes tend to be one and done, but with a swap, ghosts of costumes past can be revived! National Costume Swap Day is the second Saturday in October so that can be a perfect start day for your swap! My library starts our swap then and leaves it up through Halloween. This year will mark our Fourth Annual Costume Swap!

 Here’s what you will need:

1. Collection receptacle– large box, bin, or other container so donated costumes can be dropped off together. Make sure you put a sign on it to indicate what items should be included. We set it out at least two weeks before the swap to take advantage of people sorting through their Halloween items. It is left out until October 31st.
2. Clothing rack– If possible borrow one from staff or community. It is easy to purchase a foldable one online. These costumes are not heavy so you do not need a heavy duty rack and regular ones are usually not too expensive. Remember, this rack will last for multiple years if stored properly. It will be an initial expense, but not a repeat purchase. Make sure there is enough space around the rack so the costumes can be easily seen and that it is in view of library staff for monitoring.
3. Plastic bins or smaller containers for costume accessories- make it easier to contain various smaller pieces.  
4. Hangers– ask for donations from the community or check in local Buy Nothing Groups. Hangers seem to be a popular give away item. We purchased hangers and request that patrons just take the costumes and leave the hangers so we have them for next year. We box them up with the rack and they are stored until the next swap.
5. Signs to indicate sizes. We tend to group them by age such as, Baby and Toddler, Small: Sizes 4-5 and so on. We made our signs using a Cricut plus the pen to write on them and then laminated them for stability. If you prefer you can purchase pre-made and pre-sized signs. We keep the signs with the rack and hangers and reuse them.

We ask that costumes and their accessories be in good usable condition. Sometimes we will have to dispose of items that are too damaged. Pro tip: always say thank you and do not dispose of anything until the person has left the premises. We usually sort through the costumes as they are donated. It just makes it easier and faster when we set up the swap itself. In my library we encourage, but don’t strictly enforce the swap aspect. In many cases we have families who are donating because they no longer have younger children or other family members to whom they can pass down costumes so they are just happy to see them being used. We do ask that people not take more than they need.

The rack is placed directly across from the Children’s Desk so it can be easily monitored. The rack is assembled and the costumes are hung a day or so before we put them out for the swap. We do ask that adults be the ones to take things off the rack for everyone’s safety. We allow try-ons using the library restrooms. The rack and remaining costumes are left up an extra day or so after Halloween so everyone can take full advantage of the offerings. Whatever is left over is then donated on and the cycle will begin again next year.

(All photos courtesy of Monica Williams)

Today’s guest contributor is Monica Williams. Monica is a Children’s librarian at the Port Jefferson Free Library located in Port Jefferson, NY Long Island. She received both her BA and MA in Art History from SUNY Stony Brook.  She has been working as a librarian for over 17 years. She loves being creative and crafty and sharing those skills with others through her library programming.

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

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