The holiday season is coming up fast, and along with it comes all of the decorations. One mom shared a simple and easy way to store your window clings to keep them in good condition for years to come.
The scoop
Seasonal gel decorations that stick to windows and mirrors are a cute way to add to your holiday decor. Unfortunately, they come in packaging that is hard to keep and easily lost. TikToker Kakes (@hellokakes) shared an ingenious way to keep your gel clings organized for years to come.
@hellokakes Because we love reusing things🫶🏻 #LifeHack #StorageTip #organization ♬ original sound - Kakes
In the clip, which garnered nearly 60,000 likes from people looking for storage and reuse content, Kakes shows us the gels she has stuck to her bathroom mirror: a collection of gourds, presumably for the Halloween season.
If, like her, you lost their container, there's an easy solution.
"Get a Ziploc bag, and you're going to cut the sides," Kakes instructs. In the video, you can see the large bag open like a folder, leaving you a large plastic area.
For the hack to work, you simply stick your window clings to the inside of the bag and seal up the top. Your decorations are now ready to store until next season.
How it's helping
Tips like this help you keep organized and save items that might otherwise get thrown out. Decorations like these may not be expensive, but buying them every Halloween will add up. Plus, keeping them year after year means fewer plastic decorations end up in the landfill.
Seasonal decorations and other holiday-specific gear, while cute, are unfortunately a big waste stream, according to Waste Managed, which noted that environmental group Hubbub found "a shocking 83% of Halloween costumes used nonrecyclable oil-based plastics, which meant they were destined to end up in landfill."
🗣️ Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics?
🔘 Giving me money back 💰
🔘 Letting me trade for new stuff 👕
🔘 Making it as easy as possible ⚡
🔘 Keeping my stuff out of landfills 🗑️
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
They also wrote that "in the U.S., over 5.4 million kilograms [11.9 million pounds] of textile waste is produced by businesses and consumers throwing away Halloween costumes."
On top of that, candy wrappers for holidays like Halloween also pose an issue. In 2022, the Los Angeles Times reported that Americans buy "an estimated 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween." Only a small percentage of those wrappers get recycled.
Fortunately, there are ways to reuse everything from Mylar balloons to tissue paper in our decorating. You can also make eco-friendly garlands out of dried citrus and then toss those in the compost at the end of the season.
What everyone's saying
Other holiday decorators were happy to learn a way to be a little less wasteful this season.
"In this economy, what a hack," one person said.
Someone else suggested: "Hole-punch the ziplock & put them in a binder for easy organizing!"
"I do this! Best thing I ever did and I don't have a gelly ball of mess or lose any pieces. Not only that, they'll last for years storing it like this," commented another storage fan.
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