We all need to go through the stuff the kids bring home. Never know what loser's door the kids went to and now there is something dangerous in the kids bag. If you went with the kids because they are little or just as a chaperone. I hope you took the chance to talk to neighbors along the way, took a good look at what you could see from their doorway and generally learned as much about your neighborhood as you could.
We all get our percentage of candy from what the kids bring home. This is when the family works like the Mob and we all get a 'taste' of what the earners have brought in. This year take your percentage and focus on skimming some of the hard candy off the top. Not the chocolate or any other candy which is not hard as a rock. All of the softer candies will go bad faster than the hard candy and we want to stash some away for as long as they will last!
When planning for a bad day you should stash some hard candy in with your supplies because they could come in handy for a couple of things. The first is to boost your morale. Who wouldn't want a piece of candy when things are going south? Especially kids, if you have kids put some away. Think of all the times you might need a piece of candy when dealing with a scared child! You might even be able to trade some of the candy with others or just share some of the candy with your neighbors when things are bad.
If you decorated for the celebration odds are you have some extra candles in the house now. Might even have some barely used batteries from the decorations? Take these and put them away somewhere. The candles are good for a blackout and just put the batteries into your normal battery stash. Leaving them in the electric decorations means they are just wasted since the odds are they will not be good come the next year. Going to the store this weekend? Look for the sales on the Halloween candles!!! A candle is a candle when the lights go out!!! See about picking up some of the candy on sale also.
Did you light up your house with strings of lights? Are they solar powered or plugged in? Solar lights are great to save money on the electric bill and have a duel use as emergency lighting!! Most won't last all night and they do not put out a lot of light yet any light in the dead of the night is good. Couple strands of these charged during the day and hung in a room at night can make a bad time better.
Your day might be spent cleaning up after the big party. Take the time to see what is worth putting away. Did you use plastic cups, paper plates, plastic silverware and napkins? Save what wasn't used they will come in handy for the next party. If the water stops running you now have dinnerware you do not have to worry about cleaning. You also have a ready resource if relatives or friends show up at your door needing a place to stay.
If you suddenly have a house full of people a red cup and a marker to write people's names on the cups can go along way to keeping from causing unneeded dishes. Especially with the young ones who will leave half drunk glass of stuff everywhere. The plates can be used more than once depending on what you are eating and if they are not coated in plastic you can easily use the trash to start a fire. When it comes time to do dishes you really only have to wash the plastic eating utensils. Napkins might also need to do double duty as toilet paper if things get really bad. Might sound gross but better than nothing!
Got any leftover food you can put away in the freezer? Maybe you were serving apples, carrots or other items you can put on a dehydrator and keep for longer? Take a look around and see what you have now which you can repurpose for your planning needs. Waste nothing you do not have to.
As always,
Stay Safe!!!!
Great ideas all! Some of these things I've never thought about! Thank you!
ReplyDeletej