Halloween has passed, and I, like many others, now have a random costume hanging in my closet. The question always becomes — what the heck do I do with this odd, obviously niche piece of clothing now? 

Well, luckily for you, dear reader, I have some ideas on how you can reduce, reuse and recycle your Halloween costume from this year, and even from years past. 

First of all, this problem is always avoidable if you simply don’t purchase a costume. Don’t buy into those seemingly eloquently made gowns or cloaks that for some reason are way too alluring to the click-happy consumer. 

With online shopping, it’s become so easy to search up a costume idea and go nuts with it. You could always compile a costume from your current closet that screams ordinarily cliche and boring, like a character from Gilmore Girls, but where’s the fun in that? 

However, let’s say that you do buy into the festive, spooky spirit and decide to purchase a costume. You wear it once — and then what? You obviously need to A) decide to be a professional impersonator or B) do some creative thinking to reuse your costume. 

Let’s say you decided to purchase a cat costume for Halloween: simple, basic and easy. If you’re a musician, you’re in luck because you now have your concert black attire, with little kitty ears to boot. 

Now, this reusing situation gets a bit hairy if you decided to be, say, a giant orange Hydro Flask… I think at that point you just need to succumb to the voices (and paint fumes) in your head and try out for a position as the school mascot. You’ve had ample time to become accustomed to the sideways glances and the snickering faces, so why not slap a big, happy squirrel head on instead of a big ol’ twistable lid? 

Now, I did say that you could maybe recycle your Halloween costume, and that is entirely true, because with the quality of typical, store-bought Halloween costumes (especially pants), you’re essentially wearing a suit of plastic. So chuck that sucker in the recycling bin, or stuff it into a plastic bottle for bricks and you’re good to go. 

With all this new-found knowledge on what to do with your now old Halloween costumes, I hope to see a lot more ingenuity when it comes to fashion choices as well as recycled materials around campus.