6 Spooky and Sustainable DIY Halloween Decoration Ideas

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Halloween is a fun time of year for goblins and ghouls of all ages. However, not everyone has it in their budget to go all-out with store-bought decor, while others may want to adopt a more sustainable method of celebration. Sustainable decorations are the best way to fully embrace the spooky season while ensuring you leave little to no waste for the earth.

1. Traditional Jack-O-Lanterns

Forego the plastic and styrofoam pumpkins in favor of the real thing. There’s nothing like the experience of carving your own jack-o-lantern and mimicking a design you like. Originally, jack-o-lanterns existed to frighten off vengeful spirits, but they’re used for decoration today.

Since they naturally decompose, you won’t have to worry about storing your jack-o-lantern each year. You can try a new design every October!

2. DIY Scarecrow

Do you have clothes you don’t wear anymore that aren’t in a good enough condition to give away? Consider building your own scarecrow to stick in your front yard. Torn or stained clothes can add to the horror appeal. All you need is some hay and a few articles of clothing.

You can even make your own spooky scarecrow family. If you want to use them more than once a year, consider dressing them up for other holidays.

3. Halloween Tree

Do you have an artificial holiday tree you pull out of storage each year? Consider grabbing it a few months early and swapping out the festive ornaments for Halloween decor. This decoration will take up space in your home, helping ensure you celebrate the season properly. You can reuse spooky paper decor from year to year for your tree.

Since two out of eight artificial Christmas trees contain lead dust, you should find a sustainable option that can last years without harming your health. Typically, a live tree is more environmentally friendly during the holidays. However, if you plan on using it for a decade or longer and have more than one purpose for it, an artificial tree might be the more cost-effective and sustainable option for your household.

4. Cardboard Gravestones

Halloween is for picking out the best costumes, whether you’re going solo or as a couple. Just as you occasionally rewear costumes, you need to search for decorations that will make you happy for years to come. When you order new things for the home or season, save the cardboard — there’s another decoration you can make with the waste.

Have your household help you cut the cardboard into gravestone-shaped pieces. From there, you can decorate them however you want. Simply weigh them down in your yard, and you’ll have a miniature cemetery that will look great from the road.

5. Bedsheet Ghosts

Why wouldn’t you want ghosts hanging around in your trees? One of the easiest Halloween decorations involves using old sheets, rags or cloths to create homemade spirits that watch the world from up in your trees.

You only need to use a rubber band to secure the cloth in a vaguely ghost-like shape. Then, you can place them in your trees or hot glue some string to them to hang them up like ornaments on the branches. Don’t forget to add little faces to them.

6. Lights in Jars

Recycling a glass jar is one of the best ways to minimize your waste while creating decorations unique to your household. Putting lights in jars can change the entire atmosphere of your home with ease.

Opt for orange, purple or black string lights, which represent the holiday well, and set the jars throughout your home to give an overall spooky vibe. Alternatively, you can buy color-changing lights and use these decorations year-round, changing the colors for the season.

Make This Halloween the Most Sustainable Yet

Halloween is one of the many holidays where people tend to go all out. When you choose sustainable decorations, you ensure you’re doing as little damage to the earth as possible while celebrating the season to its fullest. These ideas will help you feel more creative while allowing you to flex your crafty muscles and have unique decor you can show off. Your house might just be the most complimented while people are trick-or-treating!