Decorating Your Halloween Table on a Budget!

I’m obsessed with Halloween. I legitimately cannot get enough.

And I’m especially obsessed with decorating my dining room table for the holidays! (Did you know I decorate for others too?) While generally I show how I decorate my home with Goodwill finds, I couldn’t help but share some bargain hunting I did at Target to get the items you see here today. It may not be secondhand, but it’s all $5 or below and I just wanted to show off the goods ;-)

There are some thrifted items on the table - the white dinner plates for example, the small Halloween bowls, the candleabra (one of my favorite finds ever!) and a few of the black skulls. But for the most part everything else is clearance at Target or in their Dollar Bins. The runner was also on clearance this past summer for $2.38 and I found the black lace at Goodwill which I cut up and put as sections over the runner - perfect!

Whenever I see seasonal items on sale, like the black chargers, I make sure to pick them up if I can use them for a different season’s decor. I knew the black would be perfect for Halloween - and they were Hearth and Hand marked down to only $.88 a piece! The same was true for the small dinner plates and the napkins, they were all seasonal clearance at one point and I started accumulating the items with a vision for Halloween. So while it may not be thrifted it’s still repurposed so that counts ;-)

Each of the pumpkins were in the dollar bin area and I scattered them throughout on the runner. Less can be more and while I kept things in a similar color scheme here it only took me a minute of playing around with the table to come up with this creation.

A few simple finds and voila, I have a fun black/white themed Halloween table! Perfect for a ghoulish and spooktacular meal!

Part of my services through Second Look are also home decorating - check it out, no matter your needs! Seasonal, just because, moving, nurseries…I’ll help find you the best of the best items at a price point you’re comfortable with and come in and decorate your space! Can’t wait!

Happy Haunting!

Sarah

Making White Shoes White Again!

One of the things people forget about sustainable fashion is that it’s not just about buying used but it’s also about finding ways to “clean up” items that you may think about getting rid of due to excessive wear, damage, etc.

I had a pair of Converse that had seen better days and were no longer white again. But with a few tricks we were able to get these babies looking brand spanking new again. Based on the response on social when I shared this, I figured I’d put the tips here as well to help!

Here was the finished product:

Steps:

1. Remove the shoe laces, and clean off any surface dirt and grime from the shoes with a scrub brush.

2. For safe whitening and stain removal on most light colored clothing/bedding, my go-to is always oxi-clean white revive powder. Prepare a cleaning solution in a bucket, made up of a high concentration of oxi-clean and hot water, (think a full scoop in a small half-filled bucket of water).

3. Throw the laces in the solution, and then use the scrub brush to gently scrub cleaning solution into the canvas material of the cons, including the tongue. Save the rest of the solution.

4. Wait a couple hours, then throw the shoes into the bucket of solution and add more hot water until it completely covers the shoes. Wait another couple hours with it soaking in.

5. Remove the laces, and rinse those out by hand. Remove the shoes, and place them in a washer load with light colored and non-delicate items such as towels. Depending on how worried you are about any odors transferring, you can even skip this step and hand scrub and rinse the cleaning solution out of the shoes. Expect to put it through 2+ rinses.

6. Let shoes air dry, thread up the laces. If spots remain on the canvas, repeat the process with a stain stick spot treatment, and then the oxiclean again.

Amazing how they look brand new! Here are the two products recommended above for this process:

Typical gentle Scrub Brush | Oxi-Clean Used

And that’s it! If you use the process be sure to send your before and after pics - would love to see how it comes out! Clean rather than throwing out, buy used rather than new!