Don’t get caught on Halloween without a costume! With an endless amount of ideas online, there’s no excuse to not find the perfect one for you—whether you want to go all out or just get in the game. The biggest problem might be where to start.
First, there’s the BUY vs. DIY debacle. It’s simple really, if you want to save money, try the DIY route this year.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, here are a few other considerations:
- Scary or cute?
- Group or individual?
- Trendy or traditional?
- Clever or obvious?
- Funny or gross?
It can be daunting to know where to start with your haunting-ly awesome costume. Here’s a pro tip: Start with items around the house like boxes, t-shirts, and balloons. Then, design your costume around that.
In no particular order, here’s a list of 70 costume ideas using common household items or things you can find at a thrift or discount store.
Boxes:
- Box of tissues or crayons
- Rubix Cube or dice
- X-ray machine
- Vending machine
- Train or airplane
- Lemonade stand
- Gameshow contestant
- Tetris block or Lego brick
- Traffic light
- Juicebox
Sweats, Joggers, or Leggings:
- Dominoes
- Skeleton
- Operation game
- Lion, tiger, elephant, dinosaur, penguin
- Olympic gymnast
- Care Bear
- 80s jogger, dancer, or Jazzercise enthusiast
- Gnome
- Thing 1 or Thing 2
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
Batting:
- Tornado
- Rainbow, clouds, or Cloud 9
- Sheep
- Cotton candy
- Cupcake
- Ice cream
- Almost any fruit
- Hot cocoa
- S’mores
- Octopus
Pool Noodles:
- Bowl of cereal
- Beehive
- Flip flop
- French fries
- Campfire
- Rainbow
- Macaroni and cheese
- Spider
- Artist with giant paintbrush
- Bowl of noodles
Balloons:
- Grapes
- Bag of jellybeans
- Traffic signal
- Gumball machine
- Pot of gold
- Bubble bath
- Bowl of candy
- Mario Kart character
- Pennywise (Please, no! Just no.)
- The Up house
Flannel or Plaid Shirt:
- Lumberjack
- Scarecrow
- Wolfman
- Jonathan Scott
- The Brawny Man
- Al Borland from Tool Time
- Will Byers from Stranger Things
- Larry the Cable Guy
- Jack Pearson from This Is Us (If you have a beard, shave it in various phases throughout the day: beard, goatee, mustache, then clean shaven.)
- Jack Torrance from The Shining (Please pick the previously mentioned Jack.)
T-Shirts:
- Fork in the road
- Chip on your shoulder
- Pumpkin Pi
- Tickled pink
- Scrabble tiles (Great group option!)
- Emoji face
- Error message
- Crayon
- Ketchup or mustard
- Charlie Brown
It’s probably pretty obvious where we stand on the scary vs. cute question. If you want to be Pennywise, no judgement here, but we might just have to avoid you on the trick-or-treat scene. Keep in mind: On any of these options, if you need a little more clarity, just Google the item and the costume idea (e.g., "t-shirt and pumpkin pi costume").
Now go get it done so you don’t have to stress at the last-minute!
