Halloween’s over and done with. You’ve collected enough candy to last you for months and you’re ready to take down all the decorations, when you notice the huge sparkly mess with wings hanging in your closet.  There’s no way you can keep it in there until next Halloween. Maybe you can stuff it into those boxes way in the back of the your closet. But it seems there’s no space in there either; the boxes are overflowing with the tulle, glitter and fake blood of costumes from Halloweens past. What do you do?

For the artistically inclined, there is the “costume remake” option. You can use material from old costumes for your everyday apparel. If your old superman costume no longer fits, you can cut out the logo and paste it onto a blue shirt. Make a fun shirt to wear in support of your favorite hero. Alternatively, you can make new costumes from old costumes. The wings from an old fairy princess costume can turn any plain white shirt into a usable costume. Add some black paint, and the wings can turn a drab black shirt into a Batgirl costume.

If you don’t want to destroy the fragile memory of your childhood trick-or-treating days by cutting up your costume, you can pass it on to younger siblings, family friends or your neighbors. You can even help younger kids remake your old costumes into something more to their liking—a practical and cheap idea. “I give my old costumes to my sister and she makes stuff for herself out of them. It saves money and it gives her something to do,” sophomore Edwina Tam said.

Another option for the philanthropically-inclined is donating your costume to a charity or thrift store. Many thrift stores around Stuyvesant accept Halloween costumes year-round. Monk’s Thrift Shop in Greenwich Village is a great place to donate costumes and shop around for new ideas. “I’d like to think that someone else is enjoying my Halloween costume as much as I did,” sophomore Emily Atlas said.

If your costumes aren’t in good enough shape to be donated, you should try turning them into Halloween decorations for next year. You can stuff a Halloween costume with straw and paper and hang it up for a spooky effect. Accessories like cat ears and plastic fangs can also be strategically placed around the home for easy Halloween décor.

Next time you see your costumes, don’t just shove them into the unexplored depths of your closet. Decide what you’re going to do with them. You don’t have to be Martha Stewart to do something fun and inventive with items that are usually used only once a year.