We all have this issue: it’s the day after Halloween and your costume is useless and lying on the floor. You no longer need to be a cat or superhero, and you don’t have the foresight to tell if you will need to take up those forms again in the near future. But, have no fear because ideas about what you should be doing with those odd costume accessories are here.

Your first instinct may be to donate elements of your costume, but it is important to think about whether or not you may need them in the future.

You should consider whether or not parts of your costume could go well as year-round party accessories. If you bought a wig for your costume, you never know when that wig might come in handy. It might be helpful to store the wig in a box just in case you ever need to make a quick getaway in disguise or want a new look at a party.

I cannot even count the number of times I’ve thrown away parts of a costume that I needed a few months later. This is especially true of people involved in theater. Costumes for theater are hard to find when it isn’t Halloween time. If you, too, are involved in theater, it is definitely in your best interest to keep all of the items you bought.

You also don’t know what you might be for the next Halloween. I bought a Harry Potter Halloween costume when I was a freshman in high school, and even now as a junior in college I find having that costume helpful. It’s just comforting to know that if all else fails, I have a costume to fall back on.

If you really don’t think you have any use for your Halloween costume, you should still consider a few more uses before getting rid of it all together. If it’s a shirt, you can always use it as a cloth to do messy projects on. If it’s something comfy, you can repurpose it as pajamas. You can also cut up the costume and use it as confetti or something equally as fun.

The next best thing to think about is whether or not you have a friend who is an art major, or artist in general. Art majors and artists can always use their friends’ trash. You never know what meaning a pair of blue glasses might have to an art major.

Sometimes your friends won’t want your stuff. This is when you consider your dire options. Sometimes, a costume becomes so useless that you don’t want it wasting space and collecting dust in your home. This is when you head to the thrift store and dump all of the crap on them.