There is something about October that makes even the most ordinary living room or front porch feel like it needs a pumpkin, a cozy blanket, and at least one slightly questionable skeleton.

And when you live with roommates, getting your place ready for Halloween can be half the fun. You do not need a huge decorating budget or a house that looks like it belongs in a horror movie. Pick a night, put on a spooky playlist, order a pizza, and make decorating the apartment an event instead of another item on your to-do list.

Here are a few tips from Roommates.com to bring the Halloween vibe home and have some fun with your roommates while you're at it.

Pick Your Halloween Personality

Before anyone buys a six-foot skeleton without consulting the group, decide what kind of Halloween household you want.

Are you going full haunted house? Cozy fall with pumpkins and twinkle lights? Vintage Halloween? Cute ghosts everywhere? Or maybe your decorating philosophy is simply, "We found this at the dollar store and thought it was funny."

Make a shared inspiration board or group chat and let everyone throw in ideas. Set a budget, then see what you can create with what you already own, thrift-store finds, and a few inexpensive decorations.

You can even turn the shopping trip into part of the night. Suggest each roommate spend $10-$15, set a timer, and go shopping. Half the fun is seeing who comes home with the best, weirdest, funniest, or most ghoulish Halloween decorations. 

The winner gets decorating bragging rights. The loser has to untangle the string lights or scrape the pumpkin seeds from everyone's pumpkin.

Give Your Place a Spooky Glow

Lighting might be the easiest way to change your apartment's whole mood without changing much.

Turn off the overhead lights and bring in orange or purple string lights, battery-operated candles, lanterns, or LED tea lights. Drape lights around a window, bookshelf, or TV area, and suddenly your regular Tuesday-night living room feels a lot more like October.

For an easy DIY project, save a few clean glass jars and have everyone create Halloween lanterns. Wrap them with gauze for little mummies, add ghost faces to frosted jars, or cut spooky silhouettes from black paper. Drop a battery-operated tea light inside and line them up on a shelf or windowsill.

Battery-operated candles are especially worth considering around Halloween decorations. The National Fire Protection Association recommends battery-operated candles or glow sticks inside jack-o'-lanterns and notes that decorations are the first item ignited in more than 800 reported home fires each year, with candles starting nearly one-third of those fires.

In other words, fake candle, real peace of mind.

Have a Pumpkin Night

Pumpkin carving is better when everyone does it together, especially when no one is required to be good at it.

Grab a few pumpkins, cover the table, put on music, and make a night of it. Everyone can carve their own, or make it a competition with categories like scariest, funniest, most creative, and "we're not entirely sure what that's supposed to be."

Not into carving? Paint them instead. Try ghosts, roommate caricatures, house numbers, favorite movie characters, or matching designs. Small white or pie-baking pumpkins also make great low-effort decorations for shared spaces.

You can roast the pumpkin seeds afterward. Rinse and dry them, toss them with a little oil and your favorite seasoning, spread them on a baking sheet, and roast until crisp. Make a couple of flavors and conduct the extremely scientific roommate taste test.

For finished jack-o'-lanterns, use battery-operated lights instead of real candles. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission¹ recommends battery-operated lights or glow sticks in pumpkins and warns against leaving burning candles unattended. 

Create a Halloween Movie Corner

You don't need a party to have a good Halloween night.

Pile pillows and blankets in the living room, dim the lights, and let everyone nominate a Halloween movie. The only tricky part is agreeing on what "Halloween movie" actually means.

One roommate may want a genuinely terrifying horror movie. Another considers Hocus Pocus the outer limit of acceptable fear. Someone else will inevitably suggest something that barely qualifies as Halloween.

Write everyone's choices on slips of paper and draw one from a bowl, or let a different roommate choose each week in October. Need some inspiration? Need some inspiration? Check out our Spooky Season Movie Countdown on the Roommates.com blog. 

Then make the snacks part of it. Popcorn can get a Halloween upgrade with candy corn or seasonal chocolate candies served separately for mixing in. Hot cider, cocoa, or a make-your-own snack board turns movie night into something that feels planned without requiring much work.

Make Dinner Slightly Ridiculous

A Halloween dinner doesn't have to involve an elaborate recipe you found online and regretted halfway through.

Take food you already like and make it spooky.

Turn pizzas into jack-o'-lanterns with pepperoni faces. Wrap strips of pizza dough around hot dogs to make "mummies," then dip them in mustard or ketchup. Make nachos and give the guacamole bowl an appropriately creepy face. Decorate cupcakes together and award points for the ones that look least professional.

You can also have each roommate contribute one thing to a Halloween snack board. The result may have absolutely no culinary logic, but that's part of the charm.

If you're having friends over, make one person responsible for savory food, another for sweets, another for drinks, and another for the playlist. It's a lot more fun than one roommate accidentally becoming the unpaid event planner.

Give Each Other a Halloween Door Makeover

Bedrooms are usually personal territory, so the doors are perfect for a little friendly competition.

Give everyone the same small budget and decorate your bedroom doors. Think cobwebs, paper bats, ghosts, caution tape, fake crime scenes or construction-paper monsters.

Or make it a surprise. Draw names and decorate one another's doors based on that roommate's personality.

First, establish one very important house rule: removable tape and hooks only. Your security deposit does not need to become the scariest part of Halloween! 

Turn Your Place Into a Mini Haunted House

If your household likes going a little bigger, choose a hallway, living room or entryway and turn it into your own mini haunted house.

One roommate can handle lighting, another music and sound effects, and another decorations. Hang paper bats from clear thread, stretch fake cobwebs across corners, hide battery-powered lights behind furniture, and use a Bluetooth speaker for creepy background sounds.

The fun is in creating it together, not in making it elaborate.

Just don't let your masterpiece block a doorway or escape route. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)² specifically recommends keeping exits clear of Halloween decorations. It also advises keeping decorations away from open flames and heat sources and making sure smoke alarms are working.

And before plugging in that box of lights someone has owned since college, check the cords. CPSC recommends checking decorative lights for broken sockets, exposed or frayed wires, and loose connections, and warns against overloading extension cords.

Spooky is good. Electrical fire is not the vibe.

Don't Forget Your Four-Legged Roommates

If your household includes a dog or cat, they get a vote in Halloween plans too. Their vote may mostly consist of trying to eat the decorations.

Keep candy out of your pets' reach. Chocolate can be dangerous for both dogs and cats, and sugar-free candy containing xylitol can be life-threatening to dogs. Don't forget to keep wires out of reach and remember that pets can knock over lit pumpkins or candles.

Think about decorations from a pet's height, too. Dangling strings, fake cobwebs, small plastic pieces, and electrical cords can be much more interesting to a curious pet than you intended.

Halloween night itself can also be stressful for animals. Doorbells, visitors, and costumes can be a lot, so it is best to set up a quiet, comfortable room away from the front door for pets who aren't comfortable with the commotion, along with their favorite toys or activities.

And while a roommate photo featuring everyone in costume plus the dog dressed as a tiny vampire sounds excellent, don't force the costume. Dress pets only if they're comfortable, and make sure costumes don't restrict movement, sight, or breathing, or include pieces that can be chewed off. A Halloween bandana can accomplish plenty without the drama.

Start a Roommate Halloween Tradition

The best part might be coming up with something that's yours.

Maybe every October you carve pumpkins together. Maybe you have a terrible horror-movie marathon, host a chili night, bake something ridiculous, or take the same costumed roommate photo every year.

You could also create a Halloween time capsule. Have everyone write down a favorite memory from the year, something funny that happened in the apartment, and a prediction about where everyone will be next Halloween. Put everything in an envelope or small box and agree to open it the following October.

Living with roommates isn't only about splitting rent and figuring out whose turn it is to buy paper towels. Some of the best parts are the little traditions and memories you create while you're sharing a home.

So grab a pumpkin, put on the spooky playlist, and text the roommate group chat.

 

Still looking for someone to share your space, traditions, and occasional questionable Halloween decor? Find your next roommate on Roommates.com!

It's officially spooky season.

 

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Safety Sources:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)