[jdubbya]

Do you have so much stuff that you don't have room to display it all? Do you rotate things each year to make room or new/fresh stuff? I'm not to that point yet but after digging a bunch of stuff out yesterday looking for something, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff I've accumulated, not to mention what I got/am getting this year. Not sure how much more I can expand my display to accomodate too much more. Anyone else have this issue?

 

[Death's Door]

Ah yes - same issue - I like to rotate my props every year - and yes - with all that you can accumulate every Halloween, it can become "overdone". I have a small front yard so I do the cemetary look and change it up. The Halloween stuff that I have had since I started out I put around in other areas of my house or on my outside patio or downstairs bar or even try to find a way to incorporate it into a prop/setting that I am making. If any of these things don't work out, I will just repackage it and label the box "Miscellaneous" for the next time. I did go through my stuff two years ago and decided to give the cutesy Halloween items that were in good shape to my sister-in-law because she has a 4 year old even though sometimes it just hard to part with the stuff.

It's funny how I remember where I put things from year to year so I don't have the same look, but the TOTs and onlookers that come around they don't remember are look over everything as if it was the first time of ever seeing my set up.

 

[DeadSpider]

I rotate. We moved here a few years ago, and even when we were buying, I was not liking the front yard layout. It is not Haunter friendly. haha. So I have limited space, and I find things look better when not overdone.

I lend out things I am not using to a good friend of mine. She in turn lets me borrow things if they go with my display. It works well for us.

 

[-blank-]

i do rotate my stuff but mainly because i dont have enough room for everything i make on my porch and extremely small grass area

There are somethings i always have on display though like popups and coffin jumpers

 

[ScareShack]

I tend to withstand putting a few things out each year. Not on purpose, but jus beacuse there something new or the old thing doesnt fit into the display.
I dont like to much stuff out where its overwhelming, so for me I guess in a sense I do rotate.

 

[wizardry68]

i think it is best to rotate so ppl that have come years before are not bored with the same layout. keeps them coming back

 

[scareme]

My haunt is only a couple of years old and our yard is pretty big. So far I haven't had enough props to rotate. But I might be getting close to being there. I do change the yard around every to keep it fresh, but with adding new things every year no one has mentioned seeing it before.

 

[Dr Morbius]

I'm still adding too. I don't have enough either to rotate, but I know I have 3 new props from the contests to show! I'm putting my FCG on the roof this year. Maybe I can make a cardboard facade to fit on front of the frame to look like a castle window, but it depends on if I have the time.

 

[Long_Tom]

I don't have enough props to rotate stock, but I do try to change up the signature trick that I play, from year to year, to keep people on their toes. For example, the disembodied hand in the box, handing out the candy; don't want to do that two years in a row.

I think I finally have enough stuff that I can move my scary stuff to the side yard this year. That will be a pretty major change in itself. It will also open up some new opportunities for tricks, like dropping a spider on a fishing line from the second story window. Can't do that in the front of the house.

 

[CRHaunting]

I will be letting the tots into my side and backyard this year having run out of room in the front. It's the first year I will be doing a full wrap-around haunt. I'll be displaying the mild, static props in the front and things will get more intense the further in you go with the motor driven and startle stuff. (last year I made the mistake of displaying some too intense props in the front and many tots were too scared to even make it to where the candy was being handed out.)
Up until Halloween night I've started rotating a new prop in the front yard daily just to give all the drive-byers something new to see and allow myself the pleasure of having my props seen more than on just Halloween night. :devil:

 

[the_PROCRASTINATOR]

I was thinking about doing a wrap-around yard haunt...
But that would require cleaning up my back yard...
Please I was always wondered if I would have a break-in soon after Halloween.

 

[the_PROCRASTINATOR]

WOW I gotta stop drinking....:googly:

 

[Dr Morbius]

Lol!

 

[slimy]

Friendly word of advice, stopping drinking is detrimental to halloween progress.

Spoken from expirience.

 

[CRHaunting]

I read that drinking is bad for you...so I gave up reading.

 

[slimy]

Now THAT was funny.

 

[trishaanne]

I don't necessarily rotate the props but I do have them set up for a few weeks before Halloween. Once we are open for guests, I substitute some of the static props with live actors, who stand completely still till it's time to pounce! People have been so used to seeing them out in the yard they think they are just harmless motionless props. I have a cheesy looking, thrown together at the last second grave digger in the side of the cemetary who has scared more people, including me and my kids and my husband AND the neighbor whose house it is closest too. I may substitute him with an actor but I'm not sure.

 

[wilbret]

I build and add so much stuff, it's basically like rotating. I've only been into prop building since 2003 (translated, made the shift from apartment life to a house)... so there's room to grow. I may have overdone it, though. As of now, I can't park my truck in the garage anymore. My monster in the box is too heavy for the attic, and we have no storage.

 

[Eric Striffler]

I know it's a little different then what this topic is asking, but in our Spooky Walk exhibit we sometimes move the props around a little after seeing reactions from previous nights.
We tell everyone that it pays off to go on the second weekend, or go more than once haha.

 

[Stratusfear02]

I rotate props around in side my covered area which is 460Sqft, sounds small but the layout changes yearly and i ALways am adding. plus part of the haunt is my back yard which is pretty large.