With cooler weather, spice, pumpkins, and everything scary popping up in stores, Halloween is just around the corner. It's always fun to see the excitement little ones show when they don fun costumes, knock on your door, and yell trick or treat! However, this fun-filled night can turn into a disaster if your home isn't prepared for visitors. To prevent accidents or injuries, it's important to prepare your front yard and porch for the arrival of any neighborhood witches, ghosts, princesses, or superheroes. Here are a few helpful tips from our real estate agents to help ensure that trick-or-treaters have a safe, enjoyable, and spooky night.

• Add Safe and Festive Lighting
  Signal trick-or-treaters that you're open for business by ensuring your porch light is on. A few glow sticks, LED lights, battery-powered candles, or lanterns can help illuminate your yard and direct traffic to the candy. Brighten up the path to your door by laying down rope lighting, turning on floodlights, or putting up walkway lights.
  
  Battery-operated lights are the best option because they put light right at trick-or-treaters' feet without the hazards that come with an open flame. If you must use open-flame candles, watch them at all times, sit them on a sturdy, level surface, and keep them away from anything that could burn.
  
  
• Clean Up Your Yard
  Sure, little trick-or-treaters are supposed to use the sidewalks, but they often cut through yards. And when excitement and candy converge, they may sprint to your door instead of walking. As such, you want to make sure your walkway, driveways, stairs, and lawn are clear of trip hazards. Be sure to repair any cracks in stairs, wobbly railings, or loose pavers. Cut off access to tree roots and remove any lawn furniture and decorations that might be in the way.
  
  You should also sweep your sidewalk to clear away sticks, loose gravel, or wet leaves. Make sure any trash, tools, buckets, toys, bikes, limbs, errant stones, and animal droppings are cleared out of the way before trick-or-treating starts. Roll up garden hoses onto racks and if you have a sprinkler system that sticks up, make the spot obvious. Finally, make sure electrical cords are safely out of the way or taped down so they don't trip up children or their supervisors.
  
  
• Keep Pets in a Separate Room
  Your pets may be the nicest on the block, but the constant ringing of the doorbell, unfamiliar costumes, and new faces may be too much for your pets. The last thing you want is having your pet inadvertently hurting candy-seeking visitors. And since the door will be opening and closing a lot, a scared cat or dog can make a run for it. We doubt you want to spend your night running around the neighborhood looking for your lost furry family member. For everyone's benefit, better to keep pets away from the door and in a separate room with some treats and their favorite toys.
  
  
• Pass Out Treats in your Driveway
  If you have issues in your yard that can't be fixed easily before Halloween, it might be better to set up shop in your driveway instead of waiting for ghosts and goblins to come to the door. Trick or treating in the driveway can be fun since you can create a haunted house, play Halloween music, and feel comfortable that you won't be bothered out of your couch every second. You'll also get a chance to meet new neighbors and see those you haven't talked to in a while.

Once you have the decor out, the lights on, and hazards put away, you and your little visitors can have a safe and spooktacular evening. And if you're looking for a home in a family-friendly neighborhood, we have some Klamath Falls homes for sale that we think you might want to check out. Contact us today to learn more.