In the world of home decor, Fall is the new Christmas.

If you spend much time on Pinterest or Instagram, you'll see that Fall/Halloween decorating has become as much of an Olympic sport as Christmas decorating in recent years.  That said, I don't quite go so overboard on Halloween decorating.  After all, what you get out, you have to put away.  That's always the drawback for me of any holiday decorating project--knowing it all has to be boxed up and put away at some point.

Outdoor fall decor is the easiest to manage, though.  If you buy living things, they die and/or decay, so they can be thrown away rather than packed away.  Total time saver!  And if you have a few acres of woods in your backyard, it's even easier.  It's basically composting, but since I don't have a garden, I just let my gourds nourish the trees and wild blackberry bushes.  It also doubles as an end of fall activity, the ever popular pumpkin smash!  (Your kids don't even realize they're helping you clean up your decorations!)

Now that we know how to dipose of our decor, let's talk buying, placement, and grouping.  I always feel like I buy the wrong amount of things--I either have too much or not enough.  I also try to remember to buy items in odd numbers--which as you can see I totally didn't do below.  I think last year's display worked out well, though.  It could have used one more mum on the right side on the ground.  But the stack of 3 flat pumpkins more than makes up for it.

It made a great backdrop for family photos at our Halloween party.  And my Boxer, Lucy left it alone.  The previous year, not so much...  

This year I concentrated on the front porch instead, since we didn't do our big Halloween bash.  Could have used some tall corn husks on both sides of the door to be totally Instagram-worthy, but it's still pretty darn cute.

And Bob always has a special place in my Halloween decorating.  He's so friendly, but for some reason people don't want to pull up a chair and sit next to him on the porch.

Merry Fall Decorating!