Our dress-up box is overflowing and spilling onto the floor wherever I try to hide it from the world – in the deepest corner of our son Theo’s room, in a closet or in behind the couch in our den. Wigs, crazy glasses, ninja costumes, togas, and at least 20 different hats – odd bits of costumes that are rarely played with now that Theo plays more with boys and is more interested in Parkour than Pantomime. However, when I suggest getting rid of anything from this box, I hear protests from not only Theo but also from my husband David who contributed many of the fancy hats.

I remember loving our dress-up box when we were kids, so it will be a while before I get rid of the whole box, if I ever do at all. However, today I felt the need to cull a bit – and it’s Halloween soon so the best time to give away costumes and the like. I pulled out some items I had contributed, assuming that neither Theo not David will want to dress in drag any time soon. I removed the blonde wig I’d worn a few years ago to make myself look a little more like Faye Dunaway when David and I dressed as Bonnie and Clyde. Then a silk bathrobe, a purple ruffled bolero jacket and one of my old straw hats. A few other items too made their way into a paper bag, which I drove over to Out of the Closet, the one-stop store for everyone’s recycled Halloween needs.

Our dress-up box is no longer overflowing but it still has enough in it to feed Theo’s imagination. He still has everything he needs to create a costume like his “Evil Ninja Pikachu” of two years ago, a blend of a Pikachu hat, ninja costume and pitchfork. Curiously, we saw no one else dressed in the same costume. Perhaps this year it’ll be Zombie Harry Potter or Martian Thor. So plenty of fun without the scary mess.

“Pikathor” – arranged by me, named by Theo!