Halloween is only two weeks away, and people are preparing for the spooky holiday by arranging parties, decorating their houses and, most importantly, getting a costume. In this busy day and age, most people do not have the time, money or effort to buy or make a costume. If you are having this problem and don’t want to resort to wearing last year’s costume, you can put together an ensemble of clothes you already have.

The first thing you want to do is come up with what you want to dress up as. This is the most important step since this will provide you with a checklist of clothes to find. Try to visualize what it is that you would need to wear to emulate that particular character (or whatever it is you’re dressing as). Once you’ve come up with the things you need to wear, scrounge away!

Look in as many places as you can for what you want. Remember, you are not the only person in your house with clothes. If you want to wear something of someone else’s for your costume, be sure to ask first. Otherwise, you’ll be stealing. They will probably say yes if you mention that it’s for a costume because it’s Halloween, for gosh sakes!

Always have a Plan B, in case you can’t find exactly what you had in mind or for some reason someone won’t let you borrow your clothes. It’s not necessary to look exactly like your character, just to look similar to them. For example, you might want to dress as a character who wears a dress that’s black on one side and red on the other. Your original plan might be to wear a black dress and half-wear your mom’s red wrap-around cover-up, but then you remember she might not have that cover-up anymore. Plan B might be to wear that red dress that’s been sitting in your closet all these years along with a black sweater. Problem solved!

Try everything on before wearing it out. That red dress that’s been sitting in your closet might not fit anymore. If you’re desperate, you can survive wearing a dress that’s too tight for a few hours, but if you can’t breathe, wear something else. Also, if you need a specific hairstyle, try it out in the mirror first to make sure you know how to do it. It’ll prevent some major hair malfunctions later on.

If you’re having trouble with anything, look on the Internet. Polyvore and Pinterest are great sites for coming up with potential ensembles. If you want more specific details (i.e. which side of the dress is red and which side is black), check Google Images for pictures of your character.

Making a costume from things already in your closet is a fun and cost-friendly way to put together a Halloween costume and find things you didn’t know you had. It will require plenty of time to look through your clothes and try them on, but in the end, you will be proud of yourself for creating this unique costume.