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October half-term is the best week of the year to swap the seasons over. The summer kit has stopped being used, and Halloween, Bonfire Night and the clocks going back all land within a fortnight of each other.
In 2026 the council calendars for Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland all put half-term at Monday 26 to Friday 30 October. The clocks go back on the Sunday before it starts, Halloween falls on the Saturday at the end of it, and Bonfire Night follows five days later. Academies can set their own dates, so check with your school.
That’s a lot of households with the same job to do. The three boroughs are home to around 87,000 children under 16, and a fair few scooters.
Why half-term is the right week
Because you finally have daylight hours at home and helpers on hand. Once the clocks change it’s dark by teatime, and nobody sorts a garage by torchlight.
It also catches the summer things before winter does. A paddling pool put away dry in October comes out fine in May. One left folded and damp behind the shed does not.
The three-pile rule
Everything you touch goes into one of three piles: out now, away until spring, or going. That’s the whole method. No “maybe” pile, because the maybe pile is how the hallway got like this.
“Going” means outgrown, broken or unloved: the bike that’s two sizes too small, the pool with the slow puncture. For a fuller way to make those calls, our decluttering guide covers the four-box method room by room.
How do you put summer away properly?
Clean, completely dry, then boxed and labelled. Damp is what ruins stored kit, so the drying matters more than the packing.
| Item | Prep before it goes away | Where it can live |
|---|---|---|
| Paddling pool and inflatables | Wash, dry fully, deflate, fold loosely | Lidded box, somewhere frost-free |
| Garden toys and sand toys | Hose down, empty trapped water, dry for a day | Stacking crate, shed or garage shelf |
| Bikes and scooters | Wipe down, oil the chain, pump the tyres | Hung on a wall hook or stood under cover |
| Camping kit | Air the tent and sleeping bags indoors first | Loose in a big bag, never compressed for months |
| Beach gear | Rinse off salt and sand, dry windbreaks flat | One labelled box, ready for the first warm Saturday |
| Garden furniture cushions | Brush off, dry in the house overnight | Breathable bag or lidded box, off the floor |
Label every box on two sides with what’s in it. “Summer, garden” is enough. In April you’ll thank yourself.
Getting the autumn boxes out
Bring things down in the order you’ll need them: Halloween first, Bonfire Night next, Christmas close behind. If the Christmas boxes are in front of the Halloween one, this is the week to restack them.
As each box empties, it becomes the home for the summer kit going the other way. Same boxes, same shelf, different season. That’s the swap.
One safety note. Fireworks are not part of the rotation: buy them close to the night, follow the instructions on the box, and never store fireworks in a storage unit.
What the children can do
Plenty, and it makes it a half-term job, not a parent’s job.
- Test every pen, torch and set of fairy lights, and bin the dead ones.
- Try on last year’s Halloween costumes and wellies, and make the “too small” pile.
- Deflate the inflatables. They will enjoy this more than you’d expect.
- Write the labels and draw what’s in each box.
- Choose three outgrown toys each for the charity shop.
Pay in sweets. It’s the season for it.
When the house simply has no “away”
Sometimes the problem isn’t the sorting, it’s that there’s nowhere dry to put the pile. Family homes on Teesside’s newer estates tend to have small lofts and garages a car barely fits in, so summer kit and winter kit fight over the same cupboard.
Try the loft, the garage and the shed first. If none of them works, a small storage unit does the job of the garage you wish you had. You swap the seasons twice a year and the house stays clear in between.
| Unit | Roughly the size of | Guide price (inc VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| 10ft container | A large shed or small garage | £90 a month |
| 20ft container | A single garage | £118.80 a month |
Guide prices, checked 2 October 2026. Sizes and availability change from week to week, and not every size is offered at every site. For what's available today, with live prices, see the Ingleby Barwick, Stockton (Preston Farm) and Redcar pages.
Access is by personal PIN at the main gate, 24 hours a day. The container is secured with a high-security padlock, and you hold the key. If you’re unsure what you’d need, the size guide matches units to what goes in them. For Ingleby Barwick, Thornaby and Yarm, our Ingleby Barwick site on Low Lane is the nearest, and all three iBOXED sites are pinned on the map below.
