How To Avoid Having Left Over Balloons

How do I get rid of my excess balloons?

If you are anything like me, you’re going to have not one but several open bags of balloons collecting dust in a closet, bin, or bag. Balloons we bought for a special event or just because we thought they were cool are now in our way. I could toss them out, but that’s just wasting money.

In the balloon color pallet dilemma, I address how we select balloon colors, but now I’m going to focus on how to get rid of the balloons that, well… seem to take forever to go through.

Do you find that you order X quantity of one balloon-type or color when you order balloons, but XX of another? I do. My thought is I don’t want to waste money on balloons I don’t use.

I found a solution to move the “unwanted” balloons faster, but before I tell you how to do that, let’s look at how kids request a balloon figure.

Bobby: I want blue

Entertainer: Blue…. dog, sword, motorcycle… or do you want me to make you something cool?

Stephanie’s Mom: She loves pink

Entertainer: Pink… flower, butterfly, cat… or do you want me to make something special for you?

When time allows, I will let the child pick a design, but I try to control the selection to ensure the design can be made in a timely fashion.

We know Stephanie likes pink, but if given a choice between light/pale pink, fuchsia, or neon pink, the brighter or darker colors, in my experience, have been the most popular pinks with little girls. This leaves me the light/pale pink as the least favorite balloon in my apron. This is one color that I order the least of when ordering supplies.

If you were standing next to me when this conversation occurred, you would have heard me offer the color selection as follows… “I have bubble gum pink, fuchsia, or a shiny pink.” A Magician would call this a force, as I’m stacking the odds that they will pick bubble gum pink. Why? It’s a descriptive color; “bubble gum.” Everyone knows what bubble gum pink looks like, but fuchsia or a shiny pink to a five-year-old doesn’t paint an image in a child’s brain.

Crayola crayons have known this for years and have come up with some great names for colors.

Why not “sell” the slow-moving color to the kids like this:

• Violet – Royal Heart Purple
• Fuchsia – Flamingo Pink
• Light/Pale Pink – Bubble Gum Pink
• Neon Pink – Razzle Dazzle Rose
• Neon Green – Screamin’ Green
• Neon Yellow – The Unmellow Yellow
• Neon Orange – Neon Carrot Orange
• Light/Pale Blue – Sky Blue
• Red – Maximum Red
• Golden Rod/Marigold – Macaroni & Cheese Yellow
• Keylime Green – Inchworm Green
• Forest Green – Maximum Green
• Wintergreen – Shamrock Green
• Mocha – Puppy Dog Brown

By now, I think you’re getting the concept. It is how I “sell” the color that helps make that color popular. I’ve been using this technique of painting pictures with words as a professional speaker for years. I now use this technique on kids to quickly associate the color with an object. By using simple magic force, word selection, I can now control which colors move at what rate.

I have found this a solution to cut down on the number of open unused bags of balloons lying around my house and expanding my mind on creating fun, descriptive colors when I present the color pallet to kids.

I encourage you to give it a try; it doesn’t cost you anything. It just another suggestion of many that I have given you in this blog.

For more twisted ideas…check out the category Twisted Thoughts