Learn how to make your home smell like fall using natural ingredients. No need to use chemicals to make your home smell delicious, warm, and inviting!
There’s nothing quite like the smell of fall—cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and baking apples are among my favorite scents in the world. In the past, I would have stocked up on a bunch of candles and air fresheners during the fall to keep my home smelling cozy and delicious, but after learning that those options aren’t the best for you, I decided to go au natural and learn how to make my home smell like fall minus the chemicals.
And oh my goodness.
So much yumminess! Now that I think about it, my mom used to have a pot of cloves and cinnamon simmering on the stove throughout the fall. How could I forget this?
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Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda into a clean glass jar. Add a drop or two of essential oil to the jar and enjoy! You can also sprinkle a bit of this mixture into your trash can for instant relief from trash stink. You can use mason jars for this recipe as well as cleaned out jam jars.
Quick recipe:
Two drops of orange oil* with a sprinkle of cinnamon smells ah-mazing for the fall.
Make Your Own Potpourri
Oolala! Have you ever made your own potpourri? It really isn’t that difficult. For whatever reason, homemade potpourri reminds me of my childhood, when my sisters and I would dry rose petals and then put them in a jar for our bedrooms. We were ahead of our time!
Try this recipe:
Homemade Potpourri from a nature walk.
Lazy Girl’s Air Freshner
Want your car to smell like fall is in the air? Add a drop of orange oil to a car diffuser or a cotton ball tucked into an air vent.
And who am I kidding? I add a drop of this oil to my leather bracelet almost every day. I did this all through the summer—guess I love fall-like scents year-round!
Use Your Spices Simmer Pot
Add 2 sticks of cinnamon, 4 cloves, and an orange peel to a pot of water. For extra credit, toss in an apple core as well. Place on the stove and turn the heat on low.
Oh my goodness, this is one of my favorites of all time. The only caution is to make sure you don’t simmer all of the water away and burn the pot. I set the timer on my phone (or microwave) to remind myself periodically to check the pot.
If you have a small crockpot, you could use that instead of a pot on the stove. Works just as well!
Your Clothes Want to Smell Good Too
Add a couple of drops of essential oil to your wool dryer balls to freshen up their scent naturally. I love the smell of eucalyptus and rosemary—mmm! but any oil will work. Lavender, lemon, you name it! Your clothes are going to smell amazing!
Fall Carpet Cleaner
Depending on your vacuum, you can do one of the following:
Add a cotton ball that has two drops of fall-like essential oil on it to the cylinder of the vacuum and vacuum away. Or, make a mixture of 1/2 cup baking soda with 1-2 drops of orange, lemon, etc. and mix well. Sprinkle mixture on carpet and vacuum. (Do this while the kids and pets are out of the house so they don’t walk through the mixture.)
This is a really fast way to add a pleasant aroma to your entire house.
Deck the Halls
Make a dried Orange Garland like the one at Hearth and Vine. This is so gorgeous, and I can imagine her house smells amazing too!
Bake Apples
I love a simple baked apple on a cool fall day. If I’m super lazy, I’ll skip the oven and make them in the microwave. These were my go-to treats when I had no money in college.
Core an apple, and place each half on a low-rimmed bowl. Add a pat of butter to each apple. (I smoosh it in the hole where the core was.) Add brown sugar, a sprinkle of oats, and cinnamon. Bake in the microwave for five minutes. (Note: our microwave is old, so you probably need less time. Start with one minute and check your apple to see if it is soft.)
Or you could go ahead and indulge in this breakfast apple granola crisp from Smitten Kitchen.
Make a Pumpkin Spice Smoothie
We make a version of these in the fall and LOVE them. Pumpkin spice forever! Here’s a healthy (and yummy) recipe for you to try out from Amy’s Healthy Baking. I would probably swap the Truvia for half of a very ripe banana but you do what you like. I won’t tell. 😉
Make Your Own “Autumn Air”
The Hello Glow blog has a list of recipes that includes one called Autumn Air (here’s the rest of the list.) I’m fairly sensitive to scent—meaning, a little goes a long way for me—so when I made this blend, I changed it to:
- 1 drop Sweet Orange essential oil
- 1 drop Tangerine essential oil
- 1 drop Cypress essential oil
I hope you’ve enjoyed these 10 natural ways to make your home smell like fall. Which idea do you think you’ll try first?
Have a lovely {and creative} day, friends!
*P.S. If you have cats, please do not use citrus oils, oils that contain menthol like peppermint, and pine oils around your kitties as they lack the enzyme needed to process the oils in their liver. (Here’s a source where you can learn more.)
