Pumpkin spice lattes, gingerbread men, cinnamon and citrus – all quintessential Fall smells. Who doesn’t want their home to smell of these gorgeous things?
While the obvious solution might be to stock up on cinnamon air sprays and orange scented candles, it might not be the best solution.
These products are routinely fragranced with carcinogenic chemicals and other harmful toxins which can affect our breathing, our brains and our hormones.
Instead, try the natural route. It’s cheaper and healthier. Plus your home will smell far more authentic than if it was filled with sickly sweet, chemically enhanced perfumes.
Here are 23 all-natural ways to bring the delicious seasonal scents of Fall into your home.
Fall Scented Simmer Pots
Simmer pots are one of the easiest ways to make your home smell amazing. Just fill a saucepan with water, bring to a boil then add your favorite Autumn scented ingredients. Allow to simmer gently on the stove top, topping up the water when needed. Soon the scent will fill your entire house.
Don’t have time to keep an eye on the stove? That’s no problem – using a crock pot will have the same effect.
Play around with combinations until you find your favorite. To start you off, why not try:
- Sliced oranges, cranberries, cloves and cinnamon
- Apple peels, cinnamon and nutmeg
- Lavender, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
- Lemon, rosemary and vanilla
Check out these 3 Fall Simmer Pot Recipes too.
Essential Oil Diffuser
Stock up on some of the best Fall essential oils and add them to your diffuser. Within no time, your home will be a beautifully scented and welcoming place. Some of the best scents for Fall include anise, cardamom, cedarwood, cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg, orange, pine, rosemary, sage and vanilla.
Don’t have an essential oil diffuser? Here’s just 10 reasons why every home should have one.
And if you haven’t had a chance to check out our recent post revealing ten of the best essential oil blends to make your home smell like Fall, then you really need to! One friend remarked that our “Morning Frost” blend made him want to go outside and chop firewood!
DIY Loose Incense
Making your own loose incense is actually pretty simple – here are some step-by-step instructions.
To give it a Fall twist, use spices like cloves, star anise, nutmeg and cinnamon. You can even add in some fruity tones by grating and drying the peel of oranges and lemons – just another reason to always keep your leftover citrus peels!
Fall Spiced Candles
Candles are a must for making a home seem warm and cozy right through the Fall and Winter months. Instead of splashing out on expensive (and toxic) scented candles, make your own.
While store-bought varieties often contain benzene and toluene, these cute Mason jar candles contain just soy wax and essential oils such as cinnamon, vanilla and clove.
For full instructions on how to make these spiced candles, see here.
Orange Peel Candles
These organic candles are a little different from the norm. You don’t need a Mason jar for one thing. In fact, you don’t need any jar!
All that’s needed is an orange, some olive oil and two minutes of your time.
Cut the orange in half, removing the flesh but leaving the pith/wick intact. Add some olive oil and then light the ‘wick’. It will burn for up to an hour and smells divine.
For extra Fall scented goodness, add a couple of drops of essential oil. Follow this step-by-step process and you can’t go wrong.
DIY Pumpkin Scented Soy Wax Candles
Love the look of the orange peel candles but want something that lasts a bit longer? Well, these pumpkin candles are for you!
You’ll need to cut the top off your pumpkin, scoop out the middle and fill with deliciously scented soy wax. It takes a little more time than preparing the orange peel candles but the results are most definitely worth it.
To make these impressive candles, check out this post by Momtastic.
Fall Scented Room Sprays
Using just water and a handful of essential oils, you can get that Fall smell in your home (and your car) in mere minutes.
For a sweet, spicy and crisp Pumpkin Spice scent, add cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, orange and cardamom essential oils to filtered water. Then just shake, spray and enjoy. Exact measurements and directions can be found here.
For a woodier, spicy Fall blend, mix juniper, rosemary, orange and clove oils. Here’s the full recipe.
DIY Fall Potpourri
Making your own potpourri means you won’t be exposing your family to toxins found in the store bought blends. It also looks great in any room in your house.
Best of all, this particular potpourri gives the perfect excuse to head out on a circulation-boosting nature walk, in search of acorns, bark, twigs and pine cones.
Blend your woodland treasures with dried orange slices, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and cloves for a perfect spicy scent. Click here for step-by-step instructions for making this special potpourri blend.
Scented Pine Cones
A simpler take on homemade potpourri, these scented pine cones just need two ingredients and you’re done!
Collect pine cones and bake them in the oven at 200F for one hour. Once cooled, sprinkle with essential oils and keep in an air-tight container for up to one week to allow the scent to develop. Remove them and place around your home, refreshing the essential oils when necessary.
Herby Fire-Starters
What signals the beginning of Fall more than a blazing, open fire?
Adding one of these spicy and herby packages to the flames will most certainly get you in the holiday spirit. They take just five minutes to throw together, using coffee filters, dried orange and apple peels, cloves, cinnamon sticks, fresh rosemary and lavender. See what you need to do here.
(Don’t forget to save your wood ash for all these clever home and garden uses).
Cinnamon Carpet Freshener
This 3-ingredient cinnamon carpet freshener is the perfect way to clean your home, adding Fall aromas as you go.
Baking soda, borax and either essential oils or ground spices make the perfect alternative to commercial carpet powders. Use this homemade version in the same way too – sprinkle on, leave for 20 minutes and then vacuum up.
Here’s the exact recipe. Tip: if you have light carpets use essential oil instead of ground spices.
Deodorizing Disks for Fall
These scented little disks can be placed around your home to freshen it up. They’re particularly good in ‘smelly’ places, like by the trashcan, where the dog sleeps, behind a toilet or under a sink.
Just use baking soda, distilled water and whatever essential oil puts you in the Autumn mood. You’ll also need a silicon mold or muffin pan to shape the disks. Check out the full instructions here.
DIY Fall Air Freshening Scent Jars
Yes, this is yet another recipe using baking soda. It’s just that good at neutralizing strong odors.
Don’t have any baking soda on hand? Here are 24 reasons why you should!
To make these odor neutralizing little jars, add baking soda, essential oil and some herbs or spices to Mason jars. Cover the top with fabric or perforated paper. For a Fall feel, try star anise, whole nutmeg or cinnamon sticks along with cinnamon or orange oil. More detailed instructions can be found here.
Orange Harvest Scented Sachets
Be hit by the smell of Autumn when you open your closet, drawers or even your car with these good-enough-to-eat scented sachets.
Combine dried orange peel, dried lemon peel, dried ginger root and cinnamon sticks, along with clove, orange and cinnamon bark essential oils. Scoop into a muslin bag and place them around your home. Exact measurements, and full instructions, can be found here.
Linen Spray
Wake up to the smell of Fall with a DIY Linen Spray made with just essential oils and water. It’s much healthier and cost effective than buying linen spray.
Try blends like nutmeg, cinnamon, and orange; grapefruit and anise; or orange and cardamom. For specific instructions, check out this post by GI 365.
Reed Diffusers
Reed diffusers are so simple to make that they’ve made our list of the 50 Things You Should Stop Buying & Start Making.
Use whatever Fall scents you like to freshen up your home. To learn how to make a DIY Reed Diffuser, see here.
Rosemary Wreath
Rosemary’s distinctive woody smell provides not only a Fall feeling, but a host of health benefits. From stress relief to mental clarity, rosemary is good for the mind and body – check out all the ways you can use rosemary essential oil here.
Fashion a simple but beautiful rosemary wreath for your home with this easy guide and bring Fall indoors.
If making a wreath seems like too much effort for you, a rosemary plant on your window ledge will work just as well!
Bake Fall Goodies
What better way to get your home to smell like ginger cookies, caramel apples and pumpkin spice lattes than to actually make them?
Plus you get a double bonus – mouth-watering Fall smells and delicious Fall flavors. Check out some of these great Fall recipe ideas.
5 Super Quick Ways to Make your Home Smell Like Fall
If you’re rushing around and don’t have time to try out some of the methods listed above, never fear. Your home can still smell like Fall in a jiffy with the following quick tricks:
- Add a few drops of essential oil to a small cloth and toss into the dryer when drying your towels and sheets.
- Add essential oil to a cotton ball and place in the cylinder of your vacuum cleaner, or vacuum cleaner bag. The smell will waft through the house as you clean.
- Dampen cotton balls and add a few drops of oil before placing behind the radiators. The scent will spread as the room heats up.
- Put two drops of essential oil on your light bulbs (but only when switched off!). When you turn the light on, the heat from the bulb will cause the smell to diffuse through the room.
- Let the Fall air in! Sometimes our homes get so stuffy during Autumn and Winter as we refuse to open the windows and let the cold air in (and the heat out!) But it can be just what’s needed to get that authentic Fall smell and crisp air into the house. Even ten minutes of fresh air each morning will rejuvenate your home.