How to Create the Scent of Fall in Your Home
There are many ways to create the scent of fall in your home.
Among our favorites; baking Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread or diffusing oil blends.
Are you lonesome for the scent of fall?
After a long hot summer, schools back in session, and harvesters growling across fields, it seems like the right time to create the scent of fall inside.
Yesterday we received the gift of rain.
Rain?
Totally unseasonable for our valley in September. But yes, we got rain.
And you step outside, and it’s getting closer to fall, and it smells… awesome.
Fall scents…
slightly damp, decaying leaves piled in the corner of the patio…
dust washed from the branches of the eucalyptus and pine and sage and rosemary…
all ready to bring inside and do the fall things and create a scent infusion that supersedes all others.
Can you tell that fall is my favorite scent?
When I was growing up, the fall scents on the farm were corn tassels and wheat chaff and, best of all, the indoors scent of baking with cinnamon and nutmeg and pumpkin to treat the harvest workers.
The Scent of Fall varies from place to place.
My favorite fall scent memories may be different from yours. And the scent where I live now is very different from where I grew up. (Side note: it took 5 years for me to learn to associate the correct scents to the fall season where I am now. The low desert has completely different smells for the seasons than the northern prairies.)
So this will be a line up of my current favorite ways to bring the scent of fall inside.
1. Candles
You knew I would say that, right? It’s the easiest way to infuse the whole house with scent.
There are the obvious, buy anywhere, scents of vanilla and pumpkin spice and other food smells. Which may or may not be safe.
Kim has discovered soy candles, both for scent and the cleaner burn. We love the hand poured soy candles in the amber jars by farmhousewicks.com. Maybe because it is a gift from a thoughtful niece!
An economical idea: Get out a used plain (no jar) candle that has lost its scent. Wrap the candle with fresh cinnamon sticks. Line them up around the candle like a fence and tie with twine. It’s a lovely fall look for almost no money. As the candle burns and warms the cinnamon sticks it gives off a delightful smell.
2. Shop your yard for fall foliage.
This is another economical way to bring in the scent of fall.
In our yard we have eucalyptus and pine trees. We have purple sage and rosemary.
You might have wheat growing nearby, or colorful maple or poplar tree branches.
Pick in bunches and drape over the mantel or fill a tall vase for the best punch of scent.
I love this idea from Thistlewood Farms.
If you don’t have eucalyptus in your yard, most grocery store floral departments carry it, and while it’s not expensive it is long lasting. Make sure you get bunches of berries on the stems. They drape most elegantly!
And the burst of scent is so satisfying.
3. Create a simmering scent pot.
This yummy looking pot has oranges, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and clove. The Poor Sophisticate says she uses oranges or lemons, and if she leaves out the cranberries it will last a month. How is that for economical?
A natural scent expert, The Yummy Life has five creative recipes, which she stores in pint jars ready to use in the fridge or freezer. The jars are a sensory delight. Not only great smelling, but the jars look beautiful. She wrote this helpful article:
Fragrant items for naturally scenting your home:
theyummylife.com
- citrus — I’ve tried other fruits. Some of them smell good initially, but they don’t hold up for more than one use. Citrus is sturdier, longer-lasting, and gives these scent recipes freshness. Lemons and oranges are particularly fragrant and have the best staying power in these scented waters.
- herbs — Any herb can be used for making a room scent, but the ones that are sturdier and on woody twigs hold up the best. My favorites for room scents are rosemary and thyme.
- pine or cedar twigs/needles — There may be other fragrant trees that will work, too; pine and cedar are the two I’ve tried for their appealing, fresh fragrance.
- extracts — A touch of vanilla or almond extract improves most room fragrance mixtures. Mint extract has a nice fresh scent. You can also use whole vanilla beans instead of vanilla extract; pricey but amazingly fragrant.
- spices — You can use ground or whole sweet spices. The whole spices look prettier, if your scented water will be in a location where it will be seen. I have found that cinnamon sticks and whole cloves have the most scent staying power. Cinnamon sticks can be rinsed off and reused several times. They keep on giving.
4. Bake a Pumpkin Cream Cheese Quick Bread
Never forget the amaze-scents that baking instills in a home. And this pumpkin cream cheese quick bread? You’ll want to mix one up every day. Not just for the scent, but also for the taste. They don’t have a lot of keeping power; somehow they are now-you-see-’em, now-you-don’t. Mine don’t look like the picture, but they taste heavenly.
5. Natural Oils in a Diffuser
My daughter-in-law uses an oil diffuser a lot. Especially when one of her littles has a cold. It loads the air with good moisture and healthy oil scents that help sinus problems.
Here is a mixture of oils to create the scent of fall from Natural Living Ideas. I haven’t tried it, but when I get a diffuser and oils, I certainly will. Natural Living’s website has a lot of helpful advice about diffusing oils.
Sleeping Roots
This blend is inspired by the scents of walking in the woods in autumn – of damp leaves and moss under foot, and that first breath of crisp cool air that carries with it just a hint of winter.
3 drops Bergamot
naturallivingideas.com
2 drops each Ginger, Frankincense, Birch
6. Loose Leaf Tea
Those of you who know me will wonder why tea, since I almost always drink coffee.
I love the aroma of coffee, and there are some great fall choices to be found. Pumpkin spice latte, anyone? Ah, you’ve never hear of it? Said no one in this decade.
But… the scent of loose leaf tea steeping in a tea pot…
Ahh! Fall is in the air!
Check out choices Siplicious has for fall, such as Hand Blended Mulled Cider or Chai.
“SIPLICIOUS loose leaf teas are sourced from the finest plantations and are the best of the best. We guarantee that you will love what’s in your cup, because it is made with the highest quality of ingredients. You will definitely experience loose leaf tea at its finest!”
And I guar-an-tee when you visit their website, you will spend some time browsing. It is chock full of hand blended awesome-ness.
Do you have more eco ideas
for bringing the scent of fall into our homes?
