It’s time to make your house smell amazing! Using a simmer pot to boil spices, orange peels, sliced apples, and more is an easy and natural way to fill your home with festive fall and holiday fragrances.
Many of those amazing-smelling fall-scented candles you can find on almost every store aisle this time of year have petroleum-based ingredients. As good as those candles may make my house smell, I try to steer clear of petroleum-based products in my house as much as possible.
So that means that when I want my house to smell like fall, I turn to simmer pot recipes and essential oils to get the job done!
“A change of season calls for a change of scent that is both energizing and refreshing.” — Hannah Bronfman
Confession time: I have this fear that a guest will walk into our home and say, “What is that horrible smell?”.
Read this amazing post on DIY Fall Scents, to make your home smell like a fall. It turns out that nature has some pretty fabulous-smelling spices, herbs, and foods that will make your home (and mine!) smell just the way you want it to for fall and the holidays.
What Are Simmer Pot Recipes?
What is a Simmer Pot?
If you are wondering “what is a simmer pot?”, I completely understand!
Basically, it’s a bubbling stovetop potpourri. You could use a traditional simmer pot that you buy at the store, use a crockpot or slow cooker or if you are home, then make it on the stove on low heat.
What to Put in Your Simmer Pot
Toss orange peels, spices, and more into a pot of water on the stove and then turn the pot on and let it simmer. Before you know it, you’ll witness your pot of simmering fruits, spices, etc add fragrance to every single room in your home.
You can let it simmer through the night to keep your home smelling amazing. It is a natural and fun way to dress up the scent of your home. They are addictive, trust me!
Also, check out these orange peel hacks, they will blow your mind!
I am always up for trying new simmering pot recipes that will make our home smell amazing. With so many possible simmer pot combinations, the fragrance options are nearly endless.
Simply toss the ingredients into a pot, add water, turn on your stove, and watch vibrant, rich, spice-filled scents make your home more than ready to greet your company.
Once you have exhausted the obvious things to use as homemade potpourri, then you can try one of these sweet smelling ideas…
Best & Easy Simmer Pot Recipes for Autumn
These simmer potpourri recipes will fill your home with delicious smells and a few other benefits as well. Find your new favorite sweet smelling recipe down below.
This vast variety of simmering pot recipes below will truly transform your home, and there’s something for everyone on this list so you can find a mix the entire family will love.
1. Cold and Flu Fighting Stovetop Potpourri
This simmer pot recipe is great to simmer on the stovetop when someone in your home is sick. It’s comforting, soothing, and healing to the body as you all breathe it in.
Citrus, rosemary, clove, cinnamon, and eucalyptus are an unbeatable germ-fighting combination and are often found together in essential oil blends. This stovetop recipe is a great way to stay healthy this winter.
2. Fall Crock Pot Recipe for Potpourri
Simmer pots aren’t just for the simmer pots. Check out this easy, chemical-free autumn slow cooker simmer pot recipe. Instead of the stove, they created their simmer pot in the slow cooker. Using the slow cooker means you don’t have to replenish the water supply quite as often.
I love this idea and the ingredients—apples, oranges, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon sticks. This combination will surely dress up the scent of your home this year.
And if you store it in an airtight container when you’re not actively simmering it, it will last for as long as four days!
3. Citrus Scented Simmer Pot
Get a burst of energy with this citrus simmering pot recipe. The orange and ginger together really add a vibrant fragrance that is so fresh and clean. Pop the mixture into a pretty mason jar and you have a beautiful gift you can share.
This recipe is not only perfect for the fall, it’s great for any time of the year.
4. Stove Top Potpourri With Pears
This pear apple simmer pot recipe is really good as well. You get that sweet, fruity aroma paired with the warm and comforting scent of clove and cinnamon. As an alternative to simmering it in a pot, you could use it as a dry potpourri.
This is one of my favorite fall simmering potpourri recipes. And it would make a splendid gift for someone who loves the scents of fall and winter.
5. Fragrant Homemade Potpourri with Dried Fruit
Give the gift of dried fruit and spices so that loved ones can put it in a pan with water and create their own simmer pots for their homes this season.
Homemade potpourri makes a great gift that is both affordable and unique. And you can customize the potpourri in many different ways to match your loved one’s favorite scents.
6. Holiday Simmering Potpourri Recipe
A great one to do for the holidays is this citrus holiday simmer pot recipe. Cloves, anise, dried oranges, and more give this a citrus and spiced scent. And it’s so easy to make!
And if you want to give this potpourri mix as a gift, there are printable gift tags that explain to the receiver how to use their gifted simmer pot ingredients.
7. DIY Christmas Potpourri for Your Simmer Pot
This homemade potpourri includes a free printable label to use to create your own gift of simmering potpourri. The red cranberries add a beautiful touch of holiday color. And the lovely, long-lasting fragrance is the perfect addition to your home this holiday season.
As a bonus, this potpourri simmer pot recipe is perfect for holiday get-togethers! You can have it simmering in the background, adding a festive element to your gathering.
8. Winter Pine Simmering Pot
Oh, I love this winter simmering pot recipe. It really feels like you bring the outdoors in, as the pine scent is paired with spices and citrus. It’s a simple way to make your home smell amazing, and you’re doing so without the use of harmful chemicals.
If you have an artificial tree, this is a homemade potpourri recipe you definitely want to use to give your home the feeling of a real, live Christmas tree.
9. Stove Top Potpourri Idea
This stove top potpourri is not only super pretty, but it will make your home smell like Christmas in minutes. She even shares tips on how to give this as a gift to loved ones for a holiday gift. They’ll love the scents of orange, cranberry, cloves, and cinnamon!
10. Homemade Orange Spice Potpourri
Orange spice potpourri is a very popular scent, as oranges work really well in a simmering pot, and they help bring out the fragrance of the spices you used to go with it. This potpourri is another simmer pot recipe that would make an excellent Christmas gift for a loved one.
11. Fall Simmer Pot Recipe
This fall simmer pot recipe gives you a hint of apple, cinnamon, clove, and more. Ahhhh, I can smell it right now.
It’s an amazing combination that helps to give your home a holiday season vibe in just a few minutes. You’ll want to mix up a batch this afternoon!
12. Simmering Christmas Potpourri
Can’t wait till Christmas? I get it! This simmering pot Christmas recipe uses a handful of citrus fruits, cranberries, and more to really capture the scents of the season.
If you put up an artificial tree but miss the smell of a real live tree, this recipe will more than make up for it!
Simmer Pot Recipes to Make Your Home Smell Amazing This Fall & Winter
Aren’t these simmer pot recipes simply beautiful to look at? Not only do they look amazing, but they will make your house smell unbelievably fragrant and festive.
Simmer pot recipes are an easy way to sprinkle the fragrance of the season throughout every room in your home. You need little more effort beyond dumping a few household ingredients into a kitchen pot and covering them with water, and you can enjoy the wonderful scents that make fall and winter so special.
And because you can use such a wide variety of ingredients in each of the recipes we highlighted, you’ll sure to find a favorite for every member of your family. Assuming you want to, that is. Maybe you’d prefer to just fill your home with your favorite fragrances?! The beauty of these recipes is you could use a citrus blend one day and a pine blend the next. Vary the scent based on your mood, the temperature outdoors, or the activities you have going on that day.
Which of these simmer pot blends are you most excited about trying first?
