How To Make Your House Smell Like Fall

Every autumn-lover knows that fall is so much more than a season. It’s a time to pull out your family’s pumpkin pie recipe and snuggle up in your coziest blankets. 

This year, take your autumn preparations to a whole new level by making your whole house smell like fall. In this guide, we’ll talk about the best fall scents and give you a few ideas to help you bring the autumn magic into your home. 

what are the best fall scents?

To make your house smell like fall, let’s start by talking about the best fall scents in the first place. 

If you ask us, these are some of the most season-defining smells of fall:

• Apple: Apple is by far the most iconic fall fragrance. Crisp, fresh, and sweet, apple is one of those fruity, timeless scents.
• Cinnamon: Sweet and spicy, cinnamon essential oil has a delicious scent that will keep you warm as the weather cools down. 
• Cardamom: Cardamom is a defining part of the pumpkin spice smell and has a woody, slightly sweet fragrance. 
• Vanilla: If you’re looking for a fall scent that’s as sweet as it is creamy, look no further than vanilla. 
• Orange: One of the brighter smells on this list, orange is a citrusy, juicy scent that adds a fresh edge to many fall recipes and fragrances. 
• Pumpkin: Another unmistakably fall fragrance is pumpkin. Gourmand, sweet, and rich, pumpkin has a fruity aroma that is the basis of pumpkin spice drinks and, of course, pumpkin pie. 

how can you make your house smell like fall?

Now that you know a bit about classic fall fragrances, it’s time to talk about how you can bring them into your home and make it smell great. 

use scented candles

One of the easiest ways to give your house a fall-like smell is to use scented candles. Lighting a Snif candle is sure to make any room smell like the first day of fall. 

Need some recommendations? Try these: 

• Sweet Ash, a lowkey sweet candle featuring juniper and vanilla
• Half Baked Pumpkin Smash, a delicious pumpkin candle with orange, cinnamon, and whiskey
• Half Baked Gingerbread Smash, a mouth-watering gingerbread candle featuring chai, cinnamon swirl, and nutmeg
• Off The Grid, a warm scented candle with lily of the valley, moss, cedar, and sandalwood
• Crumb Couture, a croissant candle with croissant accord, wild berry jam, blackcurrant, toasted vanilla, and sandalwood 
• Half Baked Apple Cider Smash, an apple candle with a smashing blend of sparkling apple cider with honeycrisp apple, caramel glaze, and cinnamon sugar

make a fall simmer pot

Making a simmer pot involves boiling potpourri, and it’s one of the fastest ways to make your home smell like fall. All you need to do is bring some of the quintessential fall ingredients (think cinnamon sticks, orange peels and orange slices, cranberries, pine needles, whole cloves, and so on) to a boil in a pot of water on the stovetop.

incorporate reed diffusers

Incorporating reed diffusers into your home decor can bring the smell of fall indoors if you place the reeds in autumn-esque essential oils.

try a new laundry detergent

Another simple way to make your home smell like fall is to switch to a new laundry detergent. The Old Money Everything Wash and Sweet Ash Everything Wash from Snif will help you embrace the smells of fall by wearing them. 

Old Money features cardamom, tonka bean, vanilla, sandalwood, and musk for a sophisticated twist, while Sweet Ash blends juniper, fir balsam, white moss, golden cedar, vanilla bean, and creamy tonka for a lowkey sweet and earthy scent. 

let some fresh air in

One of the easiest ways to make your house smell like fall is to open up your windows and let in some fresh, crisp air. 

With families gathering around the fire pit to roast marshmallows, pumpkins sprouting up in their patches, and leaves falling from the changing trees, there will be all kinds of natural aromas finding their way into your home.

Keep your windows open from the morning until midday — before things cool down too much in the evening. This way, you can enjoy the best of the autumn breeze (and smell all the harvest scents that come wafting in with it). 

add potpourri

Another effective way to make your home elicit the scents of fall is to incorporate potpourri. Potpourri is a mixture of dried herbs, spices, flowers, and other plants mixed together to create yummy fragrances for your home.

Potpourri can be easily found at different shops, including craft stores, home goods stores, gift shops, and floral shops — but you can also choose to DIY your own potpourri so that you can customize the fragrance.

Some of the best ingredients to include in a fall potpourri include cinnamon, pumpkin spice, apple, nutmeg, maple, and clove. Take your pick and get creative with mixing and matching — if your ingredients aren’t already dried, hang your herbs upside down in a cool, dark place and wait one to two weeks.

When the ingredients are ready, combine them in a bowl and adjust the mixture to change the fragrance based on your preferences. To enhance the smell of your potpourri even more, you can also add in a few drops of your favorite essential oil. 

Put your potpourri in an airtight container, allow it to sit for a few days, and then display your fragrant masterpiece.

bake your favorite fall treat

If you ask us, the most delicious way to make your house smell more like fall is to start baking your favorite autumn treats. By using popular seasonal ingredients like cinnamon, pumpkin, maple, and nutmeg, your home is sure to be filled with sweet smells (and even sweeter pastries).

To make sure you can bake your fall treats whenever your heart desires, we suggest stocking up on pantry staples like sugar, flour, salt, milk, butter, eggs, vanilla extract, cinnamon, pumpkin, and chocolate chips.

Need some inspiration? Some of our favorite autumn desserts to add to your baking rotation are pumpkin pie, apple crisps, cinnamon rolls, spicy nutmeg muffins, and warm maple cookies.

bring autumn into your home

This year, bring autumn into your home with these easy hacks. From laundry detergents to simmer pots, your home can smell as good as your go-to knit sweater feels and that crockpot apple cider tastes this fall. 

Sources:

Nutritional Value, Phytochemical Potential, and Therapeutic Benefits of Pumpkin (Cucurbita sp.) | NIH

Using Ambient Scent to Enhance Well-Being in the Multisensory Built Environment | NIH

Nature, smells, and human wellbeing | NIH

What is a fresh scent in perfumery? Perceptual freshness is correlated with substantivity | NCBI