Stove Top Air Fresheners: 14 Recipes For Instant Aroma

You can make an air freshener on your stove top in just a few minutes by using ingredients that are already in your kitchen. All it takes is a pan, some water, and a small handful of aromatic edible ingredients.

You may have heard the advice that before guests come over, you should bake cookies to put a pleasant aroma into the air in order to psychologically influence them to have a better time at your house.

Well, a stove top air freshener works the same exact way – except it allows you to choose pretty much any fragrance that exists as your air freshener. The best part is that if you already have a fully stocked kitchen, then you don’t need to go to the store for anything else. You can just use the foods or spices that you already have available at home.

Stove Top vs Crock Pot vs Other Options

Although this is called a stove top air freshener or stove top potpourri, a better way to set it up is to bring the scented items to a boil on your stove top pan, then pour them into an open crock pot that will keep them heated.

This is preferable because it won’t leave an open flame unattended on your stove, which is usually a bad idea.

You can even get an electric potpourri warmer or a scented candle wax warmer and use them to keep your homemade air freshener ingredients heated. These are ideal if you want a decorative item that will produce the scent somewhere other than your kitchen, such as on your living room coffee table.

How To Do It

Creating this type of instant air freshener is the easiest thing in the world.

1. Add scented ingredients to your pan.
2. Fill the rest of the pan with water.
3. Bring it to a boil (or to a high heat if using a crock pot or other warming device).
4. Reduce heat to a simmer.
5. Replenish the water over time, as it runs low.
6. (Optional) – When you’re done, store the ingredients in a decorative mason jar. Add a little salt to the water in the mason jar to prevent mold from growing. You can open it up and re-use it again in the future, but eventually the scent will fade.

If you want to “cheat” a little bit and make the scent stronger, you can also add a few drops of scented essential oil. Since essential oils are usually very strong, just 5-10 drops will add a huge boost of fragrance to your creation.

This is also an option if you want to add a unique scent to your pot that you don’t have – such as adding a few drops of peppermint oil to enhance the smell of your regular ingredients.

Ingredients To Use

You can use anything that has a fragrance. The boiling water will really maximize the scent and get every drop of scented oil or juice out of your chosen ingredients.

Recommended ingredients include:

• Fruit or fruit peels
  • Grapefruit
  • Orange
  • Lemon
  • Lime
  • Apple
• Herbs
  • Lavender petals
  • Rose petals
  • Thyme
  • Rosemary
  • Basil
  • Sage
  • Mint
  • Bay leaves
• Cloves
  • Juniper Berries
  • Cinnamon Sticks
  • Star Anise
  • Ginger
  • Allspice
• Extracts
  • Orange
  • Vanilla
  • Lemon
  • Almond
• Spices
  • Nutmeg
  • Rosemary
  • Cinnamon
  • Saffron
• Any scented plant carvings from your yard.
• Essential oils
  • Any scent you want. Click here to view options.

You can also use any other aromatic ingredients that you can imagine!

Featured Recipes From Around The Internet

There are so many great recipe blogs out there that have posted recipes for stove top air fresheners. I decided to go around and find the absolute best, most delicious combinations just for you.

Let’s take a look at some recipes from other bloggers:

1. Fall Wonderland (Cinnamon Orange)

• 1 sliced orange
• 5 cinnamon sticks
• 2 tablespoons whole cloves

Courtesy of Melissa from cleanmyspace.com.

2. Gingerbread Man

• 10 slices ginger
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Courtesy of Holly from spendwithpennis.com.

3. Winter Woods

• ½ cup juniper berries
• 1 sprig thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
• 1 sprig rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary)

Courtesy of Katie at diynatural.com.

4. Citrus Mint

• 4 sliced limes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 1 teaspoon of mint extract

Courtesy of Lina at hip2save.com.

5. Lemon Zest

• 2 lemons
• A bunch of fresh mint
• A bunch of fresh thyme
• 2 cinnamon sticks

Courtesy of Sara and Daniele from gatheringdreams.com.

6. Coffee Cake

• 2-4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 cup leftover coffee grounds
• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Courtesy of Lilly from instrupix.com.

7. Christmas Combination

• 1/2 cup fresh cranberries (more if desired)
• 1 orange (sliced)
• 4 cinnamon sticks (broken in half)
• 1 Tablespoon cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Courtesy of Jamielyn from iheartnaptime.net.

8. Rosemary Lemon

• 1 lemon, sliced
• 2 fresh rosemary sprigs
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Optional: 2 cinnamon sticks

Courtesy of Brandie from homecookingmemories.com.

9. Cinnamon Spice

• 1/2 whole nutmeg grated
• 1/4 cup ground cinnamon or 5 whole cinnamon sticks
• 1/4 cup pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice
• 1/8 cup cloves ground
• 4 oranges (sliced) or frontier orange peel

Courtesy of Kristin from livesimply.me.

10. Spice Extravaganza

• 5 cups water
• 2 navel oranges, peeled
• 1 apple, sliced in half
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 3 star anise
• 1 teaspoon-sized knob of fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon cardamom pods
• 1 teaspoon whole cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon dried orange peel

Courtesy of Jessica from howsweeteats.com.

11. Pumpkin Spice

• 6 Cinnamon Sticks
• 1 tbsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1 tbsp. Whole Cloves

Courtesy of Heidi at thefrugalgirls.com.

12. Fruity Fall Dessert

• 1/2 lemon, sliced thin
• 1/2 an apple, sliced
• 4 tsp cinnamon sticks, or 1/2 ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp whole cloves
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Courtesy of Jo-Anna from aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com

13. Lime-o-licious

• 2 limes, sliced
• 3-4 sprigs rosemary
• 3 tablespoons vanilla extract

Courtesy of Donella from gluesticksgumdrops.com.

14. Flower Petal Power

• 3-4 cups rose petals (about 6-12 roses)
• 5 pieces of fresh eucalyptus, about 5 inches long

Courtesy of Kimberly from getgreenbewell.com.