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This is one of the simplest things you can do around the holiday season. Simple, but impactful. A simmer pot.

A little background: my sweet sister-in-law would do this for us when we would come home from a night out when she was babysitting our girls. And we would feel sooo taken care of when we would come home to our house smelling heavenly. It’s so easy but it feels so luxurious!

So I started making sure I do it throughout the entire holiday season because having our house smell like cloves and rosemary and cranberries and all the delicious holiday smells really puts you in the holiday spirit.

What is a simmer pot? It’s just a simmering pot of water on the stove filled with things that smell good. The smell fills the house.

What You Need:

A pot
Water
Things that smell like the holidays- rosemary, fresh cranberries, oranges, apples, pears, cloves, cinnamon sticks, star anise. Find all my favs and what I use here.

To Make:

Fill pot with water, I usually fill about half way
Place aromatic items in pot
Heat water to just before boil
Turn down to lowest setting/simmer and leave on simmer

Notes:

Don’t forget to turn off when you are done/go to bed/leave the house. It can be easy to forget since the stove will be on the lowest setting. I usually get 2-3 uses/simmers out of one batch. It depends on how long you leave the pot simmering each time.

This past year I turned this simmer pot idea into easy, beautiful handmade gifts for neighbors and teachers. IMO, there is nothing better than homemade gifts for Christmas.

I simply bought mason jars at my local grocery store and filled them with a mix of all the aromatic items. I tied them with a ribbon and a little note that said, “Add to a simmering pot of water for holiday smells”. If I added fresh cranberries, I left them in the fridge until gifted so they wouldn’t go bad.

I made 12 at one time and it was amazing to have them on hand for gifts. Happy smells + easy gifts for the win!

If you were to come to my house, you would think, “Wow! There’s a lot of white in this house!” And then your second thought, I’m sure, would be “Ummmm Rebecca are you crazy!? How can you have this much white furniture with two little kids???”

I will tell you how:

Yes, I am crazy. But hey YOLO and I like white furniture.
Two stain removers I can’t live without.

Also, as a side note: just because you might not have white furniture, doesn’t mean your furniture gets less stains on it. We can just see them better! But I say this in all honesty, I would rather see the stains better and wash them right away than have furniture that “hides” stains. Yes of course we have blueberry stains and marker stains and dirty finger stains. Life with kiddos- can’t avoid.

Most of our white furniture is slipcovered so they’re super easy to strip and wash.

BUT, for spot treatment and treating them before you throw them in the wash, you need these:

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Fels Naptha- nothing new or novel. BUT IT WORKS. I also love that laundry brush in that photo. The two go super well together. Find them both in my Amazon store under the “Home” category.

I use Fels as a spot treatment when I have the laundry item already off and ready to go in the wash. I always keep a bar of it at our utility sink in our laundry room.

But my secret for spot treatment when I don’t want to get off the whole slipcover quite yet? Miss Mouth’s Messy Eater!! This stuff works wonders. WONDERS I tell you. Just spray it on and let it sit. Don’t rinse out. Then watch your stain disappear. Yep that easy.

I also keep this in the laundry room before washing as an extra tool if necessary.

And of course there’s also OxyClean- that stuff works well too but I truly have found that these two work even better. Mama win!

How to Make a Holiday Simmer Pot

The Best Stain Removers for Life with Kids