Why You Should Boil Lemon Peels And Ginger When You Turn The Heat On This Winter

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Cold winter nights call for comforting dinners and warming drinks, but with the heat on and the windows shut, your home can start to feel a little stuffy and stale. Before you go out and buy scented candles or room spray, there's an easy way to keep your home smelling lovely, and it can be done with ingredients you probably already have on hand: lemon peels and ginger. By simply boiling lemon peels and ginger in a pot, your home can smell amazing all winter long with minimal effort. 

Lemon is often used to help neutralize foul odors, and it gives off that crisp, citrus fresh smell that immediately makes any space feel cleaner. Ginger adds that cozy warmth, with its slightly spicy aroma that feels especially comforting when it is cold outside. Combing them on the stovetop is a natural way to rid your house of bad odors, no synthetic fragrances required. Best of all, it's inexpensive.

It is also easy to do; add a few lemon rinds to a saucepan along with a few slices of fresh ginger, pour enough water to cover everything, and bring the mixture to a light simmer. The wonderful, zesty aromas of the lemon and ginger will start to waft around your kitchen for hours as essential oils are released in the steam. You can even reuse the ingredients for another two to three days; just let the pot cool down completely before popping it in the fridge overnight and simmering it again with more water the next day.

Lemon and ginger make a great base for all your cold-weather simmer pots, which are easy to customize depending on what you have on hand and how you want your home to smell. For Thanksgiving-inspired aromas, build on the lemon and ginger with orange peels, cinnamon sticks, a splash of vanilla, and a sprinkle of pumpkin spice for a warmly fragrant kitchen. During Christmas time, swap in fresh cranberries, whole cloves, a pinch of a spice (like Simply Organic Pure Ground Nutmeg), a few rosemary sprigs, and a handful of fresh evergreen for a pot that smells like holiday cheer.

Keep in mind that a simmer pot is all about fragrance, so it won't clean or purify the air, but it can make a closed-up winter home smell more inviting. So the next time you crank up the heat and realize your house could use a refresh, skip the artificial room spray and scented candles. Grab the lemon peels you were about to toss, slice up some ginger, and let theses natural ingredients bubbling on your stovetop do the work.