Annual Fall Preparations

The very serious business of making the house smell good and convincing ourselves that buying apple butter counts as seasonal preparation.

There is a very specific point every September when I decide fall cannot simply arrive. It needs to be prepared for.

The candles need replenishing. The pantry needs its annual influx of cinnamon. There should be something good to read within arm’s reach of the couch. The soup recipes need locating. And, apparently, I need several highly specific lists to make sure October does not disappear while I’m busy doing normal life.

None of this is necessary, obviously.

Which is sort of the point.

These are the small things that make a season feel like a season. The things we repeat year after year until eventually they’re less about candles and cider and more about, Oh yes. This is what home feels like in the fall.

So this is my annual fall preparation list: part shopping list, part hunkering-down plan, part attempt to make a little more of the ordinary.

Home + Cozy

First order of business: make the house approximately 97% cozier.

I don’t really decorate for fall. I would much rather change the feeling of the house…warmer light, heavier blankets, candles burning earlier in the evening, and something soft nearby when it is finally cold enough to justify sitting under a blanket at 3 p.m.

• Beeswax candles (here’s my fav).
• Fall-scented candles – Farmhouse Candle Shop has clean burning candles that are truly delightful – Sisters is what my home smells like year-round, but is also the perfect Autumnal scent.
• Perfect cozy blanket (this one is worth the splurge).
• Cozy socks/slippers (if I’m home, these are on my feet).

We’re hunkering now.

The Fall Pantry

Fall food requires a few pantry staples that I somehow forget I need every single year until I’m halfway through a recipe.

So I like to do one little seasonal pantry restock at the beginning of fall.

• Apple butter
• Maple syrup
• Apple cider
• Popcorn kernels
• Good butter
• Hot chocolate
• Chai or fall tea
• Good coffee

Apple butter on toast. Popcorn for movie nights. Cider simmering on the stove.

The Spice Gang

Every fall, the gang reconvenes.

And by the gang, I mean the spices that become responsible for approximately 80% of what comes out of my kitchen.

• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Ginger
• Cloves
• Allspice
• Cardamom
• Pumpkin pie spice
• Apple pie spice
• Cinnamon sticks

Could I technically make pumpkin pie spice using the individual spices already in my cupboard?

Yes.

Will I also buy pumpkin pie spice?

Obviously.

This is fall. We are not here to demonstrate restraint.

A fresh jar of cinnamon gets used constantly for oatmeal, coffee, muffins, pancakes, baked apples, French toast, and anything else that looks like it might benefit from becoming slightly more autumnal.

Pro tip: If you’re a coffee drinker like me… add a little dash of pumpkin pie spice in to the coffee grounds before adding your water and it will make your coffee taste like pumpkin spice without all the sugar.

Hunkering Down

There comes a point in the year when leaving the house starts becoming considerably less appealing.

This is when I start gathering the things that make staying home feel like an actual plan rather than simply failing to make plans.

• Good fall book
• Puzzle
• Family game
• New journal (these are what I use, I go through several per year as these act as my planner/journal).
• Nice pens (the perfect fine-point pens)

Fall Bucket Lists to Make

This might be my favorite part.

• Fall movie list
  • You’ve got mail
  • Pride & Prejudice
  • Julie & Julia
  • Stepmom
  • When Harry Met Sally
• Cozy show list
• Fall reading list
  • These is My Words
  • Home Economics (building the “Home Economy” is so important so I like to pick this one up from time to time).
  • North and South
  • Stepping Heavenward
  • The Other Bennett Sister
• Family fall traditions list
  • Pumpkin patch
  • High school football game
  • bonfire + smores
  • movie nights
• Fall date-night list
  • Charcuterie and movie/game nights (on repeat)
• Fall baking list
  • Autumn Bark
  • Pumpkin loaf
  • Harvest trail mix
  • Pecan pie bars
  • Dutch apple pie
  • Sugar cookie deco (candy corn, etc.)
  • Baked oatmeal
  • Morning glory muffins
  • Coffee cake
  • Cinny rolls.
• Fall dinner + soup list
  • Coq Au Vin
  • Chicken stew and biscuits
  • Taco soup
  • Brown butter and brussels tortellini
  • Chicken pot pie
  • White chicken chili w/ cornbread
• Fall hosting ideas
  • Pie party
  • Fall sugar cookie deco party (kids)

The lists don’t have to be ambitious.

The same simple magic, every year.

Want Me to Do Some of the Fall Planning for You?

If all of this sounds lovely, but you would also very much like someone else to hand you the plan…this is exactly why I made the THS seasonal Challenge Club.

I love making a season feel intentional and helping you to do the same.

THS Fall Challenge Club

The THS Challenge Club is basically your month-by-month nudge to actually live the kind of home life you keep saving to Pinterest.

Each challenge is a beautifully designed printable packet with a seasonal focus and practical things to work on throughout the month. They’re $18 each, so you can simply grab the one that fits the season you’re in.

For fall, I’d start with:

September’s Harvest Home Challenge — for turning toward home as summer winds down and settling back into those warm, grounded household rhythms.

October’s Stress-Free Fall Homemaking Challenge — because October should involve soup and candles and children in leaf piles, not you frantically trying to manufacture “fall magic” while becoming progressively less magical yourself.

November’s Joy-Filled Home Challenge — for heading into the holiday season with gratitude, warmth, and an actual desire to enjoy the people living in your house.

If you’re the sort of person who would like me to continue telling you what to do every month, there’s also a full-year Challenge Club bundle.

And Let Me Handle Dinner While We’re at It

This is also the perfect time to pull out my Fall + Winter Seasonal Meal Plan.

Instead of sitting down every Sunday and trying to invent another week of dinners from the depths of your imagination, you get a six-month rotation of family-tested meals with the grocery lists and prep notes already done. Each seasonal plan includes 50–60 recipes, and every recipe takes 30 minutes or less of hands-on time.

Which means when the day gets dark at an offensive hour and everyone suddenly wants dinner—as they inexplicably do every night—you already know what you’re making.

There’s a Fall + Winter plan for $30, a Full Year Bundle for $55, or the $100 Ultimate Bundle with Fall + Winter, Spring + Summer, 15-Minute Meals, and Bulk Freezer meals. You also get lifetime access, so this is one of those things you can pull back out every fall instead of reinventing dinner annually.

Then you can spend considerably less time asking what are we eating? and considerably more time lighting the candle, pulling the blanket over your legs, and commencing hunkering.