Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui (Revised and Updated)

by Karen Kingston

  USING THE BAGUA

  An in-depth study of the feng shui bagua can take many years, and after reading this book you may be interested to learn more about it. However, to get you motivated to clear your clutter, I am just going to explain it in very basic terms, with a very simple diagram.

  Let’s say you want to apply the bagua to your home. First, get a sheet of paper and sketch the floor plan of your building—just an outline showing all the walls and doorways from a bird’s-eye view will do. If you rent space in part of a house, don’t draw the whole building; just draw the apartment or the room you live in.

  Next, turn the sheet of paper so that the front entrance to your house, apartment, or room is at the lower edge of the plan, as if you are facing your home and about to step inside. The front entrance is the determining factor in how to position the bagua because this is how energy as well as people enter your home.

  Special note for the Irish and other extra-friendly communities of the world: if you, your family, your visitors, and the postman use your back door as your front door, then use your back door for the purpose of aligning the bagua.

  The next step is to draw in the bagua so that you can discover where each area of your life is located in the building.

  If the building is square or rectangular, this is easy. You simply divide each of the sides of the building into thirds and connect those points with horizontal and vertical lines to create nine squares or rectangles of identical size, labelled according to the bagua diagram.

  MISSING AREAS

  If the building is an irregular shape, you first have to square it up before you can draw in the nine boxes of the bagua, as shown in the diagrams.

  BAGUAS WITHIN BAGUAS

  This is where it gets even more interesting. The bagua applies not only to the building as a whole, but also to the plot of land it stands on (swivel your drawing so that the main entrance to the plot of land is nearest the lower edge of the page) and to each room within the building (turn your drawing so that the doorway to the room is facing toward you).

  So that puts to rest any ideas you may have had about secretly shifting your junk to a shed at the bottom of the garden. A junk shed in the far left-hand corner of your garden will sabotage your finances, one in the far right-hand corner will put a strain on your relationships, one in the center at the back of your garden can damage your reputation, and so on. There is nowhere you can put clutter where it will not affect you!

  CLUTTER AND THE BAGUA

  Try this simple exercise now. Think of a cabinet in your home that is crammed full of stuff—one that has been like this so long that you no longer know what is actually in there. That cabinet corresponds to a part of you. There is a part of yourself that you have become so out of touch with, you no longer know what is happening in there. To find out what this may be, work out where the cabinet is placed in the bagua for your home as well as the bagua for the room it is in. If it is in a room you use a lot, the bagua of that room is the most important one to look at; otherwise, just refer to the bagua of your home as a whole.

  THE NINE SECTIONS OF THE BAGUA

  In the following descriptions, each section of the bagua has several different names. This is to give you a feel for the different levels and energy frequencies encompassed by each of the areas. Just pick whichever terms you most resonate with.

  Prosperity, Wealth, Abundance

  Clutter in this area will clog up your cash flow, cause your overall financial situation to stagnate, and make it hard to create abundance in your life.

  Fame, Reputation, Illumination

  When this area is cluttered it can cause your reputation to dull and your popularity to wane. Enthusiasm, passion, and inspiration will also be in short supply.

  Relationships, Love, Marriage

  A cluttered Relationships area can cause difficulty in finding a love partner or problems in an existing relationship. What you get will not be what you want.

  Family, Elders, Community

  This type of clutter can cause problems with superiors, authority figures, and parents, as well as within your family or community as a whole.

  Health, Unity, Well-being

  Clutter here can have damaging health consequences, and your life will lack a meaningful central focus.

  Creativity, Offspring, Projects

  If this area is cluttered you are likely to experience blocks to your creativity, struggle in bringing projects to fruition, and have difficulties in relationships with your children or with people working for you.

  Knowledge, Wisdom, Self-improvement

  Clutter in this area limits your ability to learn, make wise decisions, and improve yourself.

  The Journey, Career, Life Path

  When you have clutter here it can seem as though life is an uphill struggle. You feel that you are in a rut not doing what you really want to do and probably not even knowing what that is.

  Helpful Friends, Compassion, Travel

  Clutter in this area blocks the flow of support in your life, so you can feel like you are “going it alone” a lot of the time. It also inhibits plans to travel or move your home.

  THE BAGUA TEST

  I’m a renowned skeptic myself and I wholeheartedly encourage you to test the validity of this information before accepting it. One way you can do this is to pick one of the areas of the bagua that is going well in your life, drag a whole pile of junk into it, leave it there for a few months, and see what happens. I did this once and it was a complete disaster!

  Another, more productive way, which I definitely recommend over the first method, is to pick an area of your life that is not going well and do some clutter clearing in the relevant areas of the bagua. For example, suppose you feel generally unsupported. You would need to clear any clutter in the Helpful Friends area of your garden, if you have one, the Helpful Friends area of the bagua of your home as a whole, and the Helpful Friends areas of the main rooms you spend time in. If any of these places are inaccessible for any reason (you might have a tenant living in that part of your home, for example), you will need to do an extra good job in the areas you can get to.

  Of course, the very best way to test these ideas is to clear all your clutter, wherever it is. This will help all aspects of your life equally well.

  The next few chapters are about identifying specific types of clutter. Let’s begin by taking a look at favorite clutter zones where junk is most likely to accumulate.

  Think of your home as a graphic three-dimensional representation of your own life. If you share the space with others, you may like to claim that it represents their lives more than your own, especially if they outnumber you, but you can’t get out of it that easily. Everything around you is a reflection of yourself, and this includes not just your home, but any other people who live in it and what they create there.

  This chapter looks at some of the primary areas where clutter collects and how this can affect you.

  BASEMENTS, ATTICS, AND JUNK ROOMS

  Basements

  Your basement, cellar, or any other kind of under-house storage area symbolizes your past and your subconscious mind. A cluttered basement corresponds to issues from the past not dealt with, often very weighty issues (people tend to put their heaviest junk in the basement). The length of time stuff has been down there will tell you how long you have been putting off dealing with what is symbolically buried in it—and remember to add the period of time it wasn’t being used before it got relegated to the basement.

  If you leave things in your basement long enough, the chances are that mildew, mice, damp, fungus, or some other natural savior will intervene to help you decide to dump them. But while these processes are happening, how are they affecting your life? Feeling hopeless, depressed, lethargic, aimless, or burdened in your progress are just some of the unfortunate side effects subterranean clutter can ha
ve.

  You can, of course, use your cellar for some storage, but don’t have so much stuff that air and energy cannot circulate, and be sure to regularly review what is down there and keep only things you actually use from time to time.

  Attics

  Things stored in your attic can restrict your higher aspirations and possibilities. You stifle yourself by creating a false limitation. You will tend to worry more about the future than other people, as if there are problems hanging over you, ready to fall on you at any time. After clearing out their attics, many people write to tell me what a difference it makes:

  “It took me a week to clear out the attic but it felt fantastic and I am buzzing with energy.”

  “I had over forty years’ memorabilia stored in my attic—old love letters, photos, trinkets, and souvenirs. They were just gathering dust and entertaining the mice. I cleared the lot and converted my attic to an art studio, which has now become my favorite room in the house. My new-found creativity has brought me such joy.”

  “I booked a consultation with you because my business had plateaued out several years ago and I was hoping you could work your feng shui wonders to move it on to bigger and better things. The last thing I expected you to recommend was to clear out the attic and I must admit I wouldn’t have done it if it had been left to me. It was my wife who finally talked me into it and I just want to let you know that it has been exactly as you said—like taking the lid off my business. It has completely taken off in new and exciting ways, like a dream come true.”

  Junk Rooms

  Hopefully the chapter on the bagua put you off ever having one of these again. The murky energy that emanates from junk rooms is highly undesirable and can really mess up whichever aspect of your life it is connected to. If your circumstances are such that you absolutely must have a junk room for a while longer, then at least tidy and organize what is in there.

  Junk Drawers

  What I am about to say may surprise you. My advice is: do have one. Designate one drawer that you can just throw things into. If you live in a big house, you may even need a junk drawer on every floor.

  This whole clutter clearing thing is not about being obsessively perfect—it is about handling your belongings in such a way that the energy of your home is vibrant and flowing rather than dull and stagnant. In our busy world, we sometimes need the blessed relief of just opening a drawer and chucking in all those odd things that are littering the place. So do have a junk drawer but follow these three rules:

  1. Choose a small drawer.

  2. Use it sparingly.

  3. Have regular clear-outs.

  ENTRANCES, DOORWAYS, AND CORRIDORS

  Main Entrance

  In feng shui, the main entrance to your home represents your approach to the world as you look out, and your approach to your own life as you look in. Just as people enter and leave through this doorway, so, too, does energy. If the area is cluttered in any way it can restrict the flow of opportunities coming to you and obstruct your progress in the world. This is a very important area to keep clear. Clutter near the main entrance creates unnecessary struggle in your life.

  Next time you use the front door of your home, take a long, objective look at what you see. Is the pathway to it cluttered by overhanging branches or overgrown plants? Is there junk outside the door or visible from the pathway as you approach or leave the building? Do you have to fight your way in past pegs of bulging coats hung five deep, scattered shoes, raincoats, hats, gloves, scarves, and other assorted paraphernalia? Organize this area so that it is as clutter-free as possible, and especially make sure that there is no clutter wedged behind the door, preventing it from opening fully.

  Back Door

  As you’ll discover later in this book when I talk about the wonders of colon cleansing, everything eats and excretes. If your front door is the mouth through which things enter, then it logically follows that your back door is…(you can figure this out for yourself). So if you don’t want your home to be constipated, don’t let clutter accumulate here either.

  Behind Doors

  One very simple way to test whether feng shui works or not is to go through your home and clear clutter from behind all your doors. This includes items hanging from hooks and doorknobs (bathrobes, towels, bags, you name it) as well as things that obstruct doors from opening fully (furniture, laundry baskets, etc.). Then notice how much easier your life becomes. This is so simple and so effective. When your doors cannot open fully, the energy cannot flow freely around your home, so everything you do takes more effort. When you remove the clutter, the energy flows more smoothly, and so does your life.

  Corridors

  Clutter in corridors, passageways, and stairways obstructs the flow of life-bringing energy through your home, so your life lumbers rather than jaunts on its way. The worst type is clutter that causes you to contort your body as you walk to maneuver around it. Keep all these areas as clear as possible.

  LIVING AREAS

  Living Room/Family Room

  This varies enormously from home to home. Some areas are kept fastidiously clean, tidy, and clutter-free so that they are always presentable when visitors call. Others look permanently like a hurricane just swept through. The important thing is that your home has a “heart” where people naturally feel drawn to spend time and hang out with one another. Even if you live alone, there still needs to be a place where you do this with yourself. A house without a heart is not a home.

  Sometimes the living room or family room becomes the gathering point of this energy, or it may be the kitchen table or dining room. Wherever it is, it’s important that the energy doesn’t whiz through the space too quickly. It needs to be able to collect and blend before moving on its way. So this is one instance where a few well-chosen decorative objects can be placed to anchor the energy and create a homey atmosphere. Make this space as inviting as possible; it is particularly important to have an attractive centerpiece that symbolizes something relevant and inspiring to the people who live there. But if you have too much clutter, the heart of your home will become stagnant, so it’s important to get the balance right.

  Kitchen

  What is lurking in your kitchen cabinets? A man who came to one of my workshops shared with the group that after reading my book he decided to eat his way through all the food he had and not go shopping again until he had consumed the lot. He said he managed to live like this for nearly eight weeks. In the end he was down to ten cans of food he didn’t like, so he threw them out and went shopping!

  Have a major clear-out of all your cabinets, as well as your fridge and freezer.

  BEDROOMS

  Things That Don’t Belong in Bedrooms

  Is your bedroom a dumping ground for all those things you have nowhere else to put? If so, you are treating yourself like a second-class citizen. It’s really not ideal to have computers, exercise bikes, broken-down equipment, and other unseemly objects crowded into your sleeping area. Clutter in the bedroom is a real no-no, for children and adults alike.

  For those who are romantically inclined, whether you are single and looking or already in a relationship, keeping your bedroom tidy and clutter-free will pay dividends. Stale energy hangs around dirty laundry, so never keep a laundry basket in the bedroom, and be sure to change your sheets at least once a week to keep your energy fresh and vital. These tips will improve the quality of your sleep as well as your love life.

  Under Beds

  Anything in your energy field affects the quality of your sleep, so resist the temptation to stash junk under your bed. If you have one of those beds with drawers underneath, the best things to keep in there are clean bed linens, towels, or clothing.

  Tops of Dressers

  It is a curious and little-known fact that when people have lots of bottles and containers on their dressers, most of them are almost empty. Check
yours and see!

  Keep the surfaces in your bedroom as clear as you can so that the energy can move smoothly and harmoniously around the space.

  Tops of Closets

  Clutter crammed on tops of closets is like problems hanging over you waiting to be dealt with. It impedes your ability to think clearly and freshly, and if it’s the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning, you will tend to feel sluggish. Lots of clutter in your home stashed higher than eye level has a generally oppressive effect, and you may suffer from headaches.