Cluttered & Cramped & Stagnant- Oh My!

Cluttered & Cramped & Stagnant-Oh My!

Think of a family recipe box or an old family cookbook, with the many recipes handed down from one generation to the next. Some of the recipes are tried and true, while others ("a pinch of this and a dab of that") are left to intuition and experimentation to get them to turn out right. This is what Feng Shui is.

There are "tried and true" mathematical equations that tell how energy (CHI) flows through an environment and how we can better align ourselves with the Chi in order to benefit from it. But there is another side to Feng Shui, one where we must learn to use common sense, intuition, and be open to experimenting with our surroundings.

How does the environment look?

Beautifully kept
Clean and Tidy
Unkempt and Disorderly
Cluttered
Dead

How do you feel when you are there?

Peaceful and Calm
Energized and Powerful
Focused and Productive
Relaxed and Stress Free
Uptight and Agitated
Angry and Argumentative
Depressed and Moody
Tired and Lethargic

Does the arrangement and scale of furniture, accessories, plants, etc. make sense?

Open, Airy, and easy to get around in
Too open and vast, not built to human scale
Close, Cozy and Comfortable
Tight, Cluttered, and too cramped to move
The furniture is scaled appropriately to the size of the room
The furniture is too large or too small for the size of the room
Art, Plants and Accessories decorate the environment giving a completed feel
The accessories are too sparse, giving it a sterile or un-lived-in look
The accessories adorn every inch of space making it unusable and cluttered

These are just three of the questions that many ask themselves, be it intentional or just in judgment. But when it come to Feng Shui, we must learn to truly ask ourselves those questions and then LISTEN to what our intuition is tell us.

To learn how to listen to your intuition you must learn how to play. What I mean by that, is that you have to learn how to let go and experiment! We as humans tend to be creatures of habit. "If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it!" And as creature of habit we don’t like change. All I ask of you is to be willing to…Give It Up!

Move things around in your life! Too much? OK, lets start smaller then.

Move around the furniture and accessories in a room that doesn’t get used much. There is probably a reason why that room doesn’t get used. You had high hopes of transforming it into a reading room/ a work out room/ a guest bed room/ an entertainment room…a "whatever" room, but instead it has become a catch all room. Do you hate going in there?

That room symbolizes everything that you need to do and keep putting off. This is what is known as Sha Chi (negative energy-or for the 60's crowd- Bad Vibes.) The energies stop moving and become stagnant. Think of a stagnant pool of water. It becomes thick and dirty, filling with dead things and algae. Does that sound like your room or closet or cabinet or drawer? Getting dusty and filling up with unused (dead) stuff?

Step One: Clean it up and clear it out!

Clutter causes Chi to stagnate, which in turn causes stagnation in your life. Clean up the clutter. Get rid of items that no longer are of use to you and then the things that you DO need and want will come into your life. It is believed that what you give out comes back to you three fold. So if I may suggest- donate your old items to a charity of your choice and help those less fortunate than yourself.

Cleaning and clearing out the clutter, for a lot of people, is very hard. Some kind of Mystical bond has formed with that box of used and moldy old paperbacks and magazines. Get a friend or a loved one to help out. Preferably one who has no attachment to the items. They can help "talk you down". A general rule of thumb is that if you haven’t seen it or thought about it (or fit into it) in a year, then you do not need it anymore!

Step Two: Rearrange and Reorganize

You can either go for it full out and turn that room into the room it was always meant to be, or you can take baby steps and concentrate on just making it inhabitable again.

Whether you go for the gusto or not, be proud that you have gotten to this point!

If the room has windows-open them and let the sun and Chi in. This will start to revitalize the room and refresh the stagnant Chi. Leave the windows open for as long as possible each day. If you do not have windows in that room, then I suggest that you install a fan in there to keep the Chi circulating. Ceiling fans are great inventions and relatively easy to install.

Move the furniture around to open up the traffic flow. What I mean by that, is to walk into the room and go to the area that will be used the most (the desk or bed). Is there anything impeding you from getting there? Do you feel closed in? Experiment with the placement of the furniture until it "feels" right to you. Maybe some of the furniture is no longer needed-remember the clutter? Get rid of it or find a new room for it to live in. But Do Not start another catch all room-okay?!

Step Three: Add Accessories and Lighting

Now you have a wonderful new room that you are actually starting to enjoy being in. You are ready to start adding accessories back in to finish off the look that you have created. Again, do not clutter up the shelves and walls. If you have collections then arrange them in groupings that make sense. Try being a minimalist first. Add a few things and see how that feels to you. If it is too bare, then add a couple more items. You do not have to make the room look like a furniture store. They deliberately fill their room vignettes with lots of accessories to make the furniture look better and to sell, sell, sell! You, on the other hand, have already bought.

Add lighting that suits what the function of the room is. If it is an office or a reading room then you will want some kind of ambient (general) lighting, then a task light or two. Task lights are smaller lights that give light to the area where you perform your tasks. Like a reading lamp next to a comfortable chair or a desk lamp to light the papers that you look at.

Step Four: Stand back and Look at the Finished Product

Yeah! You are finished! How do you feel about your self? And how do you feel about the room? Pretty good, eh?!

Does the room make sense now? Does it have a traffic pattern that makes sense? Can you feel a difference when you walk into your new room compared to before?

Hopefully, you feel very positive and happy about the changes that you have made. If there are still things that bother you, then keep moving items around until your satisfied.

Now you can enjoy your new room! And once you are well rested from this little venture, you may be compelled to start looking at other rooms in your house. Just do one thing at a time! If you take on too much all at once, then you may get overwhelmed and discouraged.

Always remember to play and make what you do enjoyable!

Thank you for taking the time to read this! I hope it helps.

We are always looking for letters and pictures of people who have "feng shui-ed" their homes. Keep us in touch and send us pictures!