Feng Shui by Honey Lim

It’s spring here in New Zealand, and time to clear out the mess in time for the Christmas BBQs and summer parties! My topic for today’s blog is about clutter. Someone wrote to me asking:

I hope you can help me…my bedroom is always a mess clothes are filling up! whats the best thing to do to make the room more romantic?

Clutter brings messy chi into the bedroom, and if you live in the room with someone, it will most certainly create the type of chi that leads to quarrels! Real clutter translates into emotional cluttervery easily - so be vigilant about getting rid of mess. Everytime i quarrel with my husband it is usually because the room is so messy or the Number 3 flying star has flown in (blame it on the feng shui!). After a good clean we wonder why we even argued in the first place!

My personal view is that it’s absolutely worth investing in storage to keep mess at bay. Just folding up all the clothes into storage, throwing out old magazines/paper and using a laundry basket big enough to contain your dirty clothes will create a good and healthy atmosphere to live in. And don’t forget to vacuum and air the room regularly! Airing your room with the windows open brings a new surge of chi into the room. If your walls have lots of gunk and marks, paint it or cover it up with suitable paintings or photos. For more romance, activate the southwest with a light.

There are 2 rules I hold about keeping a space clutter-free - and I’ll be the first to admit that it requires discipline and shedding attachments to things that you don’t need.

1. Invest in storage to keep what you need to keep (find a place in your house for it to belong to)
2. Junk everything else! Give it away!! Donate it to your local charity. Throw away useless and broken things.

Rather than wait till each spring to clean out junk, start now. One website that I have benefited from is http://www.getorganizednow.com/ run by a lady named Maria Garcia. Her tips are really practical and I encourage anyone reading this to visit her site and sign up for her newsletter. The secret to getting more done is to break down everything you do into 10 minute tasks which you can fit into the day in between all the other things you do.

My aunt has also written a fabulous book on decluttering your home Lillian Too’s 168 Feng Shui Ways to Declutter Your Home - which i highly recommend. Her book talks alot about how you can make distinction between what’s junk and what’s not. Remember that clearing out the physical mess clears out the emotional and mental mess too!