Feng Shui for Real Life

by Carol M. Olmstead, FSII
Certified Feng Shui Practitioner
Feng Shui For Real Life
www.FengShuiForRealLife.com


Feng Shui is the art and science of balancing your interior environment. Keeping clutter out of your home and workplace is a big part of achieving this balance. In Feng Shui, clutter represents postponed decisions and the inability to move forward. What you accumulate, where you put it, and why you keep it say a lot about you.

If clutter in your home or office has you stuck, here are 10 Feng Shui secrets to help you break the cycle and move forward:

DO THE FENG SHUI FLING. Once a month, get a large plastic bag, move quickly through your home, and fling 27 things into the bag—things you don’t need, don’t want, don’t know why you are keeping. Don’t think, don’t analyze, don’t hesitate…just fling. Then take the bag right out to your trashcan before you change your mind.

MAKE ROOM FOR A RELATIONSHIP. Declutter your house to make room for the perfect partner to come into your life, or to rev up your existing relationship. Clear out your bedroom closet so there will be room for your lover’s clothes. Toss expired prescriptions and half-used toothpaste tubes to make an opening in the medicine cabinet for a lover’s toiletries. Clear off one of the night tables in the bedroom and empty at least one drawer for a partner to fill.

LET YOUR OLD CLOTHES GO. As the weather starts to change, change your wardrobe by letting go of the clothes you no longer wear, including the shoes that cause blisters, the pants that ride too high in the crotch, the suits from your button-down days. You may have paid a lot for them, you certainly loved them when you bought them, but if you have not worn an item of clothing for a year, remove it from your closet and donate it to charity.

CLEAR OUT THE KITCHEN. A clean, food-filled kitchen is the center of family life and a symbol of health and prosperity in Feng Shui. Throw out anything in your refrigerator and freezer that is past it’s expiration date or is “fuzzy.” Remove everything from your pantry, wipe the shelves, and get rid of opened items that are more than six months old.

CLEAN YOUR OFFICE. Clean your computer, including keyboard and monitor, at least once a month. Remove the books from your shelves and dust, then put back only those books you use regularly. Remove dead leaves from your office plants; if you have silk plants, dust or replace them if they are faded.

READ AND RELEASE. Instead of cramming even one more book into your bookcase, practice the read and release principle: give it to a friend, donate it to charity, “forget it” at Starbucks, leave it at the grocery store, trade it at a used bookstore. Releasing your books creates space and enriches your community by sharing the pleasure of reading.

CLEAR YOUR DESK DRAWER. Open your top drawer and toss the following things into the trash: dried-up pens and markers, bent paper clips, message slips from people you have already called, pencils with worn-down erasers, dried up bottles of correction fluid, brittle rubber bands that will break as soon as you stretch them.

ORGANIZE SCHOOL PAPERS. You love every one of those drawings and papers that your children bring home from school, but if you save everything it diminishes the value of those special ones. Instead, each week collect all of the papers in a folder and have your child select one to keep. Put it on the refrigerator or display it on a bulletin board. After a week, date the paper and put it in a scrapbook or keepsake box for each child.

CONTROL MAILBOX CLUTTER. This is the time of year when the deluge of holiday catalogues starts arriving in your mailbox along with all the other printed materials you never read, and that translates into clutter. Keep a trashcan, recycling bin, and a shredder near your mail sorting area. When the mail comes, immediately toss the junk into the trash or recycling, and shred anything with personal information on it.

GIVE THANKS FOR THE EXTRA SPACE. As we get closer to Thanksgiving you don’t need more things to be thankful for, you just need more room for thankfulness. Here are three things you can get rid of and be thankful for the extra space: One unfinished project, one object that needs fixing but isn’t worth the effort, one souvenir that no longer has meaning.

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About the Author
Carol M. Olmstead is a consultant, author, and speaker specializing in practical, real-world applications of Feng Shui for home, business, and real estate. Carol received her professional Feng Shui certification more than 12 years ago from the Feng Shui Institute of America, and was recently awarded Red Ribbon Professional status by the International Feng Shui Guild. Carol uses her natural intuitive sense to help attract prosperity, health, love, harmony, happiness, and abundance. She has been featured in print, broadcast, and Internet publications including Cosmopolitan, Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, Chicago Tribune, The Scientist Magazine, Prevention Books, Telecommuting for Dummies, and in home improvement and interior design websites. You can buy Carol's new book, the Feng Shui Quick Guide for Home and Office: Secrets for Attracting Wealth, Harmony, and Love at www.FengShuiForRealLife.com.