A home full of clutter can affect your health. Do you sometimes look at your storage room, desk, closet or kitchen countertop and feel absolutely overwhelmed at the ‘stuff’ that needs to be sorted, filed, paid or disposed of? The reason you may feel overwhelmed is because you are reacting to negative life force energy – or Chi – and you are weighed down by the depressing impact of clutter.
Clutter comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be stacked on tables, crammed in closets, stuffed in file cabinets or packed under the stairs. Wherever it finds a home, there will be an invisible aura of negative energy. It taunts you with relentless and subliminal messages – not unlike a nagging friend or relative – that shouts: “You are not good enough! You are lazy! You just don’t care!”
As a professional Feng Shui consultant, I am often asked to help people cope with clutter. One of the first things I do is give them permission to RELAX! Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, piles of clutter didn’t appear overnight. Don’t become besieged by taking on too much de-cluttering at once.
The basic principles of Feng Shui teach: “If you want something new to come into your life, it has to have somewhere to go!” Clearing clutter is the first step in preparing you for making other changes to your home and subsequently, your health, wealth, relationships and more. As you slowly declutter your home (or office), you will regain your confidence and start to feel better about yourself. When you feel better, you do better and the Feng Shui magic starts to happen!
To begin your dance with disarray, set aside a specific time of day and give yourself a 15-minute time limit to address a specific area. Put on some motivational music, pour a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, and focus on the task at hand. Start small, for example, by clearing just one shelf in the linen closet, a corner of the dining room table, or one rack of your shoe collection. (Seriously? Who needs that many shoes anyway?)
Use this simple ‘test’ to help you clear your clutter and learn to live with less. Pick up every item from that shelf/drawer/rack/box and ask yourself, honestly:
• Do I use it?
• Do I love it?
• If it is broken, can it be repaired? (Do I want to fix it?)
• Is it associated with hard times or bad memories?
• How would my life change if I had to live without it?
Once you have an answer, you will know if the item is something important or useful to you. You will recognize if various items should be kept, moved to a place of honor, or let go.
We may find comfort in familiar objects, but piles of unmoving papers, or a collection of anything that doesn’t move much or is not loved by us, can weigh heavily on our minds. Creating order in our lives, by getting rid of an excess of ‘stuff’, clears a path for positive change and truly creates a ‘Home Sweet Home’.
Terri Perrin, Certified Feng Shui Consultant
Fine Art of Intention™ Feng Shui
250-218-4952
Terri Perrin is a Comox Valley-based Feng Shui consultant and author of “The Complete Guide to Feng Shui Crystals”. She is a member of the International Feng Shui Guild and Feng Shui Connections Canada.
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