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As you know, I’m all about decorating, especially if there’s a chance it can help me get ahead in my career, improve my relationships with the hubby and kids or help me sleep better at night. That’s why I’ve always been fascinated with the art of feng shui. Simply put, feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of arranging furniture and objects to balance the energy in your home and maximize opportunities and good fortune.

There are many levels and layers to feng shui. You can even go so far as to get professional training to receive a feng shui certificate. So for all of you feng shui newbies out there, I’m cutting through the confusion and offering a few tutorials on the basics of feng shui, with easy tips to help get you started. Welcome to Feng Shui 101!

The first step when starting feng shui sounds simple, but it cannot be overlooked: Clean out your clutter. Feng shui experts say that clutter stagnates the energy in your home, while at the same time blocking any abundance or new opportunities.

So grab those boxes and trashbags and get rid off all that clutter. Decide what gets trashed, what gets recycled and what goes to Goodwill. (Just don’t let those boxes sit the garage for weeks and weeks. I’m pretty sure that’s qualifies as moving all the clutter into a different spot, therefore still throwing your energy off-balance.)

And don’t focus just on the clutter you can see on the surface. Organize your kitchen cabinets, your desk drawers, the bathroom closet… de-clutter everything from the refrigerator to your sock drawer. The more space you clear out, the more space you make for new opportunities. For some unique no-clutter tips see http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com/.

While you’re de-cluttering, why not take a few minutes to clean and fix a few other things? Clean your windows (which represent opportunities) so you can see opportunities coming. Tighten any door knobs, drawer handles and locks so you can get a better handle on things. Replace light bulbs so you’re not left in the dark in certain areas of your life.

Once you’ve done all that, you’ll have a clean slate. Now you’re ready to layout your Ba-gua, basically a feng shui floor plan of which areas in your home represent the areas of your life. We’ll cover that in part two of our feng shui tutorial, so stay tuned.

Tags: clutter, feng shui tutorial, interior decorating, organized living

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 7:33 pm and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.