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Welcome back readers! Last time we discussed de-cluttering your space so you’ll have a clean slate on which to layout your Ba-gua, the feng shui energy map. It’s basically a simple floorplan that shows which areas in your home correspond to the areas of your life.

Most commonly you’ll see square Ba-guas. Circular Ba-guas are also popular, but look a bit more intimidating. Just think of them as a square with the corners cut off.

The Ba-gua can applied to any area, whether it be your entire home, a single room or even just your desktop. To begin, print or draw out a Ba-gua and align the bottom edge with the front door of your home (or room or desk). The front door will always fall in the 8,1 or 6 spaces. If there is more than entry, or you usually enter through the garage or side door, align the Ba-gua to the main entrance. Then mentally stretch the rest of the Ba-gua to fill your space, so you can see where the other areas fall. These sites: http://www.easy-feng-shui.com/feng_shui_bagua.html and http://www.fastfengshui.com/feng_shui_bagua.htm offer good tips on how to make a Ba-gua work in your home.

Once you’ve laid out your Ba-gua, you’re ready to decide which area of your space/life you want to improve. The sites above also give a detailed explanation of how the Ba-gua areas relate to your life. When you know what area you want to focus on, you can start adding feng shui elements to enhance your space’s energy (this is the fun part). We’ll cover this in part three of our feng shui tutorial. Regards!

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.