How to Organize With Feng Shui

The art of Feng Shui takes the ho-hum of organizing and turns this task into a quick, effective activity. Although Feng Shui claims its roots in ancient Chinese culture, its practices are applicable to anyone's modern life. Feng Shui introduces the straightforward skill of clutter clearing to the chore of putting things in order. Organizing with Feng Shui brings personal satisfaction far beyond the typical now-my-room-looks-cleaner standard.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 3 large cardboard boxes

1. Choose an area of your home or office to clear of clutter. It's best to begin inside the front door of the space. Diagnose everything, from the furniture to the pictures on the walls to the knick-knacks on the shelves. Bring the three boxes into the room.

2. Give each item the clutter test. Use your heart and gut, not your intellectual mind, to reflect on whether a particular object raises your awareness (i.e., makes you feel expansive and good) or lowers it (i.e., makes you feel contracted and stressed). Make your intuitive determination in 5 seconds or less.

3. Keep items that feel good. Put those that don't into one of the boxes. Throw-away items include trash and broken objects. Give-away items are articles that are junk to you, but could be considered treasure to another (e.g., books, trinkets, artwork). Undecided items are those that you are not sure have any meaning for you. Remove these objects regardless. Place them in a box and mark it Undecided, put the box in a closet and hold onto the box for 6 months. After that time, you can perform the clutter test on these items again. You should have unmistakable answers by then.

4. Classify the entire area using this clutter test. The more you remove items that do not serve your space or your life, the more organized your place automatically becomes. When you remove that which does not work, you have more physical and symbolic room freed up. This translates to not only a more organized home or office, but to more organized thinking and a clearer view of life.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask a friend to help you with the clutter test of your space, especially if you work on an intellectual plane. Hire a Feng Shui consultant to assist with the process of arranging your space. Such professionals have experience working with these methods. Remember to "feel" and not "decide" on the object. It is a gut reaction, not an intellectual decision. Take baby steps when clutter clearing. Clear and organize for 10 minutes at a time. Give yourself plenty of breaks. Clutter, even when organized in a box, is still clutter, and it negatively affects your space and your life. Take your rejected items immediately out of your space. Give them to a thrift store within one day.
• Don't confuse sentimentality with good feelings about an object. Don't confuse care-taking feelings with good feelings about an object. If you have mental stories about an object, it most likely qualifies as clutter.

Resources

• For more information on Feng Shui and to find consultants in your area.
• To order an informative book on the Feng Shui clutter-clearing process.

[vikki9]

on 9/29/2009 Excellent suggestions to increase flow - thank you!