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It is easy to allow clutter to build in your home. Especially after the holidays, you may not have had a moment to clear out the gifts and their packaging from some areas of your home while getting back into the swing of the routine going back to normal in January. And even if you did not receive many holiday gifts, there is a good chance you have clutter in your home or workplace anyway. And when there is clutter, you may struggle to make decisions and to move forward, as it creates obstacles.
However, the good news is that it does not have to be that way! February is Declutter for a Cause month so that you can donate unwanted items and gifts to non-profits, and on behalf of that, let’s review Feng Shui decluttering tips to remove what you no longer need to bring you balance, peace, and prosperity.
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese tradition of arranging objects and furniture, creating space, and placing specific objects in rooms and hallways to help provide prosperity and luck. The primary purpose of Feng Shui is to achieve balance, harmony, and peace, increasing the chances of prosperity. Feng Shui has roots in Taoism. However, it spread throughout China and the Western world.
Placing objects and furniture in specific areas of rooms and hallways allows the qi (energy) to flow to bring balance and prosperity. You need to have space to allow the qi to move freely. That is why clutter blocks the qi from moving freely, which is why you may feel sluggish, low, unenthusiastic, apathetic, and feel blockages stopping you from making decisions. Now, you understand why clutter harms your mind, body, and soul. Let’s begin to review Feng Shui tips to help you remove clutter.
Do you have a lot of old clothing that you no longer need? You will only know if you go through your closet. You may find some clothing that no longer fits from a decade ago, which only creates more blockages in your space, blocking the qi from flowing. Therefore, go through your closet and examine your wardrobe.
The clothing you no longer need or want will want to be removed from your closet, so take a garbage bag and toss your used and old clothing that no longer serves you. You are creating more space and allowing the less fortunate to wear good clothing by donating your old ones to them.
Here is a project you can do once a month: take a large bag, go through your home and office, and fling any unwanted item into the bag. Don’t hesitate for a moment whether you need the item in the future. If you don’t want it, you will not need it. Therefore, toss it into the bag and keep doing it until you hit every room in your home or office. After completion, you will be amazed at how quick and easy it was to declutter. If none of what you tossed into the bag was garbage, you can always donate the bag to a non-profit for them to take. The less fortunate have items they can use but no longer need while you have a less cluttered space! That is a win-win.
One of the areas of your home (or office) that can get cluttered quickly is your kitchen. It is not a surprise as you are constantly working in it, cooking, cleaning, but you will be leaving pots, pans, cookware, etc., out on the counter or stove. Therefore, after those items dry, you will want to put them in your kitchen drawers to keep the clutter at bay.
However, what if you don’t put your cookware into your drawers because they are full of other cookware and items that keep them full? Then, it is time to clear out your kitchen so you can remove any items you no longer need so there is space for the cookware you need.
Another reason you will want to clear out your kitchen is that you want to realize that a healthy and clean kitchen is the center of your family or yourself if you are the only one living in your space, which, in Feng Shui terms, is also a symbol of prosperity and health. Therefore, you want to keep your kitchen clean and spacious with little clutter.
That also means you must go through your fridge and freezer, remove expired food, go through your pantry, and toss away anything past its best-before date.
Another way to improve the Feng Shui in your kitchen is to allow as much natural light as possible, which means keeping the windows open (when you are home) and filling the space above the cabinets with tchotchkes. Glass cabinets can also help with Feng Shui. It is a good investment if you can invest. However, if that is not an option for you, that is okay.
It is more important to declutter, remove expired food, and remove old cookware that you no longer need by tossing it or donating it if is usable.
You will have a large job to tackle, but if you want to improve the Feng Shui in your home or office, you will want to clear your drawers. You may feel that only because you have very little visible clutter, you have good Feng Shui if you stuff everything into your drawers (or closet). However, that is not true. You still have a very cluttered space if your drawers have too many items, which could be junk. The junk in your drawers will block the flow of qi.
Therefore, since you have plenty of drawers, which include your kitchen, desk, dresser, nightstand, etc., you should go through your drawers slowly and remove any unwanted items or junk. You would be surprised to see old and bent paper, worn-down pencils, inkless pens, rubber bands that break if you stretch them, and old Post-it notes no longer relevant in your drawers. Items such as those will immediately go into the trash. However, you may have other usable items you no longer need or want in your drawers, which are the items to donate. The remaining items you need can stay in your drawers, which should take up little space.
Another excellent tip for the items in your drawers that you do need is to organize them. You can place specific items in specific areas of your drawers, and an organized drawer will be better for good Feng Shui.
Is your bookcase full of books you no longer need, and does it have books you don’t remember even buying? You will want to spend a day going through your bookcase and all of your books. There will be books that you will want to keep, and you should keep those. However, there is a good chance that you have plenty of books that you have no interest in keeping. Therefore, you will not want those to take up space. Consequently, you can sell those books, or you can donate them. However, if you find that overwhelming because you will have to worry about shipping costs for your books if you decide to sell or carry a heavy bag full of books you don’t want to donate, there are other ways to release your unwanted books.
You can give your unwanted books to friends and family. If they don’t want them, you can conveniently ‘forget” them in cafes and supermarkets, and there are used bookstores around where you can trade them. There are ways to remove unwanted books with very little hassle. A less-cluttered bookcase that only holds your desired books will improve your Feng Shui.
It is easy to allow ads and other mail you are not in a hurry to open to clutter your spaces. However, you will want to ensure that you immediately toss away any ads and mail that you do not need into the recycling bin. Otherwise, you will let it clutter your tables, desks, etc. If there are ads that you will end up using or you feel you will use them, then hang them up on your fridge with a magnet or a piece of tape. Look at the expiry date of the ad and log it into your phone as a reminder. If you do not use the advertisement by that date, you will get a reminder on your phone to remove it. And if there is any needed mail you need to save, place it in a safe space.
February is Declutter for a Cause month, which is here, as that applies to all of February. Whatever items you receive from the holidays you do not need; you will want to donate to your favorite non-profit. Also, if you bring prosperity for the year, you will want to declutter your home and office and go through all the rooms, including the drawers, to remove unwanted items and junk. Open spaces will improve the qi flowing through your home which also improves Feng Shui, which will only bring you positive things!
