Feng shui and decluttering

I'm going to start this thread up again this year. My feng shui and decluttering project is simply ongoing. I work on it, but I never seem to get it done. Doesn't help that a lot of things in my house are broken down. I've also been reading up on clearing stagnant energy.

I am not feng shuing my house... though maybe I should. Or maybe it will wait till my next house. Cuz I want to clear stagnant energy by moving far away from this state. It's one big stagnant energy.

I want to feng shui my dorm room, but... it's a dorm room. There's not much I can do. I told my roommate that it needs more feng shui and she laughed.

Zoo, I'm curious what you're finding out about clearing stagnant energy. I'm thinking I need to do some feng shui mapping and such on my bedroom so I'll have success in all the important areas - especially career. There isn't much clutter in my bedroom so once I get it clean, focusing on chi and such shouldn't be too hard.

I'll get on board with this... my apartment needs decluttering pretty badly.

Feng shui would seem to work well with this, in that your living space is divided into a neat grid. Don't focus on getting the entire thing decluttered... focus on getting one area decluttered and keeping it decluttered, then move on to the next.

That's my theory, at any rate.

I'm also in the proces of decluttering. I'll be moving to a smaller house in about 1-2 years, and I want to get rid of all the junk and stuff I don't use before that. I might also get into Feng Shui to make my present house more attractive for potential buyers. I've noticed that house stylists employed by real estate agents use it a lot to get the house sold faster. Now let's hope there won't be a euro disaster in the next few years, or I'll lose a lot of money as well as having to wait a long time for a buyer.

I also prefer doing one room at a time. Right now I'm about half way through clearing my bedroom closets. I've got an inbuilt closet that runs under the stairs of my neighbours (old Dutch houses have very strange layouts) that's stacked with old computers and other dead electronics. That'll be my next project.

Dutchbando, I'm reading a book now that deals with breaking up and getting rid of old stagnant energy. I plan to do this before I'm done with the decluttering and feng shui, and then afterwards as well. If I get rid of the stuck energy, then maybe my life won't feel so stuck.

I kind of have an ADD thing going, so I plan to do the decluttering the same way I did my Nano novel. I'd focus on working for 15-30 minutes, then break off and do something else. I'm going to concentrate on three things for right now: winterizing the house (which is COLD!), cleaning the cat pans and the bathrooms, and breaking up and recycling all the cardboard boxes I have in my home office. I tell myself that they're useful and I should keep them, but they just build up. Time for them to go. Then maybe I can find stuff again.

I just spent the afternoon reading up on feng shui. Mine is a little complicated since I rent a room in a house, but as far as I'm concerned if I can use feng shui on my room, it'll go a long way towards getting everything else in check.

I am not feng shui-ing my room, but I am cleaning it from top to bottom, getting rid of the furniture and getting a new bed and dresser. Gone, is my little girl room, now this is going to be the real thing. And I swear to keep it more organised!

I am a lover of feng shui and minimalism. This is something I definitely plan to do. I am basically selling most everything I own, moving to South Korea, and then will spend February - March getting my new apartment in feng shui order. I can't wait to start over.

Metaphysical "energy," I buy not. Crystals, plants, coins etc. only affect the psychology of the user, not the actual house.

Decluttering, though, I can agree with. That's on my to-do list for late December and January. I need to rid myself of the stuff I don't actually like, want or need any more (which probably accounts for at least 50% of it, possibly as much as 90%). And stop trying to persuade myself that eventually I'll sell it on eBay, use it for a craft project, or give it to my hypothetical future kids.

Letting go of books is particularly tough. I adore books, always have, always will. Occasionally I give away a few, but more keep coming in. Maybe those I can just box up and store, except books have this curious ability to take up MORE space in boxes than they do on the shelf... srsly, it's like they multiply when my back is turned.

I am planning to leave the country for a year or two when I can rustle up the cash, which gives me a good reason to jettison most of my belongings. Except for a *small* handful of heirlooms, artwork and housewares, most of the things I won't be using for a couple of years = things I will never use again.

Point to remember when you're getting rid of things: absolute values only exist in mathematics. In real life, there is only what a thing is worth to YOU. If you don't want it, it doesn't matter how rare it is or what it sells for -- it's a waste of your space and should be discarded or passed on to someone else.

You'd have no interest in feng shui then. The idea of metaphysical energy is part and parcel of my spiritual beliefs, so I don't plan to neglect that aspect.

I don't plan to jettison belongings, least of all books. I love books. But the clutter is kind of like energetic noise. It's distracting. And according to feng shui, it messes up the flow of chi.

I'm starting my own personal organizing business this year & I need practice clients so if anyone wants - free - help decluttering just NaNo mail me. :)

I have an idea. This is something I got from a decluttering website that helped me a great deal in the past (though I've fallen off the wagon.)

It's call Working in Threes. The idea is that you do three things... and take a break. You work in threes... make a list of the three things you will accomplish today (and for some people these things may be very small... like putting on your shoes in the morning.)

For example, right now, I'm going to post three things:

1) Clean off the coffee table
2) Take the trash out to the curb for pickup tomorrow
3) Make my daughter's lunch for school tomorrow.

I reward myself with something small, maybe some gaming time, or a bit of chocolate.

Then I do it again. :0

I don't know about feng shui, especially with my 7' by 7' bedroom. But I definitely could do with decluttering. Especially as I'm trying to get a job in London and whatever place I rent in London will NOT have space for all my crap. I have a box under my bed with things which I haven't looked at in two years but were presents from friends two years (or more) ago and my brain keeps going "but what if they ask what you did with them?" Please. They won't even remember I own them. Hmm... I like this plan. I could do with a good de-stress and clear-out before Christmas.

I did some decluttering today. I broke down some boxes and put some things in the recycling bins. One bin is completely full. The other is working on it.

It's funny, and a little embarrassing, what you find when you declutter. I was folding up some paper grocery bags for recycling, and I found a cannister of organic oatmeal I'd bought a month ago. Unopened. Still usable. I put it in the cupboard with the other oatmeal.

I think I'll try the working in threes idea. That sounds like it could work on a lot of levels. My roommate just helped me rearrange my room. It took all of five minutes to switch two pieces of furniture. I'm still working on putting everything away but it completely changed the feel of my room; mostly in a good way. One aspect I'm not too keen on yet, my bed seems to stick out way too far in the middle of the room, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I won't finish all the decluttering tonight but it at least makes my room feel larger and completely different. I'm excited to see what it'll feel like when its all done.

I did an energy clearing tonight with some incense. I think it had an effect. The energy feels lighter, brighter.

I don't exactly work with threes, but I do something similar. I'll do a task or two, then I'll stop and do something else (like roam around here on the forums). Then I go do another task or two.

I got my tingsha yesterday. Tingsha are small brass cymbols used for feng shui and energy clearing. They make a nice sound when tapped together.

This year I'm in the process of de-cluttering my room and my life, but it goes in spurts. I guess I can say that I took November off because I was writing, but now I have no excuses, although there's still a lot to be done on the novel :)

I'm feeing the need for more space and less mess around me, and once the physical clutter is gone, I'll be better able to concentrate on writing and bringing my spiritual practice back to the forefront where it belongs. A feng shui makeover will probably help a lot, and at the very least, I'll be cleansing with sage.