Looking to create better vibes in your home? You can use the principles of feng shui to improve how chi energy (life force energy) flows throughout your house. When you arrange your spaces for optimal energy flow, you can bring more luck and good vibes to important areas of your life, like your health, relationships, family, money, and career.
It doesn't have to be complicated — there's no need for a total remodel. There are a lot of simple steps you can take that won't take a ton of time or money but will help you follow feng shui rules in your living spaces. With just a little work and some attention to the details, you can change how chi flows throughout your house to bring more positive energy into your life.
Clear Up Clutter
Perhaps the single most important thing you can do in your home to help energy flow more freely is to get rid of clutter. Clutter blocks the flow of chi energy, creating chaotic energetic patterns that prevent harmony and peace. So decluttering is almost always the first step in improving your home's feng shui.
We totally understand how clutter can collect — decluttering is usually an ongoing process that requires continuous attention. So take it slow. Start with a single closet or drawer, and gradually declutter over several days, weeks, or months. Once everything has a place, a little effort will keep it that way.
Related: The Hidden Impact of Cluttered Closets on Feng Shui
Keep It Clean
Dirt, dust, cobwebs, mirror splatters, dirty windows, fingerprints, piles of laundry — all the stuff that collects in your home when you don't clean regularly can hamper energy flow. So coming up with a system to get everything clean and keep it that way helps a ton in improving the energy flow in your spaces. We're all for cleaning a room every day and taking a team approach — having everyone responsible for one or two daily cleaning tasks so your house stays clean and the energy can move freely in optimal patterns.
Maintain Your Yard
Energy flows into your home from the outside. And while you often can't do much about where your home is located, you can definitely keep the areas around your home clean and clear so the energy can flow to you unrestricted. So it's essential to keep flower beds neat and weeded, lawn and shrubbery trimmed, and the sidewalks and patios/porches swept and tidy. This will help keep the positive chi flowing your way. You should also get rid of dead plants right away because they can hamper chi energy.
Keep Your Main Entrance Tidy
Make sure the main entrance leading into your house is neat, tidy, and well-lighted and that your entryway indoors is free of clutter (like all those shoes that usually collect on the floor inside of the door). Trim shrubs near the front door, tidy up any planters with flowers (and get rid of dead flowers right away), replace your doormat as it wears out, and dust, sweep, and mop porches, steps, and the entryway floor. Make sure any pathway or stairs leading to your front door are clean and clear of debris, weeds, and cracks.
Fix Stuff That Breaks
Whether it's something small, like a burned-out lightbulb or loose doorknob, or something larger, like a broken window pane or a non-functioning appliance, it's essential that you fix stuff as it breaks. Repair or replace broken things as soon as you notice them — or get rid of them altogether if you don't have the time for repair or replacement.
Pay Attention to Lighting
Just like nature abhors a vacuum, good feng shui abhors a dark corner. Dark corners are where energy goes to die. So lighting — both inside and outside of your house — is essential. Make sure your home's entrances are well-lighted, and add task lighting, uplights, or lamps to dark corners to allow the energy to flow freely. Replaced burned-out bulbs right away.
Don't Block Doors or Windows
Since you want the energy to flow easily through doors and windows — both coming into your house and flowing from room to room — avoid placing any large pieces that block that energy. This includes furniture indoors and large shrubs/trees blocking doors and windows outdoors. Instead, make sure the energy has a clear path to flow freely into your house from exterior doors and into every room through interior doors.
Arrange Your Kitchen With Feng Shui in Mind
Your kitchen is the heart fire of the home, so energy flow is essential here. Keep everything clean. Clean out the microwave and fridge/freezer regularly. Keep cabinets and drawers free of clutter (sorry, junk drawer). Don't let dishes pile up in the sink or countertops, and get rid of spoiled food right away. For even better energy, you can follow feng shui guidelines for arranging your kitchen.
Make Sure Your Bathroom Isn't Flushing Good Vibes
Bathrooms are places of waste and debris removal, which can cause luck and prosperity to flush out of the house if they aren't handled properly. Keep your toilet lid closed, and keep bathroom doors closed at all times to prevent chi from flowing into the bathroom and going down the drain. You can also put a mirror on the inside of the bathroom door to keep any negative energy from this space from flowing into the house. If you want to take it even further, you can follow these guidelines for feng shui bathrooms.
Make Bedrooms an Oasis of Calm
There are all sorts of ways you can arrange your bedroom for ideal feng shui. This is where you'll want calming energy, so you should avoid any type of representation of water (except a glass of water by the bed if you need drinks at night) in this room, as that creates active energy that could keep you awake. Use soft lighting and calming colors, too. And if the only place for the bed is in front of a window, use cures to help remedy this so that energy isn't constantly rushing across you while you sleep.
Use a Bagua Map to Enhance Specific Sectors of Your Home
To enhance the energy in specific areas of your life and your home, you can use a bagua map over your house's layout to create an ideal energy flow for your family.
Related: The Feng Shui Bagua — A Simple Guide to Mapping Energy
Think Minimalist and Curate Objects You Love
We know maximalism is a style trend, but too many objects — or objects just for the sake of having them and not because you love them — are clutter. So carefully curate decorative objects in your spaces and choose clean lines that allow energy to flow easily.
Use Mirrors Outside of Your House to Counteract Negative Energy & Poison Arrows
Unless you're choosing a piece of property and designing and building your house, there's not a lot you can do about the location and landscape features that appear outside of your home. But certain features can send negative energy into your living spaces from outside due to poison arrows. For example, if you live near a power station, at the end of a dead-end, or near a cemetery or junkyard, this can send negative energy toward your home. To counteract it, place mirrors on the outside of your home, facing the source of negative energy to reflect that energy away from your house.
Use a Remedy if Your House Is on a Slope
A slope of more than 45° can send positive energy away from your home (if you're at the top of the slope) or cause negative energy to rush toward your home (if you're at the bottom). You can fix this with landscape features like large shrubs that block the energy flow from rushing into your house from a slope that's above you or a retaining wall or large shrubs along the bottom of a hill that runs down away from your house.
Improve Your Home's Vibe
If it all seems overwhelming, start small. Tackle one thing at a time. Each improvement you make will improve your home's energy from what it was before.
