How Clutter Affects Your Home and Life Assessment
Directions: print this assessment out or read it on your device as you walk though your home, seeing your space with “new eyes” as you assess each area.
One thing that can motivate us to clear our clutter and clean our home is to understand what each area of our home represents, and how clutter can adversely affect the flow of chi in those areas of our home—and our lives.
Take a few moments to go on a tour of your home, moving through each room, communicating with your space as if it were a living entity. Open your awareness wide, and pretend that the spirit of your home can share with you what it wants to share. Begin outside your home, looking at the entry.
Entrances, Hallways
The path leading to your home is a subtle reminder that you are leaving public space and entering a private domain. This area represents your approach to the world as you look out, and your approach to your own life as you look in.
Clutter here can restrict the flow of opportunities coming to you and create unnecessary struggle in your life. Check your entry, both outside and inside the front door for “first impressions.” Is there anything that needs to be cleaned, painted, trimmed back, repaired?
Check your back door; this area affects how easily you are able to release the old. It represents energy leaving your home and your life. This area should be free of clutter, so stagnant energy will not accumulate.
Hallways are to your home what your arteries are to your body. Are all your hallways free of clutter so that the flow of chi is not obstructed?
Living Area, Dining Area, Kitchen
Walk through the living areas of your home.
It’s important that you feel nurtured, restored, relaxed in these rooms, and proud to share them with guests.
Do you honor the furnishings by keeping them neat and clean? Are your books and magazines treated with respect? Are your DVDs and CDs stored near where they are used? Do your books and collections still mean something to you, or have they accumulated stagnant energy?
Dining areas affect digestion.
Is your dining area attractive? Is there anything that needs to change in order to make your mealtimes more pleasurable?
Kitchens represent how well we feed and nurture ourselves.
Are your kitchen drawers, cabinets, and pantry well-organized? Does the way your foodstuffs and spices are organized support ease and enjoyment while preparing meals? Is lighting adequate?
Home Information Centers, Home Offices, Memorabilia
Now, go to the room where you pay the bills and take care of the business of the home.
In the office, you need to feel peaceful, positive and powerful; this room represents how you run your life. Is it an organized, well-lit area that fully supports all the tasks you need to accomplish? If you work from home, do you feel focused, energetic and creative working there? Are the documents on your computer organized in folders?
How do you have your memorabilia stored? Is whatever system you are using up-to-date and working well for you?
Bedrooms, Bathrooms
Bedrooms affect our health and our relationships; this room should feel like sacred private space. Do you sleep restfully? If no, remove items not conducive to sleep: computers, exercise equipment. Ensure that the table and dresser tops are free of clutter, so energy can move harmoniously around the room.
It’s in your closets and bathrooms that you ready yourself for the day. Clutter here will distract and depress. Are closets and drawers well-organized and clean? Are clothes pressed and neat? Are shoes in good repair? Do your bathrooms look calm and peaceful or chaotic? Are bathroom cabinets and hall closets de-cluttered and neat?
Doors (including closet and bathroom doors) need to open fully, or the chi will not flow freely. It’s not recommended to hang items on the back of doors.
If you have young children, check their rooms. It’s in their rooms that children first learn boundaries, containment, and to maintain order. Are there baskets, drawers, or bins to contain clothes, games, books, and toys? Is your child learning to maintain order?
If you have a spouse, roommate, parent, or adult child living with you, are they comfortable at home? Do the rooms reflect their personality and feel good to them? Are they happy and energized in the space? Do they share in maintaining order and beauty?
Laundry Rooms, Attic, Basement, Garage
Laundry rooms represent our ability to keep our life clean and presentable.
Attics represent our higher aspirations; clutter here creates a false limitation.
Basements and cellars symbolize the past and the subconscious mind; if you have clutter here, look for issues from the past not dealt with.
If you have a garage, it should be used for the purpose it was created: protecting your investment in your car. Your car is a huge investment; second only to your home. If you are also using your garage for storage, is there a sense of order?
Now imagine yourself above your home, looking down at the roof. Pretend that the roof and ceilings disappear, so you can look down into each area. Scan each room to see if there is anything that lowers your energy. Is there an area where “stuff” just seems to accumulate? Does that area feel stale or stagnant?
Are there items in your home, yard, or storage unit that you have not used in a year and probably do not need?
Now bring your awareness to the different staging areas of your life.
Heath
Your Relationship
Career
Finances
Friendships
Family
Are there any areas of your life that are stuck and do not seem to be flowing?
Sometimes the ONLY way to increase the flow of abundance in our lives is to create the space for it -- by releasing from our lives and our space all that no longer serves us.
Check the Feng Shui Bagua to see how clutter in your home may be affecting the staging areas your life. And check out my email newsletters for free tips on de-cluttering, and up-leveling your home and your life! My Feng Shui Bagua is easy to read and use. Superimposed over the floor plan of your home, with the front door at the bottom, it will show you how areas of your home affect staging areas of your life.