Recycle.
Recycle everything you can. This eco-friendly practice reduces clutter in our world, to everyone’s advantage.
Buy recycled products.
Recycling waste is only half the solution to the ever-expanding buildup of garbage in our world. When you buy products made from recycled materials, you support efforts to decrease waste and encourage companies to seek environmentally friendly solutions.
Clean up the sidewalk and street near your home.
Accumulated trash, dead leaves, and other debris make the area around your home unsightly and can interfere with the smooth flow of ch’i. Clear away this clutter to create a positive first impression of your home and community, and to improve relationships with neighbors.
Fix cracked or broken pavement in a driveway or sidewalk.
Like many feng shui cures, this one has both a practical and a symbolic side. Repair a damaged sidewalk or driveway to encourage the smooth flow of ch’i to your home and to prevent accidents.
Trim shrubs and trees near your home’s entrance.
Plants give off positive vibrations and are usually considered assets. But if they are overgrown, they can obstruct the flow of ch’i to your home and limit its beneficial energy. Remove dead leaves and branches from trees and shrubs near your home to prevent an image of death and decay. From a practical perspective, keeping dead limbs neatly trimmed will prevent them from falling on power lines, damaging your property, or perhaps causing an injury.
Superimpose the bagua over your yard.
Place the eight-sided bagua over a plot plan or sketch of your property, just as you did with the floor plan of your home’s interior. Align the arrow at the center of the yard’s border that bears the driveway, sidewalk, or entrance to your property. Now you can see which areas of your yard correspond to which parts of your life. (See chapter 3 for a diagram of the bagua.)
Weed your garden.
Weeds suggest that problems are choking your personal growth and limiting your good fortune. Pull them out to remove impediments to your happiness. Weeds also obscure flowers and deprive them of nutrients—get rid of them so you can showcase your favorite plants.
Organize garden tools.
Store small tools in a bucket or basket with a handle. This keeps them together and makes them easy to transport.
Cut the grass.
Neatly trimmed grass adds to your home’s visual appeal and attracts positive ch’i. An overgrown yard symbolizes tasks or problems that are growing out of control. Keep grass neatly trimmed to get a handle on challenges in your life and to present a positive image to passersby.
Rake your yard.
This uncluttering cure improves the outer appearance of your home and makes it more attractive to visitors and ch’i. Because fallen leaves symbolize death and decay, it’s a good idea to promptly remove them from your yard.
Fill in a missing gua with symbolic corners.
If your home is missing a gua, fill in the gap with a symbolic corner outside (see chapter 3 for more information). Place an object—a plant, flagpole, light, birdbath, or wind chime, for instance—where the missing corner would be positioned if you visually extended the walls of your house.
Eliminate straight lines and sharp angles in a garden.
Gardens are oases where we go to find peace and relaxation. Straight lines and sharp angles, however, symbolize rapid movement and activity and can produce stress instead of tranquility. Nature doesn’t usually form straight lines or right angles—follow her lead and design your garden with graceful curves.
Stack wood to encourage growth.
In feng shui, wood symbolizes growth and expansion. If you use wood in a fireplace, woodstove, or fire pit, stack it neatly in the gua that represents an area of your life in which you want growth to occur.
Make a statement in your Self/Identity Gua.
Clear away anything in your Self/Identity Gua that doesn’t represent you. Then make this area as distinctive and beautiful as possible—plant flowers, install attractive lighting, etc. If your mailbox is in this gua, decorate it with positive images from your life (for example, if you enjoy sailing, paint boats on it). If your front door falls in your Self Gua, paint it a bright, cheerful color (red is considered lucky in feng shui) and affix handsome brass numerals to the door.
Clean gutters.
Clogged gutters symbolize stagnant conditions and obstructions in your life. Unblock gutters so water—and ch’i—can flow freely.
Organize a neighborhood cleanup project.
Get neighbors together to clean up litter and natural debris in your area. A group endeavor not only makes the work go quicker, it gives you an opportunity to strengthen relationships with neighbors and demonstrate pride in your community.
Put a recycling bin near mailboxes in an apartment building.
If you live in an apartment building, you can keep fliers and junk mail from accumulating and cluttering the entryway to your building by setting a recycling bin near the mailboxes. This cure makes it easy for residents to discard junk mail and other unwanted paper.
Use the bagua to analyze an apartment building.
If you live in an apartment building, position the bagua over a plan of the entire building by aligning the arrow with the main entrance. Although your own apartment has a more direct influence on your life than the common areas, the building in which you live will also affect you. For instance, cleaning up the entrance to your apartment building can help prevent problems with neighbors and present a positive image to passersby.
Replace burned-out lights.
From a practical perspective, good lighting outside your home allows you and your visitors to see clearly and prevents accidents. In feng shui, light symbolizes the sun’s life-giving energy. Replace burned-out lights, especially at the entrance to your home, to attract ch’i and its benefits.
Move noisy objects out of the Relationships Gua of your property.
Noisy objects and equipment, such as lawnmowers and power saws, can cause friction between you and a partner if you store them in the Relationships Gua of your property. Move them to another location.
Clean out your garage.
Like other uncluttering cures, this one helps you to eliminate confusion, obstacles, and old behavior patterns and habits. It also clears the way for new opportunities and good luck to enter your life. Break this task down into manageable components so you don’t become overwhelmed—or get the whole family involved.
Pay attention to the location of garbage cans.
Trash represents things in your life that you are ready to release. Notice which gua your garbage can occupies. If it is located in your Wealth Gua, you may be throwing away your money. If you put it in your Relationships Gua, you could be dumping garbage into your love life.
Clean out your car, including the trunk and glove compartment.
Clutter in your car can cause confusion, delays, obstacles, and other problems when you travel. Clean your car, inside and out, to facilitate both local and long-distance trips. This also helps you find important materials (such as your registration) and safety equipment (flashlight, tire gauge, ice scraper, etc.) when you need them. The more time you spend in your car, the more important this cure is.
Smudge your car’s interior.
Perform this cure any time you feel a need to disperse disruptive energies from your car, such as after a particularly stressful trip or an accident. It’s a good idea to smudge a car when you buy it, too, especially if someone else owned it previously, to remove other people’s vibes. Burn sage or pine incense—you can use the ashtray, if there is one—to clear away unwanted energies and purify the interior of your vehicle.
Use a net or screen to organize your trunk.
Nets or screens designed to fasten in your trunk keep stuff from sliding around when you drive. They also compartmentalize and keep handy tools, supplies, and other gear that permanently reside in your trunk.
Have a space for trash in your car.
Have a designated place for receipts, wrappers, and other trash in your car—and use it. Empty it daily to keep clutter from accumulating.
Organize loose change.
If you use coins for tolls, parking meters, or car washes, use a coin holder in your car to organize loose change and keep it handy.
Use pet guards in your car.
Allowing pets to jump around in the car while you drive is dangerous—for them and for you. If you regularly travel with pets, keep them safely restrained and away from the driver by installing pet guards. Use carrying cages with attached food and water dishes for short or occasional trips.
Hang a wind chime between your home and electrical power lines.
To counteract the unwanted effects of electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) from power lines, hang a wind chime between your home and the electrical lines. This cure disperses stress-producing EMFs that can clutter your environment and circulates them away from your home.
Hang a wind chime between your home and a noisy neighbor.
A wind chime can also disperse the disruptive influence of a noisy neighbor. Hang one between your home and theirs to chase away atmospheric clutter and its disturbing effects.
Hang a bagua on a door that faces a busy street.
If you live on a busy or noisy street, hang a bagua on the door facing the street to reflect noise and disruptive energy away from your home. This cure helps prevent atmospheric clutter and the resulting stress from adversely impacting the inhabitants of your home.
Bury money to attract prosperity.
Fill a small, rectangular cardboard box with coins and tie a red ribbon around it. (Rectangles symbolize growth; red is a lucky color in feng shui). Then “plant” the box by burying it in the Wealth Gua of your property to attract prosperity.
Encourage kids to pick up toys.
Toys strewn about the yard, porch, or driveway create an unsightly appearance that symbolizes confusion and carelessness. In some cases, scattered toys may even cause accidents. Encourage children to pick up their toys after they’ve finished using them.
Arrange patio furniture outside to fill in a missing gua in your home.
You can compensate for a missing gua in your home’s floor plan by arranging patio furniture outside the house, in the space where the missing sector should be. This cure visually extends the footprint of your home and invites activity into the part of your life represented by that gua.
Hang prayer flags to promote peace.
Buddhists traditionally hang colorful flags printed with prayers and blessings outside their homes and temples. When the wind blows, it carries the blessings to other beings around the world. You can write your own good wishes on colorful pieces of cloth and tie them to a pole, tree, clothesline, etc., to promote peaceful, positive conditions in your environment.
