Chapter 6
In medicine, the saying “As above, so below” means that the thoughts and attitudes in your mind help to determine the potential for good health or illness of your body below. Similarly, what you find on top of your house is a strong indicator of what you’ll find below. Is your attic stuffed with musty books and clothes, and sundry relics of the past? Then it’s a good bet that your basement is as well.
In feng shui, the basement is viewed as your foundation and the attic as your potential. Effectively, you are impinging on your support and threatening your potential, not to mention disrupting the flow of chi, when you use your attic and basement as warehouses for a myriad of junk.
Not all of it is “junk,” of course, as you will discover the minute you inform your family members that you are thinking of discarding some of it. Still, it may as well be if it is not kept in good order or easily located if and when you actually choose to do so. If you cannot even set foot in your attic or basement without immediately stepping over some item, or if you cannot find a comfortable place to sit and easily investigate what you have or remember what that might be, then you know that those spaces are in serious need of decluttering.
For many people, the basement and attic are the places of indecision—meaning that they are where we store all the things we cannot figure out what else to do with. These are the things like the kids’ baby toys about which Mom is sentimental, or old sporting equipment Dad is unable to part with, even though he hasn’t played softball or bocce in fifteen years.
Here you’ll also find all the gifts from friends and relatives that we never really liked or used but which we cannot bring ourselves to give away, just in case thegiver should visit and expect to see it on display. Or, worst of all, they might by a stroke of supernaturally bad luck find out that we have gotten rid of it. (“Look, George—isn’t that painting in the junk store window the ‘Pigs with Wings’ that we gave Albert and Alice for their wedding twenty years ago!”) That’s certainly a likely scenario and a good reason for keeping such items somewhere in the house for the rest of our lives, isn’t it? Many women can tell the familiar story of gathering up a heap of their husband’s old clothing and putting it in bags for charity, only to have their husbands rifle through those bags, allegedly “out of curiosity,” and ultimately leave only a T-shirt or stained hat behind for the needy. Or of gathering up children’s toys from those same places for the same purpose, only to have their children whine that they have to have said toys and, in fact, really have been “looking” for them for ages!
As if your own junk wasn’t enough, there’s another potential problem: local garage sales that attract family members like moths to a flame. They cannot wait to purchase the junk from other people’s basements and attics, and it is only a matter of time before much of this stuff ends up in yours. Sometimes, it seems that neighbors are only swapping each other’s junk and perhaps should save themselves the time and trouble of setting up yard and garage sales and simply collect all their unwanted stuff and automatically deposit it on each other’s doorsteps.
It is bad enough that we spend our money on items that we don’t use or wear. But rather than acknowledging our mistakes, we compound them by hanging on to these items, making space for them in our homes and psyches, and allowing them to weigh us down from above or pull us down from below. We need, instead, to be freeing ourselves from excess baggage so that we can make space in our lives for the new and the wonderful—for what we really need and truly will use. And we have to be firm in our resolve to clean and clear and actually dispose of or donate those items that haven’t seen the light of day in ages and for a very good reason. As with relationships we have shed in the past, these things may look good in hindsight, but when you closely examine them without the rose-colored glasses, you see that, like those old relationships, the love of these things ended for very good reasons.
The junk in your attic and basement—and this does not refer to old family photos or other memorabilia of actual value to you financially or nostalgically, but the honest-to-goodness junk—needs to go, and the sooner the better. The best proof of this may be if you are reading this chapter, seeing yourself in it, and feeling guilty that you haven’t done what you know you need to do. Think of this chapter as your affirmation—your emotional support in helping to give you the strength you will need, the courage of your convictions, in finally, for once and for all, tackling those piles of unused, unwanted things in your attic and basement and freeingyourself from them forever! This is your battle cry, your Declaration of Independence. Repeat the following, “I (your name) WILL dispose of the items in my basement and attic that I no longer use or have any intention of using ever again!” There. Feel better? Now, let’s look at the problem in greater detail.
We tend to use the concept of height positively—we speak of our “higher selves” or “higher purpose”; we talk of those who are “higher ups”; we say that we want to “climb higher” in our jobs or in our lives; and, of course, spiritually, we look up, or heavenward. In Victorian times, new babies were walked up to the attic in a symbolic act suggesting that the child would go far in life.
Now, imagine yourself with X-ray vision, standing on one of the lower floors of your home, casting your eyes upward toward your attic. Does what you see in there really fit these images? How high does your potential seem as you envision the dusty disco clothing from the ‘70s, the warped Vanilla Fudge and T-Rex albums, the velvet “Poker-Playing Dogs” artwork, and the lopsided pottery that you made in your college art class? In fact, precisely which items can you “see” as you gaze into your attic that can be said to fit into this picture of the sublime? If you can think of even one or two, then these are keepers. But if all you can see are relics of your past that are better kept out of sight, or useless items that were never even “once used and enjoyed” but insteadwent straight to the attic—some still in their original boxes and wrapping paper—then you know what you must do.
Those items that you decide to keep must be sorted, organized, and properly stored to prevent mildew, yellowing, and other signs of deterioration. Special photos, jewelry, and wardrobe boxes should be used.
Old newspaper articles should be laminated for preservation, and photos, if not in special photo boxes, should be labeled as best as possible and placed in photo albums.
Depending on the type of attic you have, perhaps a bookshelf or two might be appropriate for storing old books that you cannot bear to toss or give away, but that you don’t necessarily want downstairs with your others.
If yours is a walk-in attic, then try to set it up as you would other rooms, with an eye toward letting the energy flow through freely. You have probably boxed your various holiday decorations but perhaps have made no effort to organize the sports equipment, toys, or old school projects. Always have a large garbage bag or two when you go to your attic and think, “What can I toss or donate to charity? What in here do I truly need or want to hang onto, and what is here that I have not used in a long time and have no intention of using any time soon?” Be ruthless and as unsentimental as you can, or that pile will not shrink.
The Good-Chi Attic: Clutter is just as neatly stored in this healthy attic as in a well-planned closet. Note that you can use coatracks to store clothes in addition to boxes.
Always keep in mind that, as the years pass, you will be adding to what is already there. Is there any room for more? If not, have you taken a vow never to add to your current collection? It may help you, if you are not planning to move in the near future, to imagine that you are. What items in your attic would you actually pack up and move with you? All the items that you wouldn’t be willing to take with you then should probably be gotten rid of now. Why wait?
If you are storing empty boxes, keep just a few, and fold them so they will stack or lean against a wall and take up much less room.
If you can bear it, try to unburden yourself of old school papers, old love letters and other mementos of former relationships, and similar kinds of keepsakes that can prevent you from moving forward in life. You will find that once you have disposed of many of these remnants of your distant past, you will feel lighter and freer to face the future. Perhaps you could start by choosing a few of the more significant items to keep while tossing or giving away the rest. Then, later, you may feel up to getting rid of these, as well. You always can take the decluttering process in small stages.
Sometimes, when we’re feeling low or down on ourselves, we’ll say that our self-esteem or our feelings are “in the basement.” We even use that phrase to say where our financial investments are. In this sense, “the basement” means the lowest point, and it’s considered a pejorative term. However, in feng shui terms, your home’s basement is your foundation or starting point, the place from which you derive strength and the point from which you grow upward and outward. The basementdoes not have to be a dark, dingy place in which all of our unwanted belongings are stored. Many of us use our basements as offices and dens, as play areas for our children, as another useful room in the house. Even then, however, much of our “stuff” is stored in the depths of our homes.
As with the attic, you should organize your belongings in your basement. Just the very process of organizing will bring you back into contact with many items that you had forgotten you ever had. And if that is the case, perhaps it is high time to dispose of or give away those items. Also, as with the attic, you should be asking yourself what, if any, of this accumulation serves a useful purpose in your life. Then ask what items easily could disappear from your life without being missed.
Undoubtedly, the items that you learn to your surprise that you still own could be good candidates for the trash or the box for charity. If you want, you also could assess these items in the basement, as well as in the attic, for what they could bring you monetarily. If you sold the usable items to individuals or secondhand shops, you would not only be clearing space in your life but also making some money to finance your future.
Don’t forget that your basement has some walls, and you could put up hooks and shelving. Utility shelves are also inexpensive and can hold a number of items, including canned and boxed food. If you don’t have a pantry in your kitchen, or if you need a place to stash the overflow or allow for “just-in-case” on stormy days when you can’t get out of the house, shelves in the basement are perfect. Now that discount stores are so popular, including the large shopping clubs in which items are sold in bulk, there is nothing better than well-organized, contained basement space to store the extras.
If you do find yourself stocking up on canned and dried foods because of all the great bulk food sales and weekly specials at the grocery store, you also may find that you have overdone it. Fifteen cans of tomatoes and another ten of corn and beans, along with multiples of other products, can make your basement look like a fallout shelter or a soup kitchen. It might be advisable to get out the cookbooks and look up some good, one-dish recipes, such as soups and stews that will use several types of canned vegetables and dried pasta.
You might want to cut back on your grocery shopping for a week or two, especially on fresh produce, in order to consume some of the perishable products and clear your shelves. Or, you might want to donate many of the canned goods to a local homeless shelter or food bank.
Storage containers are one of the items you might consider buying in one of these super discount stores.
So much of what is lying around loose in your basement, taking up extra space, can be stored neatly in plastic, transparent storage boxes. Not only will they then be kept out of the way, but you will also be able to see at a glance what is in the boxes.
No matter what else you do, be sure to discard the junk—the broken, the torn, and the outdated. Phonebooks and almanacs from ten years ago, old magazines, and ancient financial and property information for accounts and items you no longer have are really good places to start. Decks of cards with fewer than fifty-two cards and board games with missing pieces are another. Broken or never-used exercise equipment can go next. If you start by eliminating these kinds of items, you will find yourself “on a roll,” and moving on to the other, more difficult items that need organizing or discarding but take a little more thought. Many can be recycled and given a new life outside of the confines of your basement or attic. Set such items free!
Clean out those old cans of paint and jars of paint thinner. Check with your city government to learn the proper way of disposing of such toxic items. Generally speaking, you are not permitted to dump these down the drain because they can pollute the public water supply. If you keep tools in your basement, put them in toolboxes and keep them on shelves so that you canfind what you want, when you want it. There are few situations more frustrating than having something break and not being able to fix it easily because you can’t put your hands on the right tools quickly.
Organize nails and screws by type and size so that you’re not rooting around in those containers when you need something. Especially helpful are items like multi-head screwdrivers in which the heads are all stored in the handle, thereby keeping everything in one place and eliminating the need to store multiple screwdrivers in your toolbox. While you’re organizing, make sure that you have and can easily find basic items, like hammers, pliers, and measuring tape.
One good storage solution is a plastic bag holder, shaped like a windsock that hangs from a wall hook. Bags go in the top and can be pulled out from the bottom, one at a time. Paper bags can be kept folded up, nesting one inside the other, in a wire rack or basket hanging on the wall.
We often store our cleaning implements, like mops, brooms, scrub brushes, pails, and appliances such as shop vacuums and steam cleaners in our basements, as well. Try to keep these items together, and, whenever possible, have wall hooks for the mops, brooms, and pails so that they are off thefloors. Most of these cleaning tools will have holes in the handles for that purpose.
Suffice it to say that few of us finish a major basement clearing in one day. Take several days, if needed, so long as you are making some progress. You might want to organize according to what piece of the project you will tackle on which day. And don’t go it alone if you don’t have to. Get your entire family to help. The more vested they are in the outcome, the more likely they will be to help you keep the basement in good shape after you have finished cleaning and organizing.
Keep in mind that starting with something simple, like throwing away the obviously outdated or damaged items, and also those items you can’t identify, often gives us the incentive we need to continue. As we start seeing improvement, even our smallest victory, such as a full trashcan or two by the end of the day, we want to enlarge upon it. As we continue, the space clears, the chi flows, and our foundation is strengthened.
In many homes, the laundry area is in the basement. Ironically, although this is an area associated with cleanliness, it can become, like the rest of the basement, disorganized and filled with junk: half-filled detergent boxes or bottles that we have decided we no longer want; old clothes that were washed and hung to dry long ago buthave been forgotten; rocks and toys and other items that were emptied from children’s pockets or found in the washer or dryer months ago; single, lonely socks; and large items, such as blankets and pillows, that need washing but seem too cumbersome to do “right now.” Not to mention, where there is space, the overflow from the rest of the basement. Sometimes, there is barely room to stand, and the table for folded laundry is so full of other items, it is unusable. We feel uncomfortable in this space, and doing laundry, already a dreaded task, becomes even more of a chore than ever.
If you are so inclined, try to clear enough space for an ironing board as well. Even with all of the new, wrinkle-resistant fabrics, many people still enjoy wearing cotton and other fabrics that require occasional light pressing. Keep your iron in good, working order, and every now and then, change your spray bottles to keep them, and your clothes, fresh.
Do yourself a favor and take the time to really clear out this space. Most of what is here and is not being used specifically for washing and drying should be tossed out. Put in extra shelving, if there is room, or drying lines and racks for sweaters and delicates. Create some space in which to stand, bend, fold, and reach.
Overhead cabinets may be another possibility, with doors to hide some of the detergents, stain removers, dryer sheet boxes, and so forth. If you have a utility sink in the basement, keep it clean and clear of clutter as well, and be sure to keep clean towels and bars of soap and scrub brushes to remove stubborn paint and grease from dirty hands after a messy home-improvement project.
Just because you have a small space, tucked away under the stairs, or an attic that is not a room but more a storage place among the rafters, doesn’t mean you should leave all manner of unused, unwanted “stuff” in those places. Whether they are officially rooms or not, having those areas full to overflowing with junk and pieces of your past still inhibits chi, not to mention prevents you from using that space more wisely. Not every space needs to be filled, it should be noted. Free flow of energy through open space is best of all. When was the last time you grabbed a flashlight and really investigated what was in those unlivable spaces where we tend to shove things inside and shut the door? Above and below, potential and foundation, tall space or crawl space—all should be cleaned, sorted, and, wherever possible, freed of junk and the weight of the past.
Now that you have tackled your attic, basement, and other storage areas, you have also created a safe haven for memories and for your dreams and aspirations. The feeling of accomplishment after such a major undertakingis intense. Best of all, any other areas that need cleaning and organizing will pale in comparison because few other areas retain such an abundance of old and unused items. We banish those items to those upper and lower, hidden-away spaces, and when we have liberated ourselves from those things, we make room for all kinds of possibilities. We feel renewed and invigorated. Be sure to take some time to bask in the glow of your accomplishment—and to enjoy the tax break for your charitable donations or the mad money from your yard sale!
By having both your attic and your basement shipshape, you are achieving balance. “As above, so below,” like the balancing of female yin and male yang energy, is so critical in the philosophy of feng shui. You want to feel centered and grounded in your home, and the space clearings that you have worked so hard to complete will help you achieve this goal.