Chapter 8
If the front door of the house is the mouth of chi and the kitchen is the stomach, the bathroom is without doubt the internal plumbing. This plumbing ties in to your personal chi as well, and you can suffer from a clutter-filled bathroom unless you pay attention to cleanliness and order. Think about what you truly need in the bathroom (have you looked in your medicine cabinet lately?) in order for it to be the center of cleanliness it is intended to be.
More than anything else, the bathroom is used for cleansing. Either you are cleansing the outside of your body in a bath or shower, or you are cleansing the inside of your body by expelling waste. So, it follows that your bathroom itself should be as clean as possible. Your bathroom, simply put, is a metaphor for how you care about yourself in terms of cleanliness, which is even more about how you present yourself to the outside world.
The bathroom also has associations with wealth, since a poorly designed, decorated, or maintained bathroom connotes little wealth and prosperity. Conversely, a bathroom in excellent working condition, with an aesthetically pleasing décor, shows the world that you are both health-conscious and prosperous.
Your bathroom should not be host to mold, half-used shampoo samples, a threadbare towel collection, every toothbrush you’ve had since eighth grade, or any other such remnant from the past. This is a place for cleansing and purging for the health and well-being of your entire family—so make it a place that respects this sacred purpose and its more practical purpose of good hygiene.
We are constantly bombarded by advertising for the latest products that will help us achieve the nirvana of “good-looking” chi. Each shampoo or toothpaste is better than the last, with improved conditioners or extraemollients that will make us appear younger and more beautiful. Every day, our mailboxes are filled with samples—and each time we go shopping, the cosmetic companies entice us with promotional packages filled with more makeup than we can ever use in one lifetime.
What can we do about an overabundance of products that might someday, in the distant future (when we have more time), improve our lives? Simply put, in the practice of feng shui, you can only concentrate on the here and now. The future is meaningless, so when you receive more than you can use, consider making a donation to others who can use the products in the present. Homeless shelters can use shampoos and toiletries all the time, so bag up all that you cannot use this very instant and drop them off at your local shelter!
Makeup has a more limited shelf life than you might think. Every six months or so, you should replace eye makeup in particular to avoid contamination and resulting eye irritation.
Begin by clearing the countertop of any item you don’t need, even if it looks good there. In feng shui, we ultimately want things that are visually appealing yet useful to us in some way, even if their only purpose is to balance elements or slow down rushing chi.
Color is also important to the cleanliness issue because too much color in the bathroom can make it appear full and unsanitary. The best color choices for bathrooms are white and soft, warm tones in the honey beige family. If you want to use your bathroom as more of a peaceful escape, you should lean toward the warm earth tones like yellow and brown to minimize any negative energy, or even use a faux marble finish to add an aura of softness and luxury simultaneously.
Clutter removal in the bathroom should be done in conjunction with the five senses: taste (old toothpaste, mouthwash, and dental floss); sound (minimizing echoes with soft, sound-dampening towels); touch (removing rough towels and excess exfoliating tools); smell (old perfumes, too many air fresheners or candles, mold and mildew); and sight (too many items scattered throughout the bathroom or on shelves).
Clean toothbrushes and hairbrushes on a weekly basis and replace them regularly to avoid unhealthy accumulations. Germs can multiply in a short period of time with these items, especially in households where there are several people living together.
Don’t forget the other order of business in the bathroom: cleaning sinks, toilets, tubs, shower stalls, and floors. These clutter-magnets, with added moisturefrom water sources, require regular attention to curb negative chi.
Once you have a clean, pristine white bathroom interior, you should decorate with hues of blue and green, since these colors will help you relax and your drainpipes to flow freely. Color psychologists agree that the color blue can actually reduce stress levels by lowering blood pressure, while green provides rest from eyestrain and has a calming effect similar to a soft, green field.
Some feng shui consultants will tell you that red is a good bathroom color for those who have difficulty waking up in the morning, but think about this powerful color carefully. The bathroom is often the last room you are in before retiring to your bedroom at night. Red is a fire color, and while it can wake you in the morning, it can also keep you up for a restless night. Plus, the water elements in the bathroom will “put out” the fire element of red, making it less effective anyway.
In terms of décor items to include in your bathroom, choose simply and wisely. Instead of groupings of small knickknacks, which are challenging to keep clean in a frequently used bathroom, place a few relaxing paintings or pictures on the walls and choose a soft, simple window dressing. Consider building lots of storage cabinets for towels, toiletries, and supplies versus leaving all out in the open for family and guests to see. Just as in Victorian times, matters of the toilette are best kept private.
Keeping It Clean: Bathroom counters should contain only the necessities such as soap and toothbrushes. Store all other items.
All of your bath and beauty products in your bathroom closet should be limited to the ones you use on a regular basis—keep all the sometimes-used extras stored in a plastic bin in the hall closet, and remember to pitch the ones you no longer use!
Of course, you can also store the bath products you use daily on a shower rack. Choose from either the one that hangs over the showerhead or the suction-cup version. Many bed and bath shops have interesting and fun options for shower storage—it doesn’t need to be boring or plain.
For medicine chests, a good storage solution is to use small plastic baskets that can neatly hold several small items. Store all like items together (e.g., medicines in one basket, hair clips in another) and put first aid items in a spot where they will be easily accessible, even in the dark.
If you have old plumbing in your home, be sure to have a “pipe cleaning” once a year to keep things flowing properly. Hair and waste buildup is also clutter.
All of your cleaning materials are best stored in a closed cabinet that is not accessible by children. You’ll want them to be close to the bathroom when emergencies occur, and storing them in the laundry room or under the kitchen sink will not help you as quickly should a problem occur. Plastic handyman bins (with a handle in the middle) can be perfect solutions, as they are very accessible and can quickly provide you with all of the cleaners you could possibly need at a moment’s notice.
Finally, if it doesn’t cause you to stress out, it’s okay to keep a scale in the bathroom. But if weight is a constant challenge, perhaps a better place to keep it would be in a hall closet.
To keep you and your family healthy and well, energy needs to flow freely throughout your bathroom. If you’ve planned everything well and addressed potential clutter issues, the chi will come in through the door, drift around through the floors and then up the walls, and finally move gently through an open window. The porcelain fixtures help chi work its way through the bathroom in a smooth, waterlike fashion.
In this way, the chi mimics the water element contained in the bathroom itself, and this creates a harmonic balance.
Ceiling fans in the bathroom can get the energy flowing, making stagnant chi get a move-on. Some feng shui practitioners spray aromatherapy scents into ceiling fans before turning them on, so that the scents quickly dissipate throughout the room. You can do this for an interesting sensory effect.
When there is a significant amount of clutter, chi is inhibited and bumps into boxes, overstuffed storage shelves, dirt on the floor—and then it can ricochet off of a closed or dirty window. Clothes left on the floor also hold chi down. In this scenario, the chi becomes scattered and breaks apart, creating disharmony and the potential for illness or stress.
The ideal situation is one in which the chi can freely enter the bathroom, glide around and through it, and then continue on its merry way outside and aroundyour home. Each time healthy chi flows through the room, we enhance our experience of the room as a peaceful escape—a place where we can re-energize and revitalize our spirits.
Earth overpowers water, so using earth tones (and earthlike elements like faux marble) will keep the water from draining out—and keep your wealth in your family!
What about tiles on the walls? These can be okay in terms of their reflective qualities (water), especially if you have a small bathroom that needs to be symbolically enlarged. For example, if a bathroom has pink and blue glass tiles, which can be lovely but also great stress-reducers, this bathroom can be a great place for an unwinding luxury bath any night of the week. But mirrored tiles are not a good idea in the bathroom, since these create a wealth-constricting effect that keeps the money contained rather than flowing.
However you decide to adorn your windows, mirrors, and walls, do keep them clean. Hair can accumulate on mirrors and walls, courtesy of the blow dryer, as well as on floors, courtesy of the brush. Hairspray can create a sticky buildup on windows and mirrors. Toothpaste can splash onto mirrors and walls, too.
Watch out for these kinds of “residue” clutter, and remember that while cleanliness is key to good feng shui in every room of the house, it’s especially critical in the bathroom for the purpose of your family’s health and well-being. Don’t forget to check out the wall behind the bathroom door—it’s a favorite hiding spot for dust, dirt, and hair buildup.
Check walls for peeling paint. Unless you’ve painted the walls with waterproof paint (a good idea in the bathroom), moisture can make walls crack and peel. Mold can also create cracks and buildup on shower walls, forcing you to recaulk several times. Prevent this time-consuming situation with a shower-cleaning spray after each use—or at least once a week.
Store towels in a hall closet, keeping only a few clean ones on your towel racks. Or be creative and bring balancing earth elements into the room with a woven basket with rolled clean towels for everyone in your home. Practical and grounding!
Feng shui consultants love mirrors for their reflective and space-enhancing magic. Just keep them useful and away from one another in larger bathrooms, since dueling mirrors can block energy. Mirrors that break up the imagecan split the energy they give off, so it’s generally best to have a nice round mirror that is one brilliant piece.
If you don’t have a round mirror, you can soften the hard edges of a square one by framing it or by having the glass cut in the corners to keep chi flowing and avoid “poison arrows” (hard angles or edges that seem to “point” to you in a way that’s symbolic of negative energy). Willow twigs in a clay jar next to the mirror will also help counter this problem.
Be as mindful in the things you keep in your bathroom as you are in other rooms of your home, and you will never want for what you truly need.
In feng shui, bathroom mirrors work best if they are simply flush with the wall, or function solely as mirrors. So, the protruding and multifunctional medicine chest is less than ideal. It can still work in the feng shui bathroom as long as it is kept clean and clutter-free. The problem with many medicine chests is that they tend to become the storage bin for things that “might” get used someday (misplaced energy) or, worse yet, for things that are now useless (stagnant chi). Hoarding things, even small items like makeup and tweezers, can block your prosperity by keeping new things from coming into your life, and keeping expired medications can even be dangerous.
Bathrooms can suffer from the same “blocked chi” feeling as cluttered kitchens, offices, or garages. They can be a major source of turmoil, especially for the stress junkies out there. You can probably tell a stress junkie when you see one: He or she is always “on,” always living on the edge of several simultaneous deadlines. Here are some other telltale signs:
The bathroom décor is sloppy and haphazard. Nothing seems to match—or even coordinate well—in the stress addict’s bathroom. Pictures, towels, and accessories aren’t even close to the same color family or in the same style. A Martha Stewart nightmare!
Don’t just empty, but also clean the trashcan in your bathroom. Letting dirt accumulate under trash can make it a breeding ground for germs—and can signify stress in your life. When you clear clutter, clear it all!
Another sign of stress is an abundance of unrelated items in the bathroom. Stress junkies try to pack so much into their days, that there is little time set asideto relax anywhere. So, they stack piles of unread magazines or books near the toilet or tub. This way, they reason, they can read while bathing or, well, you know.
The stress addict is 100 times more likely to have dirty towels piled on the back of the door or on the floor, with dirty clothes thrown in, too. On the countertops, you’ll find scads of near-empty toiletries and razors that should’ve been pitched years ago. Don’t even look in the cupboards—you can only imagine …
Remember, the whole purpose of the bathroom is cleanliness. The stress addict more than likely has dried flowers with cobwebs in the bathroom, soap dishes so full of residue you could probably carve out another bar, or dust and stains or spots that were never wiped up.
Don’t forget to clean the inside of the toothbrush holder as well. Moisture in such enclosed places can be an excellent breeding ground for mold spores—and you don’t want to put mold into your mouth the next time you brush!
If you are a stress addict or know one, the best thing you can do is apply feng shui to the bathroom, then create an oasis for total relaxation (as described in the following section). Not only will you notice a marked difference in the flow of positive energy in and beyond the bathroom, but you’ll also notice that greater wealth abounds. Be sure to do a space-clearing ceremony after you clear all the clutter—you’ll want to start the feng shui process with a clean slate!
Aside from being a place of cleanliness, your bathroom can be a sanctuary for relaxation and renewal. But how do you create a spalike atmosphere and still follow the principles of good feng shui?
Just as you did with the kitchen, you need to appeal to all senses, mixing your “personal indulgences” with the five elements in a balanced, yin-yang way that makes for a winning combination of nature and nurture.
Keeping the space clean and visually appealing will appeal to your sense of sight, as will good lighting and soft, curved shapes in your bathroom versus dark, angular areas.
Creating a “no stress” zone in your bathroom can be done in a weekend, but if the thought of a complete overhaul creates more stress than it would seem to relieve, do it in small bits and pieces, one piece at a time. Each time you add something new, it will feel like a new experience—one step closer to the new, totally balanced you!
Before you start to create a bathroom that offers peaceful retreat and restful relaxation, be sure to clear the clutter and clean the bathroom. You should also do a space clearing before every spa experience to maximize the health and well-being of your time alone.
Air the room out regularly by opening a window whenever you can, or by circulating the ceiling fan after each use of the bathroom. Fresh air is important to your health and also to the cleanliness of the bathroom. Opening the window also brings in a nice breeze while you are having your luxury bath—and simple, natural pleasures like this are truly wonderful and soothing. Airing out a clean bathroom can create an air of positivity that is sure to be appreciated by all who use your bathroom.
Make your bathroom a place of peaceful retreat and tranquility—a place where you can escape the worries of everyday life. Keep the clutter to a minimum and you will feel the difference within and around you!