This post is part of Sophie Keller's "How Happy Is" series on The Huffington Post. This week, Sophie offers advice on your home:
Before you apply your feng shui cures, you need to clear out the clutter in your home. When you clean up your home, you rid it of stagnant and unhealthy energy. Most of us have too many things we don't actually need, and in getting rid of them, we create space for the cures to work.
PHOTOS: 9 Tips For Cleansing Your Home
WATCH:
Watch How the Books Can Help You Now! from Sophie Keller on Vimeo.
Health Advice From Sophie Keller
Marriage Advice From Sophie Keller:
Remember That The Little Things Count
Be Physically Affectionate
Don't Compromise -- Do This Instead
Love Advice From Sophie Keller:
MIx With People Whose Relationships Work
Dare To Be A Beginner Again
Repair Family Rifts First
Follow Sophie Keller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sophie_Keller
Loved your article. My house is cluttered and I always sensed this might be the cause of bad energy. There is lot of anger and shouting in our house, although not by me. So I washed all the walls with water infused with nine drops of pure lavender and citrus essence. Trouble is, the infused water has caused the water based emulsion paint to run, quite badly in some areas. Frankly, some damage to the paintwork is a price worth paying to cleanse the room of stagnant energy, but my wife is pretty annoyed. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, because I am going to re-paint the whole house soon to draw in as much new energy as possible. As you say white, green or blue in a child’s room is needed for them to flourish, but my wife wants the walls in our daughter's room to remain magnolia (although they need a touch up after all the dripping). I am worried that the magnolia is probably the reason our daughter isn’t doing very well at school. My wife says this is nonsense (she also thinks it is deeply patronising that absurd articles such as this about imaginary flows of mystical and unknown energy are always found in the “Woman” section of publications, but then she is a bit of a grump). Do you think I need to put my foot down on this one?
Kindliest regards
Jimmy
You are meant to use lavender or citrus, not both. Anyway, do repaint the house and if you are doing it change your daughter's room color, just for a change. Keep it a calm color. Make sure your daughter's room isn't cluttered and also that she is not on a bunk bed if possible. Get How Happy is Your Home? The book will really give you and your wife some good ideas. And also if your wife reads a few pages she might get some good ideas. My other suggestion is that you get How Happy is Your Marriage? There are some really good tips there. I know it is hard to keep it all together when you have a family and are pulled in so many directions. Both of you if you can clear out the clutter and read the Marriage book. Also send her my best and send her to my website www.howhappyis.com. She might find some things she likes on there. Happy New Year. Sophie
Happy New Year to you too. Thanks for clarifying its lavender or citrus. I foolishly thought using both lavender and citrus would have double the energy cleansing effect of just one. That’s probably also why all the paint ran so badly. Your insight is uncanny – our daughter does have a bunk bed! I always sensed it was part of the problem. Its gone straight on the skip. My daughter was a bit upset about that and my wife isn’t too happy but they don’t understand the importance of good energy. I have already ordered her a copy of your book How Happy is Your Marriage, which I am going to give my wife as a gift for our Tenth wedding anniversary which is coming up, rather than the jewellery she asked for, so hopefully that will please her and give her some tips.
Best
Jimmy
I'm not a yard-sale type of person; my friends are not interested in the 'stuff' I want to get rid of, and the only reason I've kept so much of it is because I hate to just throw it away. However, a solution was dropped into my lap last month, when a brand new Good Will Collection Center opened a couple of blocks away.
So far I've 'cleaned' out three cordless phones, two computers, one printer, one scanner, numerous shirts, slacks and shoes, a whole bunch of recorded VHS tapes (and three players), plenty of books and DVDs, and I'm just getting started.
Once you get into the habit of dropping things off at one of these charity places and see the happy and appreciative response you get from the people there, you're motivated to go back to your house and try to find more things to bring them.
It works for me, and I know it will work for you.
Gene Grossman - LegalMystery.com
The beauty of this idea is that the one thing a day to clean and to get rid of can be anything -- it really doesn't matter how small. Keeps the guilt down by getting something -- anything -- done, which keeps motivation from being destroyed by overlays of guilt, and it adds up to progress, even if it's slow at times, which also keeps up morale. Also, it can be scaled upwards to include more several things per day when an unforeseen increase of incentive overtakes me.
So far it's working pretty good -- much better than my old approach. I've been enjoying the incremental improvements. There's always the set-backs caused by emergences of new messes, but overall things are slowly advancing. I admit I have a long way to go and hope to pare my possessions down to half or less. If I could just start going through the stuff that I shoved into storage (or stored in corners) and never touched when I moved a couple years ago, I'd feel as though I were taking care of things. Throwing stuff away involves a lot of mental energy in the form of decision-making, so it's easy to avoid.
(heavy down parkas, etc.), even tho living in the subarctic.
As long as we have room to store them, we will.
Never know when relatives or friends might arrive who need
to be outfitted for their visit !