Finding The River by Sally Topham

Chapter 9

Clearing Clutter and Enhancing the Chi in Your Home

Have you ever noticed the way you sometimes get an immediate sense of how you resonate with a place as soon as you walk in through the front door? A really good example of this often happens during house hunting. It’s as though we’ve got antennae! We can tune into the vibrations of the house we’re viewing and know immediately whether it’s right or wrong for us.

This is because rooms and houses soak up the thoughts and vibrations of those who live in them. Emotional energies become embedded in the walls. These have been unconsciously generated not only by the people who live there and any animals who share that space, but also by the energies of everyone who has ever lived in that house or flat before them. And it’s possible to sense all this when we walk into someone’s home without knowing exactly what it is (see Exercise 24).

Exercise 24: How You (and Others) Feel about Your Home

Take a few moments to write down how you’d describe your home. Would you say it was:

• Elegant?

• Cosy?

• Makeshift?

• Comfortable?

• Welcoming?

• Untidy?

• Stark?

• Bohemian?

• Or what?

Have any friends, family or visitors commented upon how they feel about your home? If so, what have they said? Make a note of their comments.

Write down how you feel about your home. Do you love it? Hate it? Or is it just a place to live?

Everything in your home has an effect upon you, from the smallest object to the largest design feature. Every object you possess contains the emanations of the people who previously owned it, as well as the energy of the object’s creator. The buildings we live and work in are made up of constantly changing energy, which, as we saw in the previous chapter, is made up of atoms and molecules through which the Chi or subtle energy of the Universe flows. And since you’re energetically connected with everything in the Universe, you are therefore not separate from your home. Your home is alive and has consciousness—just the same as you!

Your home is a receptacle for your thoughts and feelings and therefore reflects your inner state. In a sense, it’s an extension of your body. You may not be able to feel the energies moving around your home but believe me, they’ll be influencing how you’re feeling emotionally and may well be affecting your health.

In her book, Sacred Space, Denise Linn tells us that “…homes are nourished by how we hold them in our hearts.” She goes on to say that our homes “…have a living spirit that is sustained through the reverence and the love we hold for them. Without that care they become inanimate and lifeless…Your home is an evolving creative being…(It) can be your ally or it can be an adversary…(it) interfaces with you and through that connection you can both grow…and evolve. The regard in which you hold your home can rouse an ancient and replenishing spirit from the deep to fill your home; this power can heal you in the very centre of your soul and heart.”

The ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui (pronounced Fung Shway) is all about knowing precise techniques which can provide this nourishment and support for yourself within your home. Developed over 4000 years ago, it provides methods of changing and re-aligning the Chi flowing through your house or flat in order to create the most harmonious environment for you. Making the necessary adjustments to allow a free flow of this vital energy is seen to facilitate good fortune in life, career and relationships and also to enhance health and well-being. It also offers solutions or “cures” for changing unhelpful energies which may have been caused either by the orientation of the building, the discharge of your emotions (or those of previous owners) or obstructive energies caused by the wrong placement of objects and furniture. It’s a very conscious way of changing our outer world to help re-balance the inner one.

The knowledge and practise of Feng Shui involves various elements such as mathematical calculations and Chinese Astrology. The practitioner also has to learn about Yin and Yang (these are mutually dependent but opposite types of Chi energy), and the Five Elements (these are different types of energy drawn from Nature—Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood. In addition they must be able to interpret the Bagua (which is a template showing which areas of your home relate to various aspects of your life), and know how to use colour and placements to enhance the flow of Chi. Feng Shui also involves ways of refining the levels of Chi, which is known as Space Clearing, and this practise requires clearing clutter from the home beforehand.

Piles of clutter, even when hidden out of sight in cupboards and wardrobes, are a natural gathering space for negative energies. The more negative energy accumulates, the denser the atmosphere in your home will become. Side effects of this can be lack of energy, foggy thinking, general inertia or laziness, sadness and depression. It can affect your immune system and in some cases it can even contribute towards serious illness.

The effects of Space Clearing allow you to lift the vibrations of Chi in your home to the point where it isn’t just a home but a dwelling that is a sanctuary as well. In other words, it enables your home to become a sacred space that nurtures and supports you through all the ups and downs of your life.

Every Feng Shui practitioner I’ve ever come across has agreed that trying to implement cures, placements and other techniques is rarely effective without having cleared the clutter out of our homes first! Regular Space Clearing is also recommended especially after illness, death or any traumatic event. It’s also excellent for helping to clear the way towards making much needed changes in your life and attitude. And we could all do with some help with that from time to time!

You can learn the basics of doing each of these things on your own by following the guidelines I’m going to set out in this chapter and Chapter 10. Deeper guidance and insights into both techniques will be found in the writings of Denise Linn, Karen Kingston and others (see the Further Information and Suggested Reading section at the back of this book). Once you’ve cleared your clutter and learnt about the fundamental aspects of Space Clearing for yourself, you’re then in a position to try implementing other Feng Shui techniques to enhance the energy of where you live.

Before we go any further with this subject, let me clarify what I mean when I talk about “clearing clutter”. I don’t mean that you have to suddenly become obsessively tidy! I’m not advocating that you live in a Zen minimalist environment devoid of ornamentation. Nor am I suggesting that you plump up all the cushions on the sofa just as soon as someone vacates it, or that you sweep away each and every speck of dust immediately when it catches your eye!

No. When you’re in the middle of doing something, there’s always going to be times when a number of things are lying around the place which are simply part of the task in which you’ve engaged. Think about what the kitchen is like when you’re cooking. In the process, you may find yourself surrounded by a number of pots and pans, plus various utensils, dishes, condiments, herbs and spices in the cooking area. That’s fine! It may look untidy for a while, but there’s a purpose to it. Once the cooking is finished, you then wash up and put those things away where they belong. Think “tidy” in these terms. Not “tidy” meaning pristine, sterile, regimented and devoid of any spontaneity or creativity.

Clutter builds up when things never get put away, when there’s too much stuff and not enough storage, or when piles of things end up strewn on the floor, under beds, chairs and sofas or stuffed into cupboards all higgledy-piggledy because they don’t have a “home”.

Clutter creates stuck energy, which in turn creates chaos in your life and makes you feel disorganised. Physical clutter in the home means mental clutter in the mind. It can make you tired and keep you emotionally bound up with the past. If you feel in a rut, there will be a corresponding stuckness in some part of your home. Clearing it not only clears your outer space but also your inner space as well. Getting rid of clutter will help you clear the way for new things, new people and new opportunities to come into your life.

Exercise 25 can help you begin the process of clearing out clutter and ultimately enhancing the Chi in your home.

Exercise 25: Preparation For Clutter-Clearing

The best way of starting this process is to take a cool, dispassionate look at the state of every room in your home, including the kitchen and bathroom. If the very idea of this makes you want to run a mile, don’t worry! You can take it in stages and do it one room at a time.

On the other hand, if the exercise flags up no particular difficulties for you, you can make an overall assessment of each room fairly quickly and then set about seeing which one you want to tackle first.

Take a notebook and go to the first room and write down the name of it at the top of the page; e.g., “sitting room”. All you have to do at this stage is to stand in the doorway and look into the room as calmly and objectively as you can and answer the following questions about it:

1. Can you move around the room easily without either bumping into furniture or having to step over things which are lying on the floor?

2. Is there so much clutter in certain parts that you can’t actually access particular areas?

3. Are the furniture surfaces clear of everything except intended ornamentation or practical objects—telephones, phone books, ashtrays and lamps?

4. Can you use the furniture for the purpose it serves?

5. If you’ve got clutter, where are the worst areas? Make a note of the worst clutter zones with the worst areas at the top of the list.

Be honest with yourself when you’re answering the questions. For example, if you have a desk which is covered with papers and books and all kinds of extraneous bits and pieces, and it’s like that permanently, you can’t answer “yes” to question 3! Likewise, if you have a dining table which is groaning under an assortment of objects, it isn’t being used as a table for eating purposes!

If you have any cupboards and storage areas in the room, open the doors and drawers one by one and look inside. Then answer the following question:

1. Is the inside so packed and jumbled you can’t tell what you’ve got in there?

When you’ve done this, you can move on to the next room and do the same thing, again answering questions 1 through to 6. Carry on with this process until you’ve assessed every room in your home.

If you feel overwhelmed or despondent about how much clutter is around, and you don’t feel strong enough to do every room immediately, commit yourself to assessing another one or two rooms later in the day. Make yourself a promise that if you don’t finish this exercise the first day, you’ll continue with it the following day and keep going with this assessment each day until you’ve finished it. The important thing is to keep up a momentum. If you don’t do this, you’re in danger of losing impetus and finding it more difficult to start on the real task of clearing your clutter.

Most of us have areas of clutter which need to be cleared and if they’re not obvious then they’re hidden behind drawers and cupboard doors! Some people only have a bit of clutter, others have rather too much, and some of us are almost totally submerged in it!

Exercise 26 will help you to determine how all this clutter is affecting your life and your emotions.

Exercise 26: How Does This Clutter Make Me Feel?

Ask yourself the following questions and write the answers in your notebook:

1. In the areas where clutter collects, how do those places make you feel?

2. Is your clutter a minor, major or overwhelming problem?

3. If your clutter has got seriously out of hand, when did this start?

4. Was there some event in your life which triggered it?

Some people may find themselves getting very emotional when they think about these questions. If this is so for you, then before you even start trying to clear your clutter, please turn to Chapters 12 and 13 on EmoTrance and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Here you’ll find how to use simple techniques to dissolve and let go of these emotions. Any distress you may be feeling may be because of stuck emotional patterns which have blocked up the flow of your inner Chi. Once these have been released, (and you may be surprised at how quickly, easily and painlessly you can do this) you’ll then be in a better place to let go of that inner clutter that is keeping you bogged down, and which is reflected in the outer clutter around your home.

If, on the other hand, you’re OK about these questions and you’ve completed Exercise 25, you’re now ready to start on the clearing.

Before you begin acting on Exercise 26, bear in mind a few general rules:

• Decide how much time you’re going to spend doing the clearing and set an alarm to go off when it’s time to stop. This helps to break down the time into manageable chunks. Working this way can make a big difference in actually doing something about it instead of putting it off endlessly. Think what it would be like if your working day wasn’t defined by a certain number of hours with time off for meal breaks. Yes, I know we all tend to go overtime, but there’s always a point where we pack up and go home. Putting a time limit on this task (allow yourself at least 2 to 3 hours, especially if there’s a lot to do) gives you the chance of making a reasonable dent in the work and helps makes a daunting job seem less overwhelming.

• Start by clearing the easiest room in your home. Many people choose to begin in the bathroom. This is a particularly good starting place for people with major clutter problems. By starting with the smallest room there will be less stuff to go through which means that quite quickly you’ll be able to notice how much better you feel when it’s cleared! Feeling that magical difference in your own energy and the energy of the room in question is grist to the mill and will give you impetus to continue working through the rest of your home.

• No matter how big or small the problem, only ever tackle one area at a time. This may entail just working on a small corner and slowly moving around the room tackling each clutter zone as you come to it.

• Golden rule of clutter clearing: If you don’t love it or use it—lose it! People often keep things “just in case”. When you do this you’re programming your subconscious mind to prepare for a situation of neediness, and as a result, you may well find that such a situation arises. Many people hold on to things they’ve been given simply because of their associations with the person who gave the present. This is fine if you like the gift, but if you don’t like it, every time you look at it or pick it up, you’re linking into negative energy that then radiates out into your home.

• Always plan to get rid of your junk immediately. Don’t have it hanging around. If you have a bag full of items ready for the charity shop, take them there that very day. Anything that has to be thrown away should be put into the bin immediately. This gives you very quick clearance. Notice how you feel when these objects are no longer in the house. Enjoy the increased clarity and flow in the vibrations of your home.

OK. Now, find three medium-sized boxes or big black bin liners (you’ll need to have a stock of these boxes and/or bin bags) and keep them beside you as you go through things. Label them:

Keep/Relocate/File

Donate/Give Away/Bin

Don’t know

Just getting things sorted into three different piles is a quick and effective way of managing stuff as you encounter it. Whatever you decide to keep can be resorted and replaced when you’ve cleared out the junk. Anything you’re not sure about can be put away and decided on later, ideally with the help of a trusted friend. However, if you’re doing this on your own, Exercise 27: Checking Out the “Don’t Know” Items will give you a few good ways to check whether you need to keep or get rid of an object.

Exercise 27: Checking Out the “Don’t Know” Items

If you’re unsure of whether to keep or dispose of an item, stop what you’re doing, close your eyes and come into your breath. Follow your breath for a few moments and centre yourself as best you can.

Now pick up the item and hold it in your hands.

Notice how your energy responds. Go with the first response you’re aware of and don’t try to be logical or analytic about it. If you have a sense of your energies sinking or fading, then this object needs to go because it’s draining you on some level. Try to accept this and don’t question why. This object needs to go.

If, on the other hand, your energies feel as though they’re expanding or lifting, then you should keep it because it nourishes you energetically. Again, don’t question it or try to analyse why.

If you don’t feel anything, try asking yourself, “Why am I keeping this?”

Go inside and listen for the answer. It can come very quickly. Again, go with the first response that comes up and don’t try to analyse it!

If this still doesn’t bring clarity, then a sure-fire way to find out whether you need to keep this article or not is to put it away in a box and leave it in a place where you can forget about it. Three months later, dig it out and look at it again. Trust me—if you haven’t missed it, you don’t need it—get rid of it!

Sentimental clutter is often the hardest to let go. For example, keeping old letters from ex-lovers means that at some level you still haven’t come to terms with the ending of that relationship. If you encounter real difficulties with sentimental stuff, you may need to use EFT or EmoTrance to clear your blocks to letting go of these things. If necessary, don’t be afraid to seek the help of a practitioner. Details on how to find practitioners can be found at in the Further Information and Suggested Reading at the back of the book.

When the timer goes off, put your boxes to one side until the next session (hopefully the very next day!). Clean up and do something else like putting stuff you’ve decided to throw out in the dustbin, or taking your cast-offs to the charity shop.

A few words about paperwork: with more and more of us working from home, paperwork can accumulate quickly and become a real energy drain. It’s very easy to make a clearance only to let it pile up again. This is something you need to tackle regularly! Once you’ve cleared it, commit yourself to keeping an eye on any signs of it mounting up again. Don’t let it get out of hand. Remind yourself about what it’s doing to your personal energy and the energy in your home. The more it piles up, the more it drains your energy and blocks the Chi. The longer you leave it, the more daunting and insurmountable it may become. You’ll feel so much better once you’ve dealt with it.

Additional pointers:

• Get rid of objects you associate with sadness, negativity or illness.

• Chuck out old magazines and newspapers.

• Go through your medicine cupboard and get rid of bottles of out-of-date pills and potions.

• Discard food in kitchen cupboards and the fridge that is past its shelf life.

• Throw away old makeup, bath or beauty preparations.

• Get rid of odd socks and tidy up the drawer where you keep them. Denise Linn swears this can have a major beneficial effect on depression!

• Get rid of anything you haven’t worn in 2 to 3 years no matter how good it is and especially if it’s too big or too small.

• Weed out any bad clothes or shoe buys you’ve made (and make a vow never to go comfort-shopping when you’re feeling low or depressed).

• Clear out the clutter in handbags and trouser pockets.

• Get broken things mended or get rid of them.

You could also benefit from clearing out the clutter in the car! And don’t forget the boot!

Spring is a particularly good time to tackle clutter—though any time is a good time!

The old tradition of Spring Cleaning is based on the understanding of Spring being a time of renewal, so it’s good to clean and mend things, polish the furniture, get rid of junk and fling open all the windows to let in clean fresh air after the stuffiness of Winter. By the way, the simple act of cleaning your windows can have an effect on the clarity in your life. Try it and see!

When we keep putting things off, they hang over us. The very thought of them causes pressure and brings us down. Leaving things undone is bad for your energy, so have a look at your procrastination levels! Do those tasks which need doing.

Don’t keep unwanted gifts simply because you’re afraid that the people who gave them to you might visit your home and notice they’re missing. Nine times out of ten they don’t notice—or if they do, they don’t comment—but if it happens, you could always say it got broken or something. Aim to surround yourself only with the things that you use and the things that you love.

Always clear junk away from the entrance to your home. Hats and coats hanging from pegs or a jumble of shoes, boots or trainers on the floor, make obstacles to the energy flow of your environment. Keep these things in a cupboard. Your front door is like the mouth of your home. This is where the Chi enters. It must have clear passage otherwise it’s going to get blocked from the word go. Likewise, if you have a hall table, beware letting it become a repository for junk mail, old newspapers, shopping bags or the like. Plants are really nice things to have in your entrance hall if you have the space, but make sure they have enough light and that they won’t suffer from being in a draught where they are. Also, make sure they’re healthy. Dead or dying plants in this area make for a very depressing energy to greet you as soon as you come in the door.

And finally, to complete all the clearing you’ve done, why not consider clearing out your colon and look into some cleansing programmes? Believe me, a thorough inner cleanse can work wonders on your sense of well-being and your energy levels!

To work out whether you need to do this, Karen Kingston suggests you eat a small handful of sunflower seeds and wait to see how long it is before they emerge from your other end! If they appear in your stools within 10 to 12 hours your colon is in pretty good condition. If it takes longer (and some people have to wait for several days before the seeds reappear) then you should definitely investigate a herbal colon cleanse or some colonic irrigation to clean out your system. You’ll feel wonderful after you’ve done this! It’s a very physical way of clearing clutter on an inner level.

After all this, you’ll have released so much stuck energy in your body and your home, you’ll feel light as a feather!