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Feng shui for “bad” bathroom locations

Feng shui for “bad” bathroom locations
Photo by Chastity Cortijo on Unsplash

If you’ve ever been worried about the location of your bathroom, you’re not alone! We often hear from people who’ve read somewhere that their bathroom is in a “bad” place in their home according to feng shui. While there are some bathroom locations that can pose a challenge, there’s no need to panic.

First, keep in mind that today’s bathrooms hardly resemble the “bathrooms” that would have existed 4,000 or 5,000 years ago when feng shui was developed. There was no indoor plumbing, and these spaces were certainly not as hygienic as our modern bathrooms. Many bathrooms today are stunning and spa-like, and even tiny bathrooms can be beautiful and clean. Today’s bathrooms are places that help us look and feel our best, where we can prepare for the day ahead or unwind after a long day with a calming bath or shower.

That being said, there are some situations in which your bathroom may need a feng shui adjustment. This has to do with the connection between bathrooms and the water element. In feng shui, water represents resources, including money and opportunities. When water is flowing away from the home, like in the case of a bathroom, that can represent a drain on your resources. Depending on where your bathroom is located in your home, you may want to make a feng shui adjustment.

Read on to learn about three of the most challenging bathroom locations, and how to work with them using feng shui principles.

Bathroom in the center of your home

This is not an ideal location for a bathroom, because the center of your home represents the center of your life. It’s connected to your overall health and wellbeing, and it also affects every aspect of your life. If you look at the feng shui bagua, the center (called the Tai Qi) touches every other area around it. This means that the draining water energy in a bathroom here can cause a drain in many different areas of your life.

This may sound alarming, but there’s actually a really simple feng shui fix. Get a mirror (in this case bigger is better) and hang it on the outside of your bathroom door with the mirror facing out towards the rest of your home. This energetically erases the bathroom, and minimizes any negative effects you might experience from having a bathroom in this location.

Bathroom in the Wealth area

The Wealth area of the feng shui bagua is a popular topic, and we get a lot of panicked questions from people with bathrooms in this location! You can usually find your Wealth area by standing in your front doorway facing in and locating the far left corner.

This isn’t the best place for a bathroom because it can mean that financial resources are flowing away from your home. There are many ways to adjust this, but one of the simplest is to place a plant on top of the toilet tank or somewhere else near the toilet. Plants are an expression of the wood element, which will help to lift up the water qi that is draining away. If you don’t have enough natural light in your bathroom for a plant, you can also bring in the wood element by adding something green or blue.

Bathroom opposite the front door

If your bathroom is one of the first things you encounter when you come in through your formal front door, this is also not ideal. In feng shui, the front door is really important, because it’s the main way that qi (life force energy) enters your home. This layout can lead to health challenges, so it’s a good idea to adjust your bathroom if your home is laid out in this way. To do this, first keep the bathroom door closed as much as possible so that you don’t see the inside of the bathroom when you come into your home. You can also place a mirror on the outside of the bathroom door, just like you would if it was located in the center of your home.

More feng shui adjustments for bathrooms

The feng shui adjustments we’ve given above are the most straightforward and easy adjustments that you can try on your own, but there are many other ways to work with bathrooms in feng shui. If you’re feeling worried, or not sure what to do about your bathroom, you can always hire a feng shui consultant to receive more personalized recommendations. You can also hear more about feng shui and bathrooms by listening to our podcast.