Feng shui your spring cleaning
Photo credit: Unsplash preciousplasticmelbourne
Spring is a great time to intentionally clean your home, remove any residue that has accumulated during the colder months, and refresh your space for a new season. Whether you feel inspired to do a deep clean of your whole home or you’re just looking for some simple ways to bring a little new energy into your space, here are nine of our favorite easy feng shui tips to bring more intention to your spring cleaning:
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Create a cleaning ceremony
While you can of course do a regular mundane cleaning of your home, creating a ritual around your spring cleaning adds in a layer of intention. One way you can do this is by beginning in a mindful way. We suggest ringing a bell nine times while standing in the center of your home. You can use anything with a clear metallic sound, like tingsha bells, a metallic wind chime, or a singing bowl. When you ring your bell, chime, or bowl, let the sound vibrations move through your space to aid in the clearing. This activates fresh qi and it also calls in the energy of completion, which is related to the metal element. This will help you begin your cleaning ceremony, and it will also support you in completing the cleaning process.
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Refresh the front door
In feng shui, the front door is a really important part of your home, and it's also especially important when it comes to spring cleaning. The front door really is your connection to the outside world, and the transition to spring marks a time for many of us when we start to reconnect with the outside world after staying indoors more over the winter. The front door is also called the “mouth of qi” in feng shui, because this is the primary way that qi (life force energy) enters your home.
One way to refresh your front door is to sweep your entry mindfully and wipe away any winter debris. Even if it’s already clean, you can still sweep and shake out your front door mat. We like to use non-toxic cleaning products, which could be as simple as water or white vinegar with some orange essential oil. We recommend adding essential oil drops in a multiple of nine; nine is an auspicious number in feng shui, so this is another way to bring intention and ceremony into your spring cleaning. As you’re cleaning your front door, you can set an intention that you are welcoming in new opportunities and reconnecting with the world around you.
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Open the windows wide
Your windows are another part of your home that connects you to the outside world. Opening your windows is a great way to help your home let go of stale, stagnant qi and breathe in new, fresh qi. We suggest opening the windows for at least nine minutes (or nine seconds if it’s very cold!). This invites light and new qi into your home. If you want to connect with the energy of your home during this process, you can stand in the center of your home after you’ve opened the windows, take a deep, intentional breath, and imagine that the home is breathing with you.
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Polish your perspective
In addition to opening your windows, it’s a good idea to clean your windows and remove any debris that has accumulated, which often tends to happen during this transition from winter to spring. You can use the same non-toxic cleaning solution as you did for the door, like vinegar or water with some drops of orange essential oil.
Your windows represent your eyes in feng shui, so as you clean, imagine that you are clearing your vision and perspective on life and refreshing how you connect to the outside world. Using orange essential oil can be very supportive in this process because oranges represent abundance and prosperity in feng shui, as well as bright, yang energy, like the energy of the sun.
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Revitalize your bed
The bed is a very important part of your home because it governs rest and wellbeing. This is an especially great area to focus on if you have roommates or if you spend a lot of time in your bedroom. To reset your bed, you could remove your heavier winter duvet and switch to lighter bedding. You may also want to invest in new bedding made from natural fibers like linen or cotton. If you are buying new bedding, you can choose colors that support a specific intention, like yellow or sandy earth tones to support health, or green or teal to honor the energy of springtime. Alternatively, you can make a ritual of putting on fresh, clean sheets and bringing fresh energy to this part of your home, even if you don’t want to invest in new sheets. And if you do buy new sheets, you can always donate the old ones to local animal rescues so that they go to a good cause!
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Clear under the bed
As we mentioned, the bed is a very important area to pay attention to, so it’s helpful to spend some time cleaning underneath the bed. This is also often an area that’s a little more neglected. As you sweep away any dust or debris that’s accumulated under the bed, envision that you are also sweeping away any stagnant or stuck qi. If you store any items under the bed, you can take them out for a while and let them breathe. You may also want to investigate what you are storing under the bed, because from a feng shui perspective, it’s ideal to avoid storing anything under the bed that’s heavy or emotionally charged. If you are using this space for storage, it’s best to use it for soft, sleep-related items like pillows and blankets, especially if you have trouble sleeping.
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Ignite your stove
The stove represents fire energy as well as wealth and nourishment. If you don’t have a stove, the same principles apply to whatever you use to cook in your home. Historically, creating a place to cook your food took a lot of time and resources – you would have had to find wood, start a fire, and then keep it going long enough to cook. We may not need to take all those steps today, but we can still bring some reverence to this area where you prepare your food, because it does require a lot of resources. Symbolically, this area is connected to your wealth and how you nourish yourself.
First, take note of how your stove is functioning and make any needed repairs. Next, give your stove a deep symbolic cleaning. If your stove is already really clean, you can still refresh your stove with the intention to open your home to more wealth and opportunities. Choose a non-toxic cleaner and set an intention as you clean to activate wealth and open your home to abundance. As you close this ritual, you can also turn all of your burners on, let them get hot, and then turn them off. It’s nice to use all of your burners, because this is a way to recognize that your wealth energy is firing on all cylinders.
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Purge your food storage
Go through your fridge and your pantry, take everything out, and let go of anything expired or anything that you won’t eat. If there are things you no longer want, see if you can donate them or compost them. If this feels like an overwhelming task, take it one step at a time. You could start with just one shelf, for instance. After you’ve cleared out any old food items, wipe down all the surfaces to reset those spaces, because these food storage areas reflect how you nourish yourself. They hold the food that nourishes you physically and energetically, so take the time to make sure they are clean and only storing fresh items that you will use.
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Reset and cleanse
Your bathroom is a place where you go to reset and cleanse your own qi, and to prepare and strengthen yourself. Similar to other areas in your home, it can be nice to open the windows and clean with some essential oils that resonate with you, like the orange essential oil we’ve mentioned. You could also use another citrus oil like lemon, or eucalyptus to bring in wood qi. After you’ve cleansed your bathroom, we recommend adding a small plant if possible. This brings the wood element into a part of your home that contains a lot of water qi, and this is a nice way to create more balance. If it’s not possible to add a plant, you can also introduce wood qi by adding the color green.
Then, take some time in your refreshed bathroom to reset and cleanse yourself. Take an Epsom salt bath and symbolically wash away any winter residue. Salt is a powerful tool for clearing and purifying. Feel that you are stepping out of winter energy and into spring. You can also add essential oils if you’d like, but please do so mindfully because they can be intense! Lavender is a lovely oil to include in a bath because it embodies wood qi and is very relaxing.
We know some of you will complete all nine of these steps, but it can also be very supportive to just do one if that’s all you can manage! Even if you start small and take one simple Epsom salt bath or clear out one shelf in your pantry, this can be a symbolic new beginning, like a small sprout just starting to push through the soil.
Happy spring cleaning!