Feng Shui Homework - Free Your Closets, Free Your Mind

Franca Giuliani - For the record, please note that this is not a “clutter clearing” article. It's a Closet Clearing Summons. There's a difference.

We use closets as a place for storage, unless you have a huge walk-in closet like the one in the top photo (I call that more of a "clothes showroom"). I believe this to be a very noble thing, because we're humans and humans need stuff, and we have to store that stuff. However, many people use closets as the immediate solution to get things out of sight. Don’t know what to do with something? Well, put it in the closet! Where does this go? Don’t know. Well, put it in the closet!

Eventually we've created a plethora of items hidden away in closets, some items needed and some items completely useless.

In feng shui, closets represent our subconscious mind. Depending where the closets are, they can give us a lot of information as to what we don’t want to deal with in our lives, or better yet what we should deal with.

So let me suggest to you that by sorting out your closets, it may help you sort out your mind.

Once, I had a client who had a box of legal papers in her bedroom closet. These papers had something to do with an incident that happened many years ago, before her teenage daughter was born. My client was so afraid that her daughter would find the box. After awhile working with her, she came to the realization that there was no need to keep these papers. Within a week she had them all shredded, and to my surprise, she told her daughter about the incident. Her daughter felt very indifferent about this news, and nothing happened - except for the fact that my client felt a load lift off her back.

Unmanaged closets can also cost us money and time. How many times have you gone out and bought something because you couldn’t remember in which closet you put the original something in? For instance, look at our clothing closets. Do we know what's in there? Did you forget about that dress you bought that would have been perfect for that occasion (but instead you had to buy a new outlet)?

When I was working with one of my clients, we discovered that she had 7 blouses that where almost all identical. What had happened is that she could never find the original blouse, so she kept on buying a substitute. Then she could never find the substitute, so she'd buy another. Had she kept up with the inventory in her closet, she'd have saved not only money but the time and angst she spent searching for things.

It's also very important to understand that you should never overstuff your closets. You should deliberately have free space. This is a metaphor for allowing new opportunities or ideas to come into your life. Just because you have space does not mean you have to fill it.

Homework

So I leave you now with April’s homework: You are summoned to tackle your closets!

• Face what's in them.
• Decide what you need to get rid of, and make some space. 

Until next month,

Be well, 

Franca

Franca is one of the Feng Shui instructors at Sheffield School; visit her website for more information. If you're interested in learning more about interior design and accessories, then we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

• Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.
• Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Comments

[Olive]

" Just because you have space does not mean you have to fill it."

Oh, but it does! Somehow I always find that mere weeks after doing a bit closet clean out, it's already full again! Most of the time I haven't even bought anything new, things just manage to migrate in there!

But, alright Franca, I've been inspired, or rather summoned! This weekend the goal is to make a serious dent in the closet pile-up!

[cristmae]

Yes!we need to put to things in order so that everything is set according to the way it should to be.Our mind also will be in peace if things are in order,and we can concentrate doing work if we know where to locate what we need.

[kettlebellervaringen]

Thanks, i believe in this. But most important i think is to have peace in house is rest in the mind.

[Mentale dieet plan ervaringen]

I think Feng Shui is so interesting. I actually rearanged my room a couple of weeks ago and I do feel better.

[Worldwide Brands]

It is really very nicely written blog. Thanks for sharing

[Sophie]

I never knew that closets represent our subconscious mind, if this is true then it explains a lot about my life LOL. I'll try to prove this, I'll clean up my closets, get rid some things and create a free space.

Great article. Thank you.

[gamis kaos]

fengshui is really great somehow.. cant be trusted but in work.. hahaha.. really myesterous..