Feng Shui Homework: Paint a Prettier, Less Toxic Picture in Your Home

 

This is a great time of the year to start and finish projects around the house. One of my own personal feng shui adjustments includes painting a room in my home. And, I must say that it has been awhile since I’ve been paint shopping. Selecting the right color and shade was grueling. It took a few weeks. (Wow, this process is much easier when I do it for clients.) What I didn’t realize was the process of picking out the quality of paint. When I was at Home Depot, I felt like I was at a Starbucks. “Do you want glossy finish, semi-glossy, flat, low VOC, no VOC, etc…?”

VOC stands for “Volatile Organic Compound,” which is a number of chemicals that turn into a vapor and then pollutes the air. It is not only found in paints. It’s also in varnishes, glues, and certain cleaning products. Formaldehyde is a VOC, and so is fish odor. To be environmentally conscious, no or low VOC is best.

Now, I would suggest that even if you’re not planning a painting project, go around your house and see what other toxic items you have. Do you have old varnish cans in the hall closet? Do you know if any of your cleaning products are toxic? Yes, it’s great if something can cut through grease, but what else is it doing to us? Where do you keep the bug spray?

Ideally, all of these products should be stored out of your home. Unfortunately, many homes have attached garages, and that’s probably where all that stuff is. And if you live in an apartment, space is always an issue. I can only hope that at least nothing toxic is underneath your kitchen sink.

If you can, get a shed, put it somewhere on your property, and store the products there. Hopefully, it won’t be too close to your neighbors. But if you safe storage isn't possible, make sure no harmful products are in the kitchen, in the bedroom, or near any place where you spend a lot of time. Just being aware where things are stored can be very helpful.

Feng Shui Homework

I am giving you a big assignment for homework this month.

• Pay attention to the products in your home. Read the ingredients. Look up words you don’t know. 
• Properly store or dispose of anything that is not healthy. 

Educating ourselves is very powerful and an essential step towards having a healthy, picture-perfect home. And a healthy home is a healthier you.

Now, all I have to figure out is if I want a satin finish paint or not. Argh!

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 feng shui and interior design, 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.

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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.

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Tips for Chic Transformations: Office Storage

I look at how people organize their homes and sometimes I just give a deep sigh of boredom.  Aren’t you tired of the gray steel file cabinets, the black or white plastic trays, the humdrum brown storage boxes?  I know you may not have a choice in an office workspace but to submit to the corporate drabs, but that doesn’t mean your home office storage should be the same. It's time for a transformation!

I picked out the typical storage choices one sees all over the place and found some fabulous replacements. Let me know if you agree too! As seen above, instead of the usual leather and wood desk accessories, I found this bold red and blue geometric design in acrylic with an exotic Indian motif from Horchow.  Every office needs a file cabinet, but do they have to be plain Jane?! Here's a champagne diamond-patterned file cabinet also from Horchow.

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