The basics of Feng Shui in daily life

Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:26 PM CST

When looking at Feng Shui in daily life, Deborah Bouton has three basic thing for a homeowner to consider.

Clutter is the first thing she notices when walking into a room.

"We've all got the little areas of our home that when you clean the rest of your house, everything goes in there," Bouton said. "Then once or twice a year you go clean up that area."

Dealing with our accumulated mess is a matter of spending time with it; figuring out what's there and deciding what is essential and what is not.

Bouton said that there's a good rule of thumb when trying to decide what of your "junk" you need to get rid of.

"If you go 'I love this' or 'I really need this,' immediately it goes in the 'to keep' pile," she said. "If you stop and think for even 30 seconds, put it in the 'to go pile.'"

Color also has an important role in the balance of a home.

"A color looks the way it does because of the vibration it puts out and how that vibrations hits the eyes and vibrates the optic nerve," Bouton said. "That's how we know purple is purple and red is red.

"The eye isn't the only part of the body that picks that up."

Color is one of the most powerful tools in Feng Shui. Bouton said that it is a way to enhance every area of the home to improve attitude, increase creativity, and aid physical and mental well being.

"It's amazing how many times I would hear 'just paint the walls white, it's the safest thing,'" she said. "Well it may be safe, but it's really boring."

The final basic Feng Shui tip is to look at the placement of objects in a room.

"If I open the front door and a river started flowing through," Bouton said, "how would it find its way around the room? Would it find a lot of things to stumble over and would it find places to go and sit and get stagnant, or are there nice open areas for it to move around in?"

It's all about balance. How you place things in a space can affect that. If it is difficult to get around in a room, it might be that you need to get rid of a few pieces of furniture or just rearrange what you have in a way that maximizes the space of the room.

At the same time, it is important to be practical and not give up the amount of space needed to be comfortable.

"Very few people live in a perfect space," Bouton said. "The goal is improvement."

-- Brent Stewart