What’s the difference between Mess and Clutter?
Feng Shui can be simply described as connecting with our environment. Feeling comfortable in our homes, creating an energy that makes a house your home - having a sense of place. When you're connected in this way it opens up many opportunities to live authentically.
Chi is energy … the energy around us – the energy that impacts how we feel. The energy around us is changing all of the time. We can clearly see this through the moon phases and the change in seasons. Spring cleaning – you know when the air is fresh and clean outside, you instinctively want to open all of the windows. It feels refreshing to get all of the old stale, stagnant energy out of your house. You can breathe easier as it fills with new energy that flows and moves through your home. That is Good Chi and that is an example of how we can feel it.
Clutter can affect this energy in a negative way. Clutter represents an energy block. I’m sure we are all pretty aware of the impact that clutter can have on our mental health. It’s not good.
But if we get too hung up on keeping things tidy that can also create anxiety. One of the key things to remember is that there is a huge difference between clutter and mess. Carefully consider what is mess and what is clutter.
Don’t allow your day to day messiness create anxiety. Life is messy. For example, when I am writing or in the middle of a project there is a lot of creativity happening and that creativity can sometimes be messy. When you are cooking dinner and have used every dish in the cupboard or when the kids come home from school and scatter their belongings everywhere - there is a positive energy that is held in that mess.
You can feel the difference in the energy between mess and clutter. Messiness has a positive “moving” energy, whereas clutter is a stagnant energy. Stagnant energy is heavy and can be felt when you have stacks of paper in your office. Think of those boxes in your spare bedroom that haven’t moved for quite some time.
When I need to be creative, I enjoy the energy of the creative mess...and when the project is completed, I generally spend some time getting things back in order before I embark on my next project. If I were to leave everything untidy and scattered for an extended period of time, the energy becomes stagnant and has the capacity to turn into clutter. I’m not so sold on the concept of minimalism. If you are too extreme you remove all of the energy. Organization “having a place for everything and everything in it’s place” is critical in being able to remove clutter and enjoy the energy of your messiness when it needs to happen.
Messiness needs to happen – life is messy!
Pay attention to your home and how it feels for you – by making it an extension of your energy you can make your house a home. Do things that will make you love it. Think about what you need to do to get the energy moving in your home. If you have a room that you never use, think about why…is it too dark, does the furniture not feel right? Does it need to be painted a different colour? What can you change in that room to make you love it?
Before I became a practitioner I was constantly changing paint colours and rearranging the furniture in my home. I realize now that I was organically responding to the changes in energy. It became a bit of a joke in my family – my kids used to say “Mom just moves stuff around and thinks she has new things” – this was me intuitively responding to the changing energy.
But be mindful, if you know something is not right and you just can’t quite put your finger on it – consult with a Feng Shui Practitioner and they can help you get the energy moving.
To book a free Feng Shui consultation with Avalon Lane Studio, get in touch!