Feng Shui Tips - What's In Your Closets?

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. 

This is a particularly good month to do this, because, based on a form of Chinese astrology, it's a month of sprouting and new beginnings.  

Until next time ...

Be well,

Franca

Franca is a certified feng shui practitioner, energy clearer, and lecturer. She is a graduate of the Feng Shui Alliance School formerly in Edgewater, NJ. Franca also holds a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and a continuing education certificate from NYU. She has studied and continues to study under world-renowned instructors in feng shui, astrology, and energy clearing. She has consulted and lectured within the New York and New Jersey areas, as well as in Italy and England. Franca offers feng shui consultations, astrology readings, energy clearing sessions and organizing services. Visit the Franca Giuliani website.