3 posts tagged “cleaning”

This month Mercury has gone retrograde and that means it's a great time to clear out old stuff, get rid of junk and clutter and make future plans.  One of the best uses of your time during the Mercury Retrograde (which lasts until September 29), is to attend to cleaning and organizing. 

It's important to clean and get rid of clutter -- but not because you need to get rid of stuff but because you want to create space for new things to come into your life.

The point is to move the chi.

Whatever your concern is -- whether it's health or money -- chi is the answer.  Chi, or energy, when it's stagnant, creates stagnant health, stalled relationships, and stuck energy and finances.  When you are interested in something new and different, all it takes is moving the chi!  For your health it could be moving your personal chi by exercising or in your finances by taking positive steps toward accumulating money and taking yourself from being in the paying position to being in the receiving position of wealth.  In other words, going from the bill-payer to the wealth-accumulator.

Here are six ways you can get what you want by creating the space for it.

1. Want more business or career opportunities?

Clear off the front of your desk. Keep the area in front of your desk open and clear. Are you committing a feng shui sin and facing the wall at your desk?  Turn it around and put your desk in an executive position so that you are not facing an obstacle or block. A wall in front of you stunts your growth.  Make sure your front entry is beautiful, open, and uncluttered.  This invites opportunities to you.

2. Do you want more wealth?

Sweep the sidewalks and clear out the southeast corner of your living room and the garden too. Keep your wallet orderly. Be respectful of your money and don't just wad it up and ram it in your purse or wallet. Clear out your financial files and shred old, unnecessary items.  The last step, and perhaps the most important, make space for your accumulated wealth. 

Set aside a binder and label it "Investments."  Even if you don't have any investments, this is where you're going to put your information once you start them.  Call your investment person and ask how you can get started slowly on building some investments, with a DRIP (dividend reinvestment program) for example, that you can pay a small monthly amount into. Then, make your wealth accumulation an obligation, like a bill, and put money regularly into your investment.  That's the secondary secret to wealth:  consistency.

3. Do you want better health?

Clean out your pantry, cupboards, refrigerator and freezer.  Old food represents stagnant energy -- and that leads to stagnant health.  Use organizers in your pantry and refrigerator to help you keep food organized, easy to find, and accessible. 

Don't allow food in your home to become old, outdated, or worse, moldy.  Clean the refrigerator out every time you go to the grocery store.  Throw away those jelly jars with a teaspoon of jam at the bottom.  A good clearing out and cleaning of your refrigerator will help you find items faster -- and help your health.

4. Do you feel pressured and stressed?

Clear our your closets and drawers and be ruthless. Those hidden messes create pressure and stress. Get rid of "obligation" articles and furniture. Stuff you feel guilty about getting rid of creates an environment of guilt -- who can grow in that? And watch those "collectibles." Really, do you need 242 ceramic clowns?

5. Looking for love to enter your life?

Stop hogging the bed and sleep on the correct side (women on the right, men on the left as you are in the bed). Clear out a space in the closet for your new love and have two nightstand tables and matching lamps in anticipation of a love interest to come into your life.

6. Want more friends and social opportunities?  

Open up the south corner of your home.  Throw the curtains open, take the clutter out of the corners of this sector and throw away old papers, magazines, and any excess.  Put a healthy, lush plant in its place.  Move the furniture around and take up a carpet if you have one here.  This will speed up the chi in the room to make the phone ring with invitations from friends!

Create some open space for what you want to happen in your life and cram the space for what you don't want (like using a small basket to hold your bills). You might be surprised at how open space can attract what you want in your life simply by giving you the room to grow.

**Information borrowed from an email sent by Kathryn Weber, Feng Shui instructor**

This month Mercury has gone retrograde and that means it's a great time to clear out old stuff, get rid of junk and clutter and make future plans.  One of the best uses of your time during the Mercury Retrograde (which lasts until September 29), is to attend to cleaning and organizing. 

It's important to clean and get rid of clutter -- but not because you need to get rid of stuff but because you want to create space for new things to come into your life.

The point is to move the chi.

Whatever your concern is -- whether it's health or money -- chi is the answer.  Chi, or energy, when it's stagnant, creates stagnant health, stalled relationships, and stuck energy and finances.  When you are interested in something new and different, all it takes is moving the chi!  For your health it could be moving your personal chi by exercising or in your finances by taking positive steps toward accumulating money and taking yourself from being in the paying position to being in the receiving position of wealth.  In other words, going from the bill-payer to the wealth-accumulator.

Here are six ways you can get what you want by creating the space for it.

1. Want more business or career opportunities?

Clear off the front of your desk. Keep the area in front of your desk open and clear. Are you committing a feng shui sin and facing the wall at your desk? Turn it around a

nd put your desk in an executive position so that you are not facing an obstacle or block. A wall in front of you stunts your growth.  Make sure your front entry is beautiful, open, and uncluttered.  This invites opportunities to you.

2. Do you want more wealth?

Sweep the sidewalks and clear out the southeast corner of your living room and the garden too. Keep your wallet orderly. Be respectful of your money and don't just wad it up and ram it in your purse or wallet. Clear out your financial files and shred old, unnecessary items.  The last step, and perhaps the most important, make space for your accumulated wealth. 

Set aside a binder and label it "Investments."  Even if you don't have any investments, this is where you're going to put your information once you start them.  Call your investment person and ask how you can get started slowly on building some investments, with a DRIP (dividend reinvestment program) for example, that you can pay a small monthly amount into. Then, make your wealth accumulation an obligation, like a bill, and put money regularly into your investment.  That's the secondary secret to wealth:  consistency.

3. Do you want better health?

Clean out your pantry, cupboards, refrigerator and freezer.  Old food represents stagnant energy -- and that leads to stagnant health.  Use organizers in your pantry and refrigerator to help you keep food organized, easy to find, and accessible. 

Don't allow food in your home to become old, outdated, or worse, moldy.  Clean the refrigerator out every time you go to the grocery store.  Throw away those jelly jars with a teaspoon of jam at the bottom.  A good clearing out and cleaning of your refrigerator will help you find items faster -- and help your health.

4. Do you feel pressured and stressed?

Clear our your closets and drawers and be ruthless. Those hidden messes create pressure and stress. Get rid of "obligation" articles and furniture. Stuff you feel guilty about getting rid of creates an environment of guilt -- who can grow in that? And watch those "collectibles." Really, do you need 242 ceramic clowns?

5. Looking for love to enter your life?

Stop hogging the bed and sleep on the correct side (women on the right, men on the left as you are in the bed). Clear out a space in the closet for your new love and have two nightstand tables and matching lamps in anticipation of a love interest to come into your life.

6. Want more friends and social opportunities?  

Open up the south corner of your home.  Throw the curtains open, take the clutter out of the corners of this sector and throw away old papers, magazines, and any excess.  Put a healthy, lush plant in its place.  Move the furniture around and take up a carpet if you have one here.  This will speed up the chi in the room to make the phone ring with invitations from friends!

Create some open space for what you want to happen in your life and cram the space for what you don't want (like using a small basket to hold your bills). You might be surprised at how open space can attract what you want in your life simply by giving you the room to grow.

**Information borrowed from an email sent by Kathryn Weber, Feng Shui instructor**

As I've mentioned a few times in various blogs, I am working on getting my house organized and de-cluttered, especially before Thanksgiving because I will have a house full of family and friends over.  I don't know if any of you have ever heard of FlyLady (www.flylady.com) but she is like a cleaning freak of nature and I think she's pretty amazing.  I've used a lot of her tips and tricks in my housecleaning adventures with lots of success.  I'm a member on the FlyLady Yahoo group as well and today there was posted a priceless article about getting our children involved in the de-cluttering process.  Today, she focuses on paper clutter.  I am soooo going to incorporate these suggestions into my routine.  I know Claudia will be happy to participate, too.  Besides, I need to teach her these things because they will come in SUPER handy in the future when she is older and in high school, college, and just regular working life.  I wanted to share this with my Vox friends and family because a lot of you have kiddos and will totally benefit from the article.  Sooooo...here it is:

Our kids love to bring home all of their school papers to share with
us and then they also love to share all of their creative drawings at
home. Before you know it these items are multiplying and we are
conflicted as to which things to save or let go of.

We get overwhelmed with the decision of what masterpieces to let go of
because we want to recognize our child's talent and encourage it. We
have several ideas that can help you with this struggle.

Just as with any other part of the FlyLady system we have to make this
a part of our Basic Weekly Plan. Do not allow your child's papers pile
up for a whole year and then try to do this. Establish a time each
week to go through the back packs and notebooks to clean them out.
Friday afternoons at the end of the school week or Sunday evenings
getting ready for the week ahead is a great time to do this. Take 15
minutes to clean out the backpacks and folders and then take the items
to save and one or more of the following:

1. Establish a Wall of Fame: This could be a bedroom door, a bulletin
board in the family room or anywhere in the house that can be seen by
the child. There is a reason that this particular idea works. It has a
limited amount of space - this offers you and your child to rotate
things on and off the wall to make room for the new displays. The
teachable moment is to allow the child to decide what to do with the
paper once it is time to come off the wall. Is it time to throw it
away, save it or pass it on? Allow your child to participate in the
actual removal of one paper and putting up the replacement. They have
to be involved in the physical and mental decision.

2. Pass It On: This is an opportunity to teach your child how to
address an envelope and mail a letter - the old fashioned way.
Complete with a trip to the mailbox or better yet the post office.
Choose a friend, god parent or relative to mail one or two of your
child's creations. This is another way to keep those loved ones in
your life included in your child's life and teaches your child to
bless someone else. Also if you have a relative or family friend in a
nursing home or assisted living facility that might enjoy a cheerful
drawing or picture in their room is another opportunity to bless
someone. You can spend some time together addressing and decorating
envelopes ahead of time and have them ready for when it is time to
share the art work.

3. The Special School Box: this is a reasonably sized plastic tub or
cardboard box (like a bankers box with a lid). Decorate the box with
your child using stickers, paint, markers, wrapping paper etc. The
point of decorating the box is to make the box a special place for
your child to place those papers that are the most special to him or
her. This allows your child the ownership of a decision.

4. The Scrap Book - now before you all start to get carried away with
the idea of the most perfect scrap book - this belongs to your child!!
Get a simple three ring binder (larger rings are easier to work with (
2 or 3 inch) and some 8 1/2 by 11 sized construction paper. Punch
holes in the school papers are that are full in size and use the
construction paper to mount smaller works. Allow your child to use
scissors that cut in zig zag or scallop shapes on the papers and mount
several on one piece of construction paper. Do not tell them what to
do or that what they are doing is not right. It is their book!!

5. Technology - In the digital age in which we live we are given a
huge opportunity to be able to use scanners and digital cameras to
capture those projects that may be too large to put on the wall, the
box or the scrap book. This allows your child to see that they don't
have to hold onto the actual project that is large if they have the
pictures that will remind them of that special creative moment.

Once you have established your wall, box or book this is something
that can be done in 15 minutes and be a part of building a basic
weekly routine for you and your child.

While you are working on your own paper clutter this month, include
your children and take the time to teach them not only by example but
by spending time with them and showing them while they are young so
they don't have to learn it the hard way the way we have!! There is no
better gift in the world to give to your child than your time!