Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui

I can't remember ever recommending a book as whole-heartedly as this one. I don't consider myself particularly mired in material stuff or big on soft science and Eastern thought, but this book opened my eyes to a new definition of clutter and why to do away with it. I read the book halfway, and started on a cleaning jag that lasted all night. I slept for two hours, and kept at it with more energy than I've had in a very long time. I have freed myself from a large number of things I had tepid or negative associations with. I ended up with a lot of great stuff I wanted to get rid of, too good to just toss, so the Salvation Army came by for 3/4 of my clothing, half my CDs and books, and I had only begun! I "re-gifted" and "re-purposed" a lot of tremendous, perfect stuff that people have been thrilled to receive. It's difficult to describe the excitement I feel for this process, one I FINALLY understand on a level deeper than intellectual. I truly believe that anyone who scoffs at this process has not tried it. You don't even need to be open-minded about it. Just try it and be prepared for change in your life. The bagua map is a fascinating reference tool... to test Feng Shui, I compared the map to the parts of my life that aren't hitting the marks (or are), and I was very surprised. My muddled finances (I make good money, but manage it very poorly) were reflected in my shabby bathroom and a few kitchen cupboards full of unused cooking things.)I've not had this much clarity in my life for a very long time. It's more than housecleaning, it's transcendent. (By the way, the internal cleansing thing is also not a bad idea. If it weirds you out, skip over it, but you can do less extreme or invasive cleansings than Kingston suggests, with supplement programs like Kylea sells.) Get this book. Get this book. Get this book. It's really exciting.

This book changed my life, and I don't say that lightly . . . I can count on one hand the authors I'd say that of, and Karen Kingston is one of them.I too have loaned or recommended this book to all my friends, and read it several times myself. At Thanksgiving dinner I heard about someone who was having a tough time, and I mailed her a copy of this book over the weekend. I thought it was the single most helpful thing I could do (in the hierarchy of collectors, she must be near the top). It really is true--when you sort out your stuff, you sort out your life. Having lots of clutter functions exactly as a millstone around your neck would.As others said, I have read many books on this topic, looking for something that would light a fire under me. This is the only one that ever helped me. It is every bit as motivational as others have said. You will likely stay up most of the night you read it clearing clutter--and you'll feel and be better for doing it. Not only has it helped me clear stuff dating back even to childhood, but it's helped me clear people out of my life who didn't need to be there, and it's taken away my urge to shop for and collect new stuff. I still have collections of lovely and useful things. I just no longer feel the need to accumulate, and I have scaled back somewhat.A note . . . Karen recommends not examining things too carefully before tossing. I am going through things a bit slower than she recommends (and have found my car title and 2 copies of my birth certificate, among other useful things :), but I've found this actually quite helpful. In reading my old letters, diaries, etc., I've been able to identify old patterns still at play in my life today. It made me so mad to see how the more things changed, the more they stayed the same, that I took immediate steps in my life today to end the patterns. So instead of dumping your boxes of papers wholesale, you may want to look at the items that could give you valuable insight. What this book did for me is completely remove the urge to keep anything that no longer holds real value for me. I immediately cleared out a bunch of books and cassettes that had either never had any value for me, or no longer did.As far as the "not really feng shui" complaint . . . Karen states, and I absolutely believe she is right, that clutter clearing is the most important part of feng shui, and that her book is a supplement to the vast body of feng shui books available everywhere that never give specific instructions on this point. I don't know how anyone could miss this and expect anything else. Anyone in this category should have his/her shopping license revoked :) Since feng shui is about energy flowing, and it certainly can't flow through a space packed tight with clutter, there is no better place to start than this book.Sure, there are a few things in the book that are a bit overwrought--for example, she fleetingly refers to lots of evidence that my clearing my clutter can help my ancestors! I'd l

Being a clutterholic who keeps a lot of stuff "just in case" and for memory's sake (like 2nd grade report cards), this book was truly motivational and much of it made sense (like keeping stuff "just in case" means that not only are we cluttering the house for ourselves, we're also keeping things for people we haven't even met yet!). Since reading the book, my husband and I have cleared out TONS of stuff in the house! We've had yard sales and donated a lot to the Salvation Army and Goodwill, and the rooms that have been "decluttered" are cleaner and more restful. Plus, with the goal of getting down to just the things we need, love, or use, we've been able to get rid of tacky stuff that we hung onto for no good reason, and stuff that we weren't using. The great thing is that after reading the book I felt selfish for keeping all the clutter- now I feel like I'm helping out by giving my "thin clothes" to people who could wear them before they go out of style. Plus I'm not depressed looking at clothes that I've inadvertantly outgrown. Or, for those gifts you get that you don't really love but feel obligated to keep, you feel better about giving them away because you know it doesn't mean you don't appreciate the thought and keeping it when you don't like it makes the whole thing worse.I agree that the whole section on colon cleansing is a big wacky and although I read it the first time, I personally skipped over that the second time I read the book (it's the kind of book you can read every time you want a "pep talk" to clean). I recommended the book to my mom and my brother and mom keeps mentioning how dangerous the colon cleansing part could be, but in my mind that was a small section of the book and one that I didn't give much thought to because I'm more concerned with a clean, clutter-free house. So I wouldn't dismiss the book because of one small section. The rest of it, taken with a grain of salt, is the ONLY book I've read that has actually motivated me to DO something and get rid of the clutter! And honestly, we feel so much better about the house now. We still have work to do, but at least I don't feel like I'm living in a junkyard anymore!