Clearing clutter produces magic fast. Understand this underlying principle of feng shui and you’ll be grabbing for those bin liners with enthusiasm. Good feng shui starts with clutter clearing.

Stagnant clutter chi can have a detrimental affect on our lives. We need to shift this first, encouraging the beneficial chi to flow, before making adjustments, enhancements and improvements.

Often, getting rid of things is enough to create positive miracles of transformation.

Remember, nothing ever goes one way – our homes reflect us. Tidy home, tidy mind. Cluttered home, cluttered mind. It’s that simple. Yet, not so easy to deal with because clutter is E-Motional – old emotions get stuck and produce clutter.

Our emotions flow through the waterways of our bodies. If we observe a free-flowing, healthy river we can see its progressive, nourishing chi keeping things changing and in motion. Yet if this same river gets blocked, we see how quickly the rubbish and debris of the river starts to accumulate in those stagnant pools and river recesses, which then cause a bigger issue as time goes on. When we understand the hold clutter has on us, we are able to let it go.

Be gentle with yourself during this process. Letting go can be like peeling layers off an onion: we begin with the easy outside layers and then revisit areas over time as eventually we begin to let go more and more. We hold on to things when we don’t feel safe at some primal level. Although, seemingly counterintuitive it is a form of control – control through chaos, and stems from insecurity. While clearing clutter it is helpful to remind yourself constantly that it is safe to let go.

Case study

I was helping my mum clear her house recently. She was finding it really difficult to let go of anything and she was choosing to keep stuff that most of us would have happily thrown away!

I talked to her about her feelings, asking her what emotion she was experiencing or story she was telling herself. Eventually, she confessed that when she retired, she panicked. Thinking she had no money coming in she began to go to jumble sales picking up stuff to sell on at car boot sales.

Eventually the car boot sales petered out but the collecting didn’t and now she was living with the results of her hoarding. Having had this realization of why she held on to things she was suddenly able to let go of far more.

What is clutter?

Metaphysically speaking, clutter is simply ‘stuck energy’ with far-reaching effects – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Your life will feel stuck or chaotic at some level, if you live surrounded by physical clutter.

The nourishing chi that enters through the front door will struggle to move smoothly through your home if it encounters piles of junk stored in the hall, hidden behind doors or sofas, or crowding surfaces in children’s bedrooms, the kitchen or bathroom.

The slow, sluggish energy this creates has a correspondingly negative effect on us. It can make us feel confused, blocked, lethargic, depressed and reluctant to progress or move on in any area of our lives.

Clutter also attracts clutter. You see this in the street – most people wouldn’t dream of throwing litter on the floor but they will add it to an existing pile – even if this pile is not in a designated bin. The same can happen in our homes: those piles of clutter don’t appear by magic – someone put them there.

De-cluttering can be scary and simultaneously very refreshing. Everything we own is energetically attached to us. The things we love are like golden gossamer threads. Conversely, clutter is like dragging round a ball and chain. Look around your home. How many balls and chains are you dragging behind you? How weighed down are you feeling?

Clear your clutter and life will start to move. Living with junk and mess makes us feel tired and slows us down. Clearing it lifts our mind, body and spirit, increases our energy and vitality, and leaves us free to enjoy life. You know that feeling when you finally get round to having a clear-out – it’s good isn’t it? Light, fresh and clean. You can sense the pregnancy of new possibilities in the spaciousness; the same feeling the tradition of spring cleaning gives us, as it banishes the stagnant, winter cobwebs. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have that feeling every day?

Look at your possessions with fresh eyes and ask yourself if each object reflects your love for yourself and your home. If not, let them go.

By removing the old you create fresh space for new opportunities to appear and by focusing your intention on what you DO want your clarity of purpose will emerge.

If you weed a garden and leave the beds empty then the weeds return stronger than before. But if you weed a garden and plant it with gorgeous plants and flowers the weeds have no room to return. Exactly the same approach should be taken with clutter.

Nature abhors a vacuum and will find something to fill it. Make sure you know what you want to fill your newly created space with, be it more joy, more love, more energy or more prosperity. This way you stop the old clutter returning.

Editor's note: Learn more about Feng Shui in Davina MacKail's new Hay House Basics book: