Five Feng Shui Tips for Home Offices

[Dj I.C.U.]

Feng Shui--said "feng shway"--is the Chinese art of design and placement. It literally means "wind and water," and refers to the principles of flow and easy movement in both indoor and outdoor places.

Here are five fast Feng Shui tips to improve your home office.

1. What you see is what you get. What's the very first thing that a visitor to your home office would notice? Is it clutter? Is it the great view out your window? Both can be detrimental to your business.

Your visitors should see one, important object or focal point, which is a symbol of your business successes and your expertise. It could be a display of your awards. It may be a painting or a poster showing the best of what you sell. But, it should evoke a mental "Oh, how wonderful!" response from visitors, and remind you daily of your business achievements.

2. Display nothing higher than eye level. Many people maximize available space by using the tops of cabinets and bookcases for storage. Tall storage fixtures are fine, as long as there is visible evidence of their stability. One solution is fancy hardware that holds the fixture to the wall.

However, Feng Shui suggests that anything that could land on someone's head during a dramatic earthquake--no matter how unlikely--can send a subliminal message of "something's about to fall on you."

Have you ever felt an uneasy sense of "loose ends," or as if something is about to land on you, out of the blue? This could result from objects stored too high overhead. In your home office, it's vital to find alternative storage, out of sight.

3. Keep your entry as open as possible. From the "wind and water" viewpoint, it's important to leave maximum space around entering visitors. A coat rack or literature display may seem a practical idea, but if it's too close to the door, it can reduce the inflow of business and income.

Pretend that you're wearing a huge, fluffy raccoon coat when you enter your workplace. Or imagine that your aura extends at least a foot from your body in all directions. Enter your home office and walk around. Would your coat (or aura) get snagged on anything? If so, put it somewhere else. You and your office visitors should feel entirely at ease as they move around your office.

4. Keep your desk as clean and uncluttered as possible. Some people think that a stack of papers makes them "look busy." Remove all but the most essential tools from your desk. A fresh flower or two is fine; otherwise reduce desk decor to a minimum. The space that you create on your desk also creates space for greater success and new business.

5. Remove all clutter from your office. Even if you work alone at home and no one sees your workspace, the clutter has got to go. Whether it's one small pile related to a project, reference books stacked on the floor, or a chronic storage problem throughout your home office, clutter symbolize snags and snarls in the flows of your business.

April Fool's Day is the signal for spring cleaning! Set an alarm for 15 minutes daily, and do nothing but clean and organize your home office. By keeping your office fresh and clutter-free, you'll improve the general sense of well-being--and professionalism--in your work. You'll feel better and your business will benefit.