Feng shui is the general arrangement of the house and land, the doors, windows, water, furnishings, et cetera. Plants can definitely play a role in the design of a house. Josh

I concur, Chris! This is a great idea for a forum. I'd be very interested in this topic.

I was on a Feng Shui binge for a few years and it " worked" for me. Later I found Fly Lady and I think Feng Shui and the Fly Lady concept are very similar when it comes to organizing. I liked Feng shui better because it gave me some deeper reason to clean. It is selfish but sometimes cleaning to make the family run smoother did not do it for me. Cleaning for the family, was like dieting for health. I want to diet to look skinny and I wanted to clean for fortune and good luck and all the goodies like a great career that Fung Shue promised was around the corner. Feng Shui at that point in my life helped me get into cleaning. But darn it, my bathroom has been clean with the seat glued down for years, and I am still waiting to win the lottery. I think, Fly Lady and Feng Shui both believe that when you see a big mess, you are prone to dropping to your knees crying over it. Feng Shui says all your energy is being zapped out of you and the placement of the mess is an indication that some area of your life is going bad also. The Fly lady says all your energy is zapped and this feeling is leading you to believe you are a chaotic failure. Both agree if you pay a little attention to these areas you can re-energize and go on to lead a successful de-cluttered life. For example, You wake up in the morning and the sink( Far North) is full of dishes and the kids are eating something off the table (Northeast) and you forgot to put the stuff on the stove ( east) away so all the leftovers have to be thrown out. And all the family shoes are piled next to the door. It means in Fly Lady, if you lace your shoes you are less likely to crawl back in bed and pull the sheets over your head because you can not easily kick them off. Feng Shui means youÂre family is suffering, your marriage is on the rocks, you donÂt deal with issues and maybe your dog even thinks your a drag. Both advocate that you can get a handle on all of this mess. Your family will function better, you will be able to accomplish more stuff and you will be happy. IÂm glad you posted itÂs a wonderful raining Sunday to clean Uhm or instead I will pull out my Feng Shui books to get me motivated and pop over to the Fly Lady site to remind me how to break things down and clean in baby steps. Maggie

A chaotic and cluttered landscape of life creates difficulty in balancing, managing, and appreciating your journey through. for most people. There are some, though, that seem to actually thrive with chaos and clutter. They love to ride the top of that wave. Feng Shui probably originated in the primitive mind that realized that it was always good to have an exit, a way to go out the back. To be trapped with one's back to wall in the face of danger was a good way to get killed. We have an innate fear of being trapped, for good reason. It is a primitive and superstitious notion that has persisted in the East. I have a DIL from China and a friend from Taiwan. The way that they tell me Feng Shui is practiced in their culture is more like a superstitious ritual. For instance, when they get ready to lay to rest their dead, it is the tradition to hire a practitioner of Feng Shui to determine just where to do this. This is not unlike the tradition in our society to bury a body with the feet facing the East. It is my opinion that the manner in which it is perceived in our modern society is just as much superstition and nonsense. It is just another Eastern idea to sell to the Western public in a time when so many Americans are just overwhelmed with material possessions. We are awash in throw away, flash in the pan, overly valued, and useless consumer products. Is it any wonder that so many look for some magic way to arrange them or a way out the back door? I have said this before, and I am going to repeat it here. I believe that any entity that can transcend time and space as to be a bodiless and floating "spirit/force/shui" and cannot find it's way out of a room because the sofa is in the way or the window is in the "wrong" place is really one useless entity. But, of course I don't at all believe that entity exists any more than I believe in Santa Claus or that bunny. However, what I do know is that having a nice feel of flow in a living space is something that I find of great value. The lack of clutter and the ability to walk clear across the room without having to step around obstacles feels good, to me. I feel that it makes a difference to my life. I feel that it makes a difference in the way air flows. I feel that it makes a difference in the way sound flows. I feel that it makes a difference in my peacefulness. These are all things that I feel to be true, for me. There is no magic arrangement of the sofa. If it is where it makes my life complete and simple, then, it is the right place. If that changes, I will move it. I know that some of you are thinking that the "feel" that I speak of is what some would call the flow/spirit that is part of Feng Shui. I don't see it as originating from any other entity other than ME. That is all just plain old common sense, not magic arrangement of things as per some ancient superstition. It makes me feel good to have order and to not feel trapped in my space. Some people thrive in the opposite environment, a big ol' mess of clutter. Those people feel as if they are being held up and in place by the plethora of things that surround them. Without it, they feel vulnerable. I am the opposite. Instead of feeling as if I want to armor myself, I feel the need to have an escape out the back. So, to answer your question---I think that it is mostly nonsense and is just another "magic bullet" to sell to Americans, much the same as all of those diet books and bogus pop psychology self help books. Maybe if you were part of the culture where this idea has been embedded for a very long time and it has left remaining cultural residue, it might mean something to you. But, for us in todays modern America, it is just another feel good idea to sell to Americans. I used to work at a book store and I saw so many of these books come and go, just like the diet books. They all promise a magic bullet to our overly consuming and over whelming relationships to material possessions that so many are burdened by. Is it any wonder that we want to escape out the back door? Forget the magic of Feng Shui and just turn your attention to common sense. It requires no expert, no books, and the only criteria to judge it by is how good it makes you feel. If you are comfortable, much of life will flow more easily. Remember that you are the flow and the flow is YOU. You are in control, not some ancient superstition from the past.