Home Cleaning Tips to Welcome the Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year is fast approaching, and be it your sign year, lucky year, or not, we all make preparations to make the rest of the year as prosperous as possible, especially within our homes.
If you are practicing Feng Shui or consults with a master of that art, you may have already gotten some tips on how to make the necessary preparations and arrangements to make your home a lovely one, make the people who live in it successful and keep it a secure and safe place. But for those who don’t fully practice or doesn’t have access to a Feng Shui expert, here are some tips that you can do to at least encourage love, wealth and happiness into your homes:
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REDUCE, RENEW, DECLUTTER
As much as it might sound like Recycling, which is equally important, it is just as sensible to throw away or give away the things that you don’t use anymore.
Things that may just be lying around unused for years and collecting dust and clothes that you barely use and just take up space, these are stuff that you can throw or give away already. If you have broken items that just lay around the house, throw it, fix it or have it replaced. Luck, positive energy or Yang as you call it, is always moving and flows around us. It doesn’t love to stay in stagnant objects and if it is blocked by clutter, it doesn’t reach the other areas of your home.
Bonus: During the Chinese New Year, Ang Pao (Red envelopes) are given by people, because it is believed that it will bring luck to the giver and the receiver. Giving and Receiving gifts during that day brings fortune to both!
TOP TO BOTTOM
The Chinese New Year marks the end of Winter and the beginning of Spring, so the days prior are used for “Spring Cleaning”.
Start off from the top. This could be the roof or the attic, your ceiling or the top floor of your house. Due to gravity, dusts fall downward, which makes cleaning your home without the proper order make the task harder and longer.
The top sections should include the top of your door and door frames for a much detailed home cleaning. Those areas are hard to reach and are not cleaned everyday, hence, could be the dustiest part of your house.
FRONT TO BACK
It is believed that luck enters through the front door and exits at the back. So when you sweep the floor, the direction must be from the front, main door towards the center of the room, and then pick the dirt up with a pan or place it in a trash bin, then throwing it out by accessing the back door. Essentially, this would ensure that any luck or fortune that comes in, doesn’t exit out the house fast.
Architecturally speaking, the front or main door is usually the biggest entrance and exit, and since wind is generated from outside the house, the air naturally would go in. Any attempt of sweeping the dust out through the front door would result to the dust going back, again making the task harder and longer.
MAKE A PLAN
If you are reading this on a Chinese New Year, or days after, DO NOT CLEAN YOUR HOME, YET. The Chinese New Year and a few days succeeding it is the time when luck and fortune enters your home. It is a time that you should spend with your family and enjoy their company. Any attempt on cleaning your home this time would risk sweeping away luck and fortune, not to mention how sad your family would be if you are unable to join them because you are busy cleaning. It might just be better if you do the cleaning a week after.
The best time to clean your home in preparation for the Chinese New Year is days before. Get your tools and equipment ready, make the cleaning process in phases or stages to be more organized and make sure that dirt and trash doesn’t just transfer from one room to another. Sounds like a battle plan? It doesn’t have to when you can simply hire a professional home cleaning service company.
BRING COLOR AND LIFE INTO YOUR HOME
Still feeling sad, gloomy, unlucky or out of place even after cleaning and organizing your home? What it might just need is a fresh touch of paint and colors. Faded white walls will look grey and sad. Your once happy and lively colored living room may be faded or darkened due to dust stains. Slowly change the color of your cloth curtains to something more energizing! Get your walls repainted (and then have a deep cleaning after) to your lucky color, or the year’s most auspicious color or simply have specific rooms painted based on their purpose and style.
Aside from bringing luck, colors play a lot of psychology in us and somewhat influences us with how we feel, like the color red makes us somewhat energized (or perhaps angry), the color green makes us calm, the color orange makes eating more appetizing, and so on. So before repainting your walls, check the colors that will be lucky for you, and fits the mood you want at the same time.
May the coming Chinese New Year bring you good health and fortune! Welcome the New Year with a smile and stress-free.
