The start of the Lunar New Year has a long history of rituals and observations with making repairs and deep cleaning topping the list in preparation of the start of the Lunar New Year. A great emphasis is placed on cleaning as a way of preparing the home for the new energy coming in and for removing last year’s old, stagnant energy.
Sometimes called Chinese New Year, the Lunar New Year is celebrated by many east Asian countries including Singapore, Vietnam and Korea, making Lunar New Year the more correct term. One thing that they all have in common though is the emphasis on the home and preparing it for the Lunar New Year and the arrival of the new animal of the year.
With that idea in mind, your home can sometimes feel stale or stuck from time to time. That makes the Lunar New Year the perfect time to refresh your home with the new incoming energies and ushering out the old ones.
It’s also good feng shui to occasionally recharge and revitalize your home with new items, improvements and updates.
Giving your home this kind of attention will help your home look and feel better especially at the time before the Lunar New Year when it may feel tired, stuck, or like its energy is waning.
Below are some ideas on how to help refresh and recharge your home with new, vibrant energy that’s perfect for the Lunar New Year or any time of the year your home needs reinvigorating.
Create plans for your home.
In feng shui, just the intention to make changes and updates to your home can often help bring about the energy that helps make those changes happen.
I like to keep a list of all the improvements and changes I want to make to my home in the coming year. These can be big or small, but simply making a project list can help shift the energy that helps you find just the right person to help you with those projects, or suddenly make funds available to put in a patio, for instance.
Write out a list of all the things you’d like to change in your home and place it where you can see it. You’ll be amazed how many of those items you’ll see crossed off in no time. These can be items to do for the Lunar New Year or for projects to work on now and in the future.
Replace what’s broken.
The kitchen is the one room in your home that affects everyone’s health. A dirty or dated kitchen needs refreshing and dented, and things like scratched pans imbue negativity to everything cooked and eaten in them.
Look carefully in the kitchen where broken appliances, mismatched glasses, and chipped dishes bring down your home’s energy and yours as well. It may be a squeaky cabinet or a microwave oven that’s seen better days, but if you have broken items, replace them to revive your kitchen’s energy.
Having new sets of glasses or dishes to replace any hodgepodge items can make your kitchen look and feel orderly. Plus, doing so will imbue improved feng shui that can impact your health and the health of everyone who lives there.
Recharge your home’s energy.
One way to recharge your home’s energy doesn’t cost a dime and lets you work with what you have. Redecorating by moving furniture, artwork or accessories can help you refresh your home’s look to your eye, and to the way it feels.
Another way is with some deeper cleaning.
This would include having carpets and floors steam cleaned and dusting the tops of cabinets, behind appliances, and the tops of doors. Move furniture and art around. Have carpets and floors steam cleaned. Other ideas are to dust fans, door tops, tops of cabinets, wash windows, or have sidewalks pressure washed to remove stains.
Refresh your bedroom.
The room second to your health and well-being after the kitchen? Your bedroom.
Look at doing paint touch-ups or repainting, replacing worn pillows or mattress pads, and doing a little redecorating.
Having a refreshed and recharged bedroom will help to invigorate your life. For a real re-set, perform a space clearing of your bed.
If it’s too cold to open the windows to air out your room and mattress, prepare a bottle of sunlight water. Set a glass or jar of water in sunlight all day and add some essential oils to it. Add to a spray bottle and mist your bedroom and mattress to give it a boost of sunshine energy.
Spray your bed with the sunlight water and oils to help refresh and recharge it. This is a really nice touch in the winter when it’s too cold to open the windows.
Perform upgrades.
A simple way to invigorate your home is by making upgrades to it. This can be simple and inexpensive, or you can set your eye on more costly ones.
The point is that by making upgrades to your home, you lift its energy.
Ideas include adding organizational systems in your closets, garage, or pantry to help you find what you’re looking for more easily and faster.
Or, perhaps it’s time for new or better-quality furnishings or to replace your old coffee pot with a new fancy coffee machine that lets you make specialty coffees at home.
Look around for changes and upgrades you can make that will improve your home. Fast upgrades can include new lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, or inexpensive ones such as towels or bedding.
Update your home to lift energy.
Nothing can bring a house down faster than tattered, dirty carpeting or scuffed and worn paint and chipped trim work.
If possible, consider a fresh coat of paint to replace any that looks worn or remove old, dated wallpaper. Look around to areas of your home that you frequently look at and that make your energy sag when you see it.
Or, for something quick, try refreshing your living room accessories with some new accent items or tossing out dusty silk plants and flowers or musty, tired throw pillows.
Landscape lifts energy.
One of the best ways you can improve your home is by improving the garden and landscaping that surrounds it. A terrific addition? Hardscaping.
Adding in walkways or patios helps energy move around your house more effectively and is a great investment for your home as well.
Pay special attention to any plants that are too close to your home, plants or trees that may be dying or are dead, and tidying unruly bushes.
Energy moves from the outside in, so look at ways you can improve your home’s exterior landscaping as a way to lift the energy inside your home.
