Why Update Your Home in the New Year?

As the Lunar New Year approaches, it's the perfect time to take inventory of your home and how you feel in it. The energy, harmony, and balance you experience when you're home is a core tenet of the Chinese principle of feng shui. Keeping your space clean and clutter-free with clear paths for flowing energy is key.

"In Chinese culture, it’s auspicious to clean the home before the Lunar New Year because our home’s feng shui is important," Cho says. "The idea is to prepare the home with mindful care for the celebration of the spring festival."

Feng Shui Do's and Don'ts

Follow these tips from experts to make sure your home has positive feng shui heading into the start of the Lunar New Year.

Cho and Morris encourage you to practice these tips not just on Lunar New Year Day. Instead, they say to celebrate and spend time with loved ones throughout the whole year.

Werner Straube

Do: Rearrange Items to Refresh Energy and Encourage Flow

Cho recommends rearranging nine items to refresh your home's energy. Be mindful—the number is important. Cho says to stick to nine because as the highest single-digit number, it symbolizes the completion and accomplishment of your goals.

If you aren't sure what to rearrange, Cho says to start with your bed, which impacts your well-being, and your desk, which symbolizes your work life.

"There's no specific room or furniture layouts, but ideally the bed and desk would be placed in the commanding position," she says.

Change the Wall Your Bed Faces to Improve Your Space’s Feng Shui (and Prevent Bad Luck)

According to Cho, the commanding position means you can see the primary door to a room while sitting at your desk or lying in bed against the headboard without being directly in line with it. By placing your desk and bed diagonal from the door, you can see what is coming into the room, but you aren't in direct line with the incoming energy (called qi).

Cho advises rearranging items that block doors and windows, as to not block future opportunities. Along with placing your bed in the commanding position, she says you should arrange your bedroom furniture so your bed has space on all sides, allowing the qi to flow.

Carson Downing

Don't: Keep Items Forever

Laura Morris, a feng shui expert and co-founder of the Mindful Design Feng Shui School, says letting go of long-kept items is important to keeping a clutter-free home and allowing energy to flow.

"When you let go of things that you love, you cultivate space, wealth, and generosity," she explains. "By letting go of something that is still valuable to you, and giving it to a place or person that needs it, without any attachment, helps to cultivate the qi of prosperity and abundance."

You don't need to purge your entire home to complete this task. Instead, start with smaller items and work toward giving away bigger, more meaningful ones if you feel that it's producing more positive energy.

10 Things a Pro Organizer Wants You to Declutter Before Spring

Annie Schlechter

Do: Incorporate Red in Your Home Design

The importance of the color red in Chinese culture dates back thousands of years to the origin of the Lunar New Year. According to the folklore, a mythical beast would come and devour villagers and livestock each Chinese New Year, but the beast was afraid of loud noises and the color red. For that reason, people began to hang red lanterns and scrolls during the Lunar New Year to stay safe. Today, the color represents luck and good fortune.

Incorporating red into your home can be as simple as arranging a bouquet of fresh roses to placing a red book on your coffee table. Another low-lift way to add the lucky shade to your home is by swapping out a throw pillow cover for a red one or switching framed artwork to a piece with red.

Jay Wilde

Don't: Leave Your Home Cluttered and Dirty

Morris says decluttering and cleaning aren't only reserved for prepping for the Lunar New Year. Instead, declutter your home many times throughout the year to better its feng shui. Morris says timing your decluttering with the changing seasons can benefit your home's and your energy.

"For example, the spring equinox is a great time to move your bed and do a deep clean," Morris says. "This can offer a new perspective or opportunity for seasonal shifts in energy to support you."

It's also important to perform daily tasks to keep your space clean and clutter-free. Morris says completing simple tasks like making the bed and cleaning the stove can make a big difference in the way you feel and can set the tone for your day. If you're in need of a deeper refresh, she suggests rearranging or decluttering nine items in your home every day for nine days.

"This uses the lucky number of nine to add ceremony and ritual to your action giving it intention and power," she says.