And if it feels good, you can go deeper, exploring the conscious channeling of positive energy, the “chi”, into your home or office space. But meanwhile, here are some simple do-it-yourself steps you can take today to get a feel of the benefits of Feng Shui and promote a sense of happiness, wellness and calm to your inner and outer space.

1. Keep your home clean and de-clutter

A harmonious space starts with a focus on cleanliness and that means removing anything that no longer serves you. The focus on cleanliness and de-cluttering will help create a calm and relaxed home that transfers these qualities into your mind. In Feng Shui, cleared space helps with clear the mind. Keeping too many items is said to promote bad energy while collecting dust and pollen, causing you to inhale bad air.

2. Keep it organized

At CORE we always try to design houses with plenty, but hidden, storage area. Even if your architecture design did not take this into account, you can still be creative and allocate space for organizing your possessions. Start with you clothes. Organise your cupboards and closets with items categorized by color and size. The visual cues help you locate things more easily in spite of the original investment in time to put things in this order. Follow the same principle with shoes, bedlinen, towels, books and even food in your fridge. You can also download apps and categorize according to color. A good practice is to allocate one special cupboard or drawer for things you don’t know where to place, just to get it out of the way for now. But make sure that this drawer gets cleaned out on a regular basis.

3. Bring in fresh air and light

Especially for Algarve residents, open the windows often. Also introduce plants and filters that help purify the air while allowing as much natural light in the rooms as possible. Place flowers and nice items in specific view points to draw attention and create a positive feel.

4. Add flowers

Symbolism plays a key role in Feng Shui designed homes. In addition to their aesthetics quality, flowers are said to bring good luck and healing energy to any home. Use real flowers in order to bring living energy in your home. Artificial flowers are considered dead, a dust-collecting material.

5. Experiment with Yin-Yang principles

The term refers to a constructive model that is energy efficient, with low heating and cooling demands. It has a comfortable interior climate, always maintained between 17–24 degrees Celsius, without using traditional heating or cooling systems. This is achieved by balancing heat gains from the use of solar energy and waste heat generated by individuals and devices, with heat losses from transmission and ventilation.

As architects, we usually begin by carefully examining the location of the property, particularly the size and orientation of the available exterior home surfaces. This serves to define the maximum permissible onsite building energy demands for an optimised balance (form follows function) to achieve an ideal surface/volume ratio.

6. Before you introduce any new item in your home ask yourself

Does it sparkle joy? Does it suit me? Do I need it ? If you can confirm one of these questions, the item will find a place in your home. Apply the same principle when you are de-cluttering, asking these three questions.

While these tips set the basic foundation of Feng Shui in any home, with practice you can become more mindful of other small changes that help keep your home a space dedicated to positive energy and joy.

Feel free to contact me with feedback and more ideas around your experience with Feng Shui.