5 spots to clean ahead of the Feng Shui New Year

living room with large plants - what is feng shui

(Image credit: Paul Raeside)

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1. Clean thoroughly behind furniture
2. Windows and doors
3. Cabinets and closets
4. Kitchen
5. Soft furnishings
Other worthy cleaning spots
What if I already have Feng Shui remedies in place?

published 23 January 2025

You may wonder why you’re experiencing an increasing sense of anticipation as the end of January comes into view. I’ll let you into a secret – the energy of your home is responding to the impending Feng Shui New Year on February 4, and rather like a child in the run up to a birthday, it’s getting ready for the excitement of an upgrade in Chi (life force energy) and a fresh, new beginning.

If you’re new to Feng Shui, it might surprise you to learn the Feng Shui New Year doesn’t coincide with the Chinese New Year (January 29). That’s because the Chinese festivities use the Lunar New Year, and the exact date moves in accordance with the phases of the moon between mid-January to mid-February.

Feng Shui, however, is more precise. The ancient masters used the Solar New Year as the beginning of their new year. This always occurs during the first week of February. If you feel restless from the impending energy change, this is the perfect time to spring clean your home. Here's exactly where to focus your efforts.

The Feng Shui New Year

In the world of traditional Feng shui, February 4 is a day of joy, rebirth and delight.

I'm a Feng Shui consultant and as owner of Interiors Therapy, this is a remarkably busy time. In the run up to the Feng Shui New Year, I'm guiding clients to prepare their homes and therefore make the most of the good fortune available to them, and you can benefit by decluttering and targeted cleaning, too.

Before you commence cleaning, it's crucial to deal with any clutter you've lost control of and remove it from your home permanently. By that I don’t mean store it in the garage and forget it’s there. This is definitely a time for ‘goodbye’, as you donate, sell gift, or trash anything you don’t use need or love permanently. This will lift the associated weight it carries from your home.

Then, I recommend a super deep clean, which I always do this in my own apartment. That said, I pace myself and begin well ahead of Feng Shui New Year to show my home an even greater level of love and appreciation than my regular housework routine allows.

Three formats

Welcome Home: How Stuff Makes or Breaks Your Relationship

To learn more about how your belongings can impact your life, I shared my learnings in my books, which is available in paperback, Kindle edition and audio book format.

Essentially, this is the most crucial time for an intentional reset of energy in the home and harnessing it will turbocharge your good fortune.

1. Get behind the furniture and go top to bottom

living room with dark brown walls, brown sofa and moody decor

This is all about locating and dissipating stagnant energy. When you take into account the nine essential Feng Shui areas of a home, which include wealth, health, work, and relationships, it’s important to make sure each and every one of them is working effectively.

This can’t happen if these area are clogged with cobwebs and dust. Move furniture to clean behind and under it, and don't forget to go top to bottom when cleaning. This microfiber extendable dusting combo from Amazon will make short work of high ceilings, and tight spaces.

By taking the time to move things around, you’ll also notice where maintenance may be required, and spots where new damp is accumulating, and the black mold you need to get rid of. This way you catch problems early so they can be resolved with minimal expenditure.

2. Windows and doors

A bright bathroom with large windows, patterned wallpaper, and a green velvet storage ottoman

These are the eyes and energy access points for the home, and we always want positive vibes to feel welcome. This is not the time to hide your light.

Make sure to clean your front door, internal doors and their frames, as grime and dust can settle unnoticed around hinges and fixtures. For me, Windex, available at Target, has always been a go-to. It’s simple, readily available, and does a brilliant job.

You can also easily make your own DIY cleaning solution. Mix a 1:1 ratio of tap water and vinegar. Adding a tiny dot of dish soap, such as Dawn available at Walmart, will acts as surfactant, helping your mix grip the dirt and surface.

3. Cabinets and closets

Traditional green kitchen with island and window seat

Your home is a mirror of your experience, so when spaces which are used for storage are barely opened from one year to the next, this is likely to cause obstacles and difficulties in a variety of ways.

If you live, like Monica from ‘Friends’, in a pristine home with secretly overflowing closets, you’ll find yourself constantly challenged and stressed, hidden chaos is still bringing chaotic situations straight at you.

Unfortunately, visual clutter and hidden clutter is always going to impact your well being and your Feng Shui energy, so clear any backlog in your home, and you’ll reap the benefits in other parts of your existence too.

If you don't know where to begin, pick a particularly troublesome area and go from there. Here are some of Homes & Gardens key decluttering guides to help:

4. Clean the kitchen

Green Kitchen cabinets, parquet floors, white stone counters with glass stove, copper pot, open shelving, green walls and wood chopping board

Regardless of its location in your Feng Shui bagua (the energy map of your home), it’s vital to keep the kitchen fresh, clean and unburdened by anything which doesn’t need to be there. How can you create healthy, nourishing meals if you can’t find the countertop or the stove?

I recently used Interiors Therapy to relieve the pressure on an elderly client’s home and therefore her health. She’s tiny, and the upper shelves in her cabinets were inaccessible without climbing on a stool.

By taking absolutely everything out of the cabinets, (which is recommend in the Chaos decluttering method), ditching out of date products and unwanted appliances, we reclaimed so much space that she can now reach everything safely and is enjoying making meals again.

If you find cooking a real chore, reboot your kitchen to bring back the pleasure in creating good food. Our professional chefs have tips for organizing a kitchen for optimum functionality.

5. Soft furnishings

Stripe yellow sofa with matching yellow stripe wallpaper, abstract painting and a round blue cushion

Sad to say, furry throws, blankets and those delicious decorative pillows and cushion covers may not be as clean as you’d like them to be. Comforters and hygge essentials have absorbed dust, sneezes, bugs and viruses during colder winter months and it’s time to give everything a refresh with spring on the horizon. You might also find a treasure trove of missing objects and loose change hidden under the cushions on the couch. Feng shui-wise, keeping all surfaces, including soft-furnished areas of your home healthy is a significant boost for energy.

Other areas of the home worth a clean ahead of Feng Shui New Year

You may not have time for them all, but if these areas are possible to freshn up, it will be helpful for the flow of energy too at this crucial point in the year.

Where we have them, our expert-led cleaning guides are linked below:

Walls and ceilings
Lamp shades
Doors and frames
Pelmets, coving, skirting and baseboards
Pull everything out from corners
Behind and under furniture. Move it wherever safe to do so
Under beds
Inside and outside of cabinets, bedroom drawers, kitchen drawers , and closets
Curtains and drapes
Wash couch cushion covers, outdoor cushion covers, throw pillows, blankets
Vacuum under sofa cushions
Windows, the eyes of your home
Front door
Kitchen cabinets inside and out
Fridge and freezer
Bathroom, organize your medicine cabinet
Tops of wall mounted pictures and photos
Shelves
behind radiators and vents
Remember to empty the vacuum afterwards!

FAQs

What if I already have Feng Shui remedies in place?

You should have received an update from your consultant to explain how the unique energy will shift in your home and which remedies are required in 2025.

Remember, before you relocate anything, it needs to be revitalized. Cleanse all metal, water and earth remedies in warm, soapy water. Make sure plants are super-healthy and replace any which are past their best. Refresh fire remedies as appropriate. A stopped clock will cause problems, so keep an eye on them and replace spent batteries immediately.

If you are intrigued by Feng Shui and the positive impacts it can have, I've covered in detail the things you can do to alter your home's energy and support your new year resolutions. These can be applied to your life goals at any point in the year, including love, work and health.

Suzanne is an Interiors Therapist, Feng Shui consultant, and author of Welcome Home, how stuff makes or breaks your relationship. She specializes in understanding the energetic impact of homes and certain possessions may have on all aspects of life, health and relationships, and the ways in which ‘stuff’ can actively prevent people and families from thriving and enjoying the lifestyle they deserve.