AAlthough we may not realize it, our hectic lives are often reflected in our home environment. This is especially true in the kitchen, where clutter accumulates, dishes pile up in the sink, and food is forgotten in the dark nooks and crannies of the refrigerator and pantry. As the lightness of summer wears off, a wave of anxiety washes over one, especially for parents of hectic children.
And while meditation, journaling, and physical activity are all wonderful ways to manage that stress, mindfully tending to our living spaces is a simple, low-maintenance way to bring more calm into our daily lives. Feng Shui is just one way to do that.
“Feng Shui is the practice of mindfulness in our spaces and invites us to see, experience and acknowledge our connection with our world,” says Anjie Cho, Feng Shui expert and co-author of Conscious livinga new book on how to live mindfully with Feng Shui to improve your health, sleep and more.
“The kitchen is where we cook and store food, and the place where we nourish and heal ourselves and our family. It is also where alchemy takes place, turning food into nourishment, and therefore it represents our health, resources, and wealth. It’s no joke that our health is our wealth,” Cho explains. The literal heat of the stove and oven also makes the kitchen a place of warmth, togetherness, and transformation—another indication of why it’s so important to take care of this space energetically.
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We spoke with Cho and Laura Cerrano, certified Feng Shui Reiki Master and CEO and founder of Feng Shui Living to help you better understand and integrate this mindfulness practice into your kitchen.
8 Feng Shui tips for more order and peace in the kitchen
1. Clear your work surfaces
Nothing puts a damper on the mood (or at least mine) than coming home to a kitchen with dirty countertops full of random items. “Noticing what you’re ignoring in feng shui is so important,” says Cho. If you keep your countertops clean and uncluttered, your kitchen is much more likely to make you feel relaxed rather than anxious or frustrated.
If you tend to display multiple cooking appliances on your countertops, such as a blender, air fryer, and crockpot, it’s helpful to take inventory of the appliances you use regularly and store the rest in a cabinet.
“If you have appliances next to each other, it’s ideal if you can leave at least 30 cm or more of space between them on the kitchen countertop,” says Cerrano.
2. Clean up your underwear, fridge and freezer
According to Feng Shui principles, it’s not just your countertops that need to be cleaned up. Your pantry, refrigerator and freezer also require this attention. “Expired food packaging in the pantry, which we skillfully ignore several times a day, can be a metaphor and an energetic obstacle to our path to healing our health with food. Letting it go can open up a path to taking better care of our bodies,” explains Cho.
Is it a family goal to eat more fruits and vegetables every day? Keep fresh, colorful produce in plain sight in the fridge and stock your freezer with prepared meals and ready-to-eat meals that you can have on hand quickly when you’re too busy to cook.
Having a few special treats and convenient snacks (especially for after-school kids) around the house is a great way to reduce stress during the fall, but Cho also recommends having plenty of healthy options available to support positive qi (or energy) in your kitchen for more calm. Investing in non-toxic cleaning products and food storage containers is also an easy way to reap this benefit.
3. Hide your knives
A feng shui mistake I’ve personally been making unknowingly for years is always leaving my chef’s knife on my cutting board, even after it’s been washed. “In feng shui, sharp objects like knives represent ‘sha,’ or life-stealing energy, so it’s best to hide them,” says Cerrano.
4. Set morning goals
Feng Shui is not always just about physical work like cleaning, organizing and decorating, but also about daily rituals. Cho recommends thinking consciously about the kitchen in the morning so that the day starts off right.
“Every morning when you heat your water for tea or coffee, you can create a mindful moment by consciously choosing a hotplate, deciding how you want your day to go, and then moving through the rest of the day with that calm intention,” she says. Cho adds that in feng shui, the hearth represents the element of fire, which we can use to create transformation, alchemy, and resources to fuel life.
5. Add live plants
Whether it’s culinary herbs, your favorite succulent, or other plants you love, bringing vibrant greenery into the kitchen is a great way to practice feng shui. “Vibrant green plants are the wood element and bring friendliness, growth, and flexibility to your kitchen. Culinary herbs also have the added benefit of complementing your kitchen,” says Cho. But make sure to keep these plants healthy and thriving, or they can have the opposite effect energetically.
6. Display fruit
By displaying fruit aesthetically on your countertop, you not only increase the likelihood of reaching for a healthy snack, but you also reap the benefits of feng shui. “Display three, six, eight or nine oranges or other fruits in a bowl at a time,” says Cerrano. “In feng shui, the number three represents a joyful life, six represents good fortune, eight represents abundance and nine represents long life.”
7. Lay out crystals
Crystals are not only beautiful to look at, but they can also help you apply feng shui in the kitchen. “Clear quartz is a natural gift from Mother Earth that can be programmed to amplify your intentions. I like to put one in the refrigerator or pantry to enhance the energetic healing quality of the food stored there,” says Cho.
She recommends finding a piece of ethically sourced clear quartz that speaks to you and charging it for 24 hours in a place with direct sunlight and moonlight (like a well-lit windowsill). Then you can pick up the crystal and resolve to let the stone best support your kitchen and food storage areas.
8. Choose decorations carefully
Finally, the way you decorate your kitchen can have a huge impact on the overall qi of the space. “If you’re putting artwork or photos in your kitchen, choose images that delight your heart,” Cerrano advises. If you’re pursuing a healthier lifestyle or want to share more meals with loved ones, try choosing artwork that encourages or reminds you to do so. Be careful not to overload your space with art, though, as a basic principle of feng shui is not to overdo it.
“Also, avoid using too many accent colors like red (or strong warm colors in general) in the kitchen, as this room already has a lot of fire elements – all of which represent heat and fire – with the stove, oven, and lots of movement in and out of the room,” Cerrano adds. She explains that too much heat or fire in feng shui is associated with aggression, impatience, impulsiveness, dominance, and feelings of burnout. The color green can help balance this out by representing the wood element.
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