That’s one of the questions you’ve got to ask yourself if you want to respond to the recent request from Ireland’s ‘The Late Late Show’.
(Think regularly leaving your bed unmade, your sports gear lying around all over the place and not cleaning the microwave for weeks on end, so that it just festers with remnants from last month’s warmed-up spaghetti bolognese.)
The other is, ‘Am I okay with it?’
And if the answers are ‘The messiest ever’ and ‘Yes’, then you can get in touch with the long-running chat show, who have announced that they’re looking for the country’s messiest people. The show wants to run a segment on people who disagree with the idea that cleanliness is next to godliness — and you could be the perfect applicant.
Whether you’ll be one of the guests, one of the audience members or one of the viewers at home, it’ll be an entertaining segment. You’ll be able to see the funny side of it and there are sure to be some gasps if the show displays images or footage of the rooms of these people.
On the not-so-funny side, however, untidiness and messiness harm wellbeing. If you’re not okay with your messy side, this article is for you. Find out below how they eat away at your well being and how you can turn things around with Feng shui.
Mess causes stress and anxiety
Mess increases stress and anxiety levels. That’s the bottom line. The clutter overwhelms you, a sensation which grows worse as the items build up. Tackling it on your own strikes you as a mountain. In one poll, nearly one in five Brits admitted that clutter almost always increases their stress levels. Part of this is due to the signal the mess is sending to our brains: the workload never gets any smaller. We end up asking ourselves, ‘When will it end?’ The answer we tell ourselves: ‘Never.’
Mess inhibits focus
One of the big problems of all this mess and clutter is the sheer sensory overload. The different stimuli around us are all competing for our attention. They’re crowding our senses and forcing them to work overtime. And do you know what? A lot of the time they don’t even merit it. We’re just wasting time and energy on meaningless distractions instead of focusing on the things that matter.
Mess causes frustration
Understandably, mess causes frustration and even anger. Why? Simply because it stops us from finding things quickly. We get nowhere fast. Instead of just being able to go to a desk and pick up the keys or go to a file and pull out the necessary document, we waste time rummaging through all the clutter on the desk and flicking through the file.
None of this is productive — and we can avoid it.
It’s time to blast the mess with feng shui
Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of balancing and harmonising energies in a space to bring good fortune. That’s the idea, but it’s a little more straightforward to think of it as understanding how we can place objects in the home to influence different areas of our life.
Although we might not recognise them immediately, rooms provoke reactions from us when we walk into them. We might feel peaceful and happy. We might feel sad. We could even feel tense. Clutter and mess obstruct good feng shui energy. They block it with low, stagnant energy that, in turn, drains energy from you. Clearing it will allow the positive energy to flow.
Feng shui by rooms
Blast your rooms with a bit of feng shui and you can really ramp up the positive energy flow and flush out all the anxiety and stress from your body and your life.
Start with the bedroom because this is one of the main places clutter and mess accumulate all too easily. Remove anything that doesn’t belong: TV, work gear, storage equipment, exercise equipment… anything that has no real business being there. That includes any images that don’t foster a sense of calm, love or companionship. Clear out under the bed if you can — how you do this will depend on whether you have a standard bed frame or ottoman-style bed, but either way, have a good rake around. There’s bound to be something taking up space that needn’t. While you’re in the room, position mirrors so that they don’t reflect the bed.
Move on to the kitchen, which is one of the next main problematic areas and influences your health. Start by cleaning the fridge; then the stove; then the pots and pans. Use natural cleaners instead of harsh chemical ones and clean drawers and flat surfaces.
Then turn your attention to the entrance, which is where your home first receives energy and is an important area feng shui-wise. Again, clear the area of things that have no worthy claim to be there. Mail is always a tricky issue, so set up a system to deal with it. Get things off to a good feng shui start and welcome the energy into your home. Do this by adding a nice item, such as a large plant, a welcome mat or a piece of art.
Addressing children’s rooms
Children, bless their souls, are notorious for hanging on to stuff unnecessarily. Their rooms can set the negative energy and your stress levels soaring (although they’re blissfully unaware!). Ask each one of your kids to clean up under their beds so that unnecessary items aren’t blocking the flow of positive energy.
Set up and implement a storage system so that they have somewhere they can put things they want to keep. Add a circular toy bin to the room for toys they play with regularly — and get them to put any they don’t into a box, which you seal; write the date on; and then store away in the loft or garage. Wait six months — if they haven’t asked for anything in the box, give the toys away (which, because it’s an act of kindness, will bring good energy to your home).
Getting rid of objects you don’t use
Objects you don’t use will sap your energy because they become an unnecessary burden on it. Get rid of them, either by binning them, selling them or giving them away (you may feel better if you do one of the latter two). If they have no use, they have no place in your home. Protect your energy and say goodbye to them.
Using storage facilities
Sometimes a living space is just too small and feels crowded no matter what you do. Don’t turn parts of your home into storage space just because you’ve got so much stuff and you can’t bear to part with it. Hang on to the essentials and get rid of as much as you can of everything else. Box up anything you think you might want to keep and rent a storage facility for it all. Go back to that stuff in a year and re-assess the situation. If you’ve forgotten about it by that time, invite good energy to your home by giving the items away.
Feng shui is enjoyable to implement, so when you’re tackling mess and trying to re-establish harmony between the forces in your home, have a little fun as you go about it. Put on uplifting music. Open the windows to let the fresh air into your home. Start small, finish the area and then tackle another area the next day. All of this will invite positive energy into your home. You won’t have to be Ireland’s or any other country’s messiest person. You could go for the ‘Most Laidback’ title instead.
