Feng Shui Tips For Your Home and Garden

The entry to a home or the doorway into rooms is where your first view is encountered. Doorways and entrances to anything should feel welcoming. They should be clear and the pathway should allow ease of movement.

The Chi, (or energy flow), should never be made stagnant at this point. Pictures and ornamental decorations in this area of your home should be pleasing and round leafed plants in pots attract prosperity into the home. Another tip to remember is that if you have doorways from front to back that are visible, the flowing of energy should be stopped from escape.

A Feng Shui cure for this problem, can be by placing a plant as suggested to the side of the entry: thus creating an environment to capture the Chi flow. The essence of creating good flow and attracting harmony, involves placement.

Feng Shui recognizes that small problems can have a major effect on your life, and that a well kept home will always have better chi than one where maintenance tasks have been allowed to pile up. The minor problems and inconveniences that plague a poorly maintained home can restrict your freedom of movement, cloud your ability to understand a situation, make it difficult to take advantage of opportunities, and waste your resources.

Think of Chi as an important guest you wish to welcome to your home, and make your formal entry - and the access to it from the street - as inviting as possible.

The principles of Feng Shui can be applied to your garden as well. By applying these principles to your garden you can attract positive energy, wealth and good fortune. Given below are a few tips and ideas on how to Feng Shui your garden.

The most important principles to remember in the garden are curves and proportion. Your house is the Yin energy and your garden is the Yang energy. The Yang aspect in Feng Shui is about light and space. Try to incorporate all the five elements of Feng Shui in your garden as much as possible.

- Use a pond, birdbath or fountain to represent the water element.
- Use a sundial or bronze statue in the garden for metal.
- Use trees and shrubs for wood.
- Use plants or flowers that are red and orange in color to represent fire.
- Use earth to represent the earth element.

Water features such as pools, ponds and fountains are beautiful and encourage beneficial chi. They also symbolize prosperity and create yin (feminine) energy.

You can create more Yang (masculine) energy by using garden lights to add light to the garden's dark areas. Remember balance and harmony is the key to a Feng Shui Garden.

Useful Techniques to Create a Beautiful Home and Garden

The home and garden TV shows and online articles are all about techniques and suggestions on how to create beautiful homes and gardens. Most homemakers watch these programs avidly to gather tips that help decorate their homes. Many online writers also give you systematic instructions and clear guidelines on money-saving ideas for better home and gardens. Investing in a designer is expensive and if you have a good eye and flair for design, go ahead and take up the challenge. You can join a group or newsletter online and ask for advice.

Visualize what your home and garden could look like

This is an important and useful home and garden tip. Imagine what it will look like when the trees, shrubs and plants that you have planted reach their ultimate size. When you change the position of doors and windows, make sure the view that meets your eye is pleasant to behold. When converting a bedroom to a bathroom, properly align windows and doors and counter check if the flooring and walls can withstand upheaval and plumbing. Convert an unused porch or study to a solarium. This job requires professional expertise and help. Whatever project you undertake, make sure you provide for all seasons.

Spring cleaning does not have to be in Spring

Rake off that snow mold from your lawns and start getting ready to let your garden grow. Remove all old twigs, branches and lawn waste and check if the soil is dry and crumbly. If it is sodden, one has to wait awhile. Consider a garden trellis this spring as a useful home and garden decoration. Use attractive climbers to intertwine the trellis and give character to your garden. It is time to bring out the garden furniture and give it a fresh coat of paint or polish. Birdbaths need to be cleaned and fresh water used. Bring out those Water fountains and statues kept in cold storage out for airing. Clean out Window boxes and hanging baskets and pack them with soil and mulch in readiness for planting.

Read instructions carefully before choosing your garden plants

Garden supplies are available in many home stores. All plants and seedlings come with tags, which provide useful advice on how to care for plants, whether they are seasonal, or not, how much sunlight and water is required for tending, etc. Buy books, which teach you useful home and garden decorating tips that make it easier for you to plan your garden. Make sure you adorn the pathways and driveways tastefully. Create a little landscaping in one area of your home. You can also have a vegetable patch in your backyard. Keep an eye out for those pesky bugs and wild animals that can destroy your garden. Use pesticides and herbicides regularly

Should I Really Care About My Home and Garden Furniture?

If you ask anyone that enjoys his life about the two things he cares about the most, you would probably find a unique answer: car and home; the car because it is what you use to move from a place to another so you want it to be nice looking and comfortable; and the house because it is where you spend the most of your time so you want it to be relaxing.

So when it comes to your home, the best thing you could do to make it look better is providing some good home and garden furniture for it.

In fact, when you set up a harmonized decoration in your home, either indoors or outdoors, you make it look beautiful and relaxing; something that helps you spend really good times with your family.

As living in a nice looking place has a positive impact on the human psychology, purchasing the right stuffs for your house inside and outside has became barely a must, not a choice. Watch out! These are not my words, but experts claimed it.

So if you want to get some equipment to improve your living, you have a huge variety of choices. You can go after some contemporary furniture, or you can purchase the traditional version. You can opt either for the wooden ones or aluminum ones. It is up to you to choose according to your taste and budget.

But this wide range of preference available in the marketplace could confuse you; in fact, if you visit any furnishing site, you will be astonished with the big number of stuffs that you will see. So keep your ideas focused on one trend and some specific materials.

To choose the right home and garden furniture you should essentially consider the colors of the paintings and the house architecture, but keep it as simple as you can. It will be really better.

Keeping Your Home and Garden Spiffy

If you are like most people, you want your home and garden to be smart and stylish. You can keep your place up to date when you shop for all the modern necessities and luxuries. You can surround yourself with beautiful and functional items as you make your choices.

Your home will be cozy and livable and your garden will bloom when you get all the right accessories. You will be able to make any kind of food or beverage in your kitchen if you have the right appliances to do the jobs. Cookbooks will guide you on your way to great family meals in your home.

For beverages, you will have blenders, juicers, and mixers. You can find cookware to suit your style, whether it is a single cooker or a complete set of nonstick cookware. Bring out the cutlery sets to chop up and prepare your foods for cooking and roasting. You can also cook in fryers, skillets, griddles, or microwaves. Toasters, toaster ovens, grills, and waffle makers complete your small cooking appliances.

When your food is finished, you can serve it with coffee, tea, or espresso. Use buffet style food servers to show off your dishes and keep them warm for guests. When the meal is over, you can bag up the leftovers in FoodSavers bags to use on another day. If all else fails and you are not in the mood to cook a fancy dinner, use can or jar openers for an easy meal.

Entertaining at home is easier with novelty items like cotton candy, popcorn, snow cone, or slushee machines. You can serve hot dogs, ice cream or nachos in a nostalgic way. Do not leave out barware and fondue equipment when you are thinking about entertaining.

Your home will look more modern if you use attractive soap dispensers in your bathroom. You can get beautiful touchfree versions that show off the colors of your soaps and shampoos. Air purifiers can clean up the environment not only in the bathroom, but all over your home.

Cleaning is a necessary evil for many people, but having the right machines and detergents will make everything work better. Steam cleaners and vacuums make tough chores easier. Special touch free trash cans make everyday clean up a breeze. The chore of garment care will not be a dreaded one in your home if you have the best in steam irons.

Children of all ages should not be left out of home plans. They need their toys and games. Golf putter sets are just as desirable for some as pedal cars are for others. Everyone loves poker sets and signs. The big kids like their toys too, and sets of tools are popular for them.

House and garden plans are not complete until you find all the little things that make a house a home. You will look forward to shopping for your kitchen, your bathroom, your comfort, and your entertainment with excitement.