It’s Spring!

Time for Feng Shui
in the Kitchen

by Liv Kellgren
of Conscious Environments

The sun is out, it’s warming up. Still green from our wet win-
ter, flowers dot the hillsides and planter boxes. It’s now Springtime! That also means time for Spring Cleaning, blah blah blah. Garage sales blanket my neighborhood like pollen–every garage, bursting at the creases for 6 months, now finally explodes onto the driveway and front yard. BLAH! And that’s when I know it’s really Spring.

Why Spring Cleaning?

We’re a culture focused on consumerism and accumulation and in order to make room for the people who actually live there, we gotta clean house. And once a year is as good a time as any.

Most will clean out bedrooms, attics, closets, bookcases, the aforementioned ghee-raj, while the most important room in the house is left untouched. The kitchen. It feeds our souls, nourishes our bodies, gathers guests, attracts laughter and activity, and can go years without a good purge. This Spring, spend some time in your kitchen, focusing on your foundational needs like nutrition and health. How do we do that? By changing, upgrading and focusing our home and lifestyle to support and maintain our inevitable success:

Get in those kitchen cupboards and cabinets.

Instead of looking through and picking OUT the stuff you don’t want anymore, pull EVERYTHING out and replace only those items you want—those items that will support your healthy choices. Be prepared to wipe down the shelves and get the crumbs out of the corners, let go of broken or chipped dishes, throw out processed foods. Put the most commonly used items within easy reach while rarely used items go back in places where you rarely reach.

If this project feels overwhelming, do just one cupboard or drawer a day. Keep in mind that it’s taken you a while to pack your kitchen full, so naturally, getting our kitchen into shape will also take a while.

Oh! And if you’ve been waiting to use the good china or the fine crystal, now’s the time. You are the special occasion you’ve been waiting for.

Same with the fridge and freezer: everything out and replace with only what is good for you.

Be prepared to wipe down the shelves, check expiration dates, and throw A LOT out. It’s hard to fill it up with the new, good stuff when it’s already full of the old, bad stuff. When I open my fridge after a good purge, I can always breathe deeper. Tip: Clean out the fridge the night before the trash gets picked up. Otherwise it’s not too pleasant, trust me.

Fridge Art.

And speaking of the fridge, put on your fridge only the photos and images of friends and family who love and support you—as you are. Take a good look at who, and what, is on the fridge now and choose who gets to stay and who gets to move on. That birthday photo of Gramma with the cake, the Gramma who always wants you to have third helpings? She might need to be tucked away for a little while. You can keep her, just not on your fridge. Replace her with magazine cutouts of people hiking, a celebratory snapshot of your cousins, your friends and personal fan club who love you for what you do best. And although we may not get our own celebratory day, we do all have a fan club.

Your countertops are the most valuable
real estate in your kitchen.

Keep them clear and ready for refueling.

Everything not kitchen nor food-related is ideally relocated to a more appropriate destination: incoming mail to a desk, briefcase into the hall, homework into the kids’ room—you get the idea. In some houses, the kitchen is indeed command central and everything congregates there whether we want it to or not. Capture the floating pieces in containers or baskets so that when it’s time to cook and eat, it can all be easily shuffled off site and then returned when you’re finished.

Ideally, on the countertops are only those things you use every day. Everything else moves into a cupboard or cabinet. Want more shakes and smoothies? Put a blender on the countertop. Want to eat more fresh fruit and veggies? Fill a basket or bowl with a 2–3 day supply (you’ll now have room in the fridge for the rest, yeah?). Trying new recipes? Give the cookbooks a prominent place on the counter, too. Supplements? Protein powder? Refillable water bottle? You know it—on the countertop!

Do you share a kitchen with family or housemates?

If possible, designate a particular drawer, cupboard, cabinet or counter space for just your things. When you know where to go for what you need, you’re less likely to wander around grazing on what isn’t a part of your plan.

Going to work each day? Avoid the break room.

Watch out for the cookies, cakes, and – dare I say it – crap. Bring your food in a small cooler or insulated bag and keep it at your desk so that you’re not tempted nor fooled by the break room antics. Co-workers who say “Just one” do not have your best interest in mind (hence, the aforementioned crap). During meetings, bring in your own snacks, water or tea. Keep a secret stash of protein bars in a desk drawer, too.

More to Consider.

Broken appliances, burned out light bulbs, missing handles, cracked windows, broken doors—none of these things help or support us moving forward. If you’ve got the time and the budget, fix, repair, or replace them as soon as possible. These small reminders can create unconscious feelings of unworthiness, poverty, exhaustion, struggle and missing resources. Overtime, these unconscious feelings become beliefs. Nobody needs that, not any time of year.

So, as soon as you have your own Garage Sale and successfully let go of all the stuff you don’t need, do not start shopping on your neighbor’s front yard.

Please know that our evolution of health happens on many levels, and all these levels are connected. When we open our Feng Shui Eyes, we can see these healthy connections to our home and workplaces. When we surround ourselves with what we want and what we need, we’re destined to succeed.

Please e-mail me any questions or comments! I look forward to continuing our dialogue at www.ConsciousEnvironments.com

Liv Kellgren is a Feng Shui Interior ReDesigner who specializes in Lifestyle Transformations—making changes at home and work. If you have any questions, please email her at or call 760-579-9519. For more information about Liv and any upcoming workshops or seminars, please visit www.consciousenvironments.com