Mastering Nursery Design with Feng Shui

Carla (00:00.694)
Hello everybody and welcome to my Bunk2babies expert podcast today I am speaking to the lovely Chrissie Steinem from Chrissie Steinem Feng Shui I hope I’ve said that right Chrissie is that correct?

Chrissie (00:15.902)
Yes, yes. To be honest, that’s probably the most difficult part of Feng Shui, really, just pronouncing it. But I pronounce it as Feng Shui. Lots of people pronounce it differently, but let’s, yeah, just go with that.

Carla (00:26.326)
Oh brilliant, well I am so excited to have you here today because we’re going to be talking about mastering nursery design. I love this. So you’re an interior designer but you also help people with the Feng Shui side, don’t you? So I’m ready to learn all about it.

Chrissie (00:41.373)
Yeah, so I’ve been in the interior design industry for a long, long time and I just wanted to take it to the next level. So I don’t necessarily do the interior design aspects much anymore. I focus on how your home feels and creating really, really positive environment using Fonchway. So.

I am what you might consider to be a modern day Feng Shui consultant and I help you to harness your home’s full energetic potential so that it can support you in most amazing and remarkable ways using Feng Shui to completely transform your home and just create this lovely, beautiful, calm and supportive, peaceful environment for you and everybody that lives in your home.

Carla (01:28.342)
I love that. And so for people listening to this episode, could you explain a little bit more about what Feng Shui actually is?

Chrissie (01:36.348)
Yeah, so I guess Feng Shui is more of an eastern practice. It’s an ancient Chinese practice that’s been around for about 4 ,000 years. And it’s starting to become a bit more well -known in eastern cultures now. So Feng Shui is basically, it’s a bit like acupuncture for your home. So it’s like a holistic treatment and it just gets rid of those negative energy blocks. So…

If you think about acupuncture or like if you go for a massage for example, you know there’s really niggly knots that you get. It’s basically working those out so that your body or your home in this instance can just, the energy in your home can just flow easily and just create a really, really positive environment for you and your family.

Carla (02:26.72)
That’s lovely. I love the sound of this. I mean, I must be honest I don’t know much about it, which is probably I suppose good for this podcast But yeah, so so could you explain a little bit more about how it could help families then?

Chrissie (02:30.201)
OOF

Chrissie (02:40.314)
Yeah, so I suppose I was a perfect candidate for this really. I first came across Feng Shui after I just had my son. We had a bit of a tricky start. He wasn’t a particularly well child and sleep was just like non -existent. I could not get that child to sleep. So we both had a bit of a rocky start.

Carla (03:00.342)
Heya.

Chrissie (03:06.201)
my relationship with my husband was quite strained. Obviously we were in lockdown at the time. So there was a lot of like pressure and tension and I just felt like I wasn’t supported because you know obviously we were in lockdown and it didn’t have access to my family so there was a lot going on in our home. And often this is when people start to come across Feng Shui and they turn to Feng Shui because their life is just a little bit difficult and a bit tricky and they’re not really sure how to kind of rectify it and it doesn’t seem to sort of…

make any difference and doesn’t matter how many times you clean your home, you still can’t get rid of that sort of feeling in your home. So this is what Feng Shui does and it looks at what’s happening energetically in your home. And this is a really, really, really deep sort of analysis of what is going on to really kind of get to the root of those problems and those energy blocks to release them so that you can just create this wonderful flow.

and it just makes your home as positive as possible to enhance all the good things that are coming into your life. Yeah, so that’s kind of in a nutshell what it does. But, and in my personal case, when I had the analysis done on our home, I had things like mental health issues coming up, and this all came up in the analysis. I’d never met the lady who analyzed my home before. She lived on the other side of the world, so she did it all remotely.

Carla (04:10.902)
Wow.

Chrissie (04:30.263)
And yeah, so I had mental health issues coming up. I had arguments, strange relationships, and a lot of illness. And I was like, shut the front door. How can you possibly know that all of this is happening? So it’s that, yeah, it was fascinating, fascinating. And so I had the analysis done and it told me so much about, you know, it was like a mirror image of what was happening in our home. So we put all the remedies in place. And I kid you not, within a month,

Carla (04:38.774)
What?

You’ve been watching us! You’ve been watching us!

Chrissie (05:00.351)
everything started to change. My relationships were calmer, the home just felt more at ease, my son started sleeping better, his health started improving, my mental health over the course of a year completely transformed, my husband’s health has improved, and on top of all of that our finances have improved as well. So it can help you in so many ways, it is just a completely life -transforming practice. And…

Carla (05:25.886)
Wow.

Chrissie (05:29.398)
you can do it without anybody necessarily even knowing that you’ve put it into your home. So, and this is how I like to work really, because I think from an interior design background, I’m very, very aware of people like their homes to look nice. They get pleasure from, you know, enjoying how their home looks. And because it’s quite a well -practiced Eastern practice, there’s quite a lot of Chinese associations with trinkets and that sort of thing. And…

People from a Western sort of culture don’t necessarily like to have those kind of things in their homes. So my style of practicing Feng Shui and implementing it into people’s homes is to incorporate it in a way that works with their interior style. So it just makes it more fun. They can benefit from it without necessarily, I mean, I Feng Shui’d my house and my husband had absolutely no idea that I’d done it. So, and you know, and…

Carla (06:19.318)
I love that.

Chrissie (06:23.06)
So one of the remedies that we use is metal. There’s five different elements and one of them is metal. My home needed a lot of metal in the beginning. So I was thinking, God, where am I gonna get all this metal from? Because it was a lot. Anyway, my husband had a gym kit in the garage which he hadn’t used for ages. So I was there heaving these like 20 kilo weights into the house, sneaking them in while he was right there happily watching the cricket, hooking these massive weights up the stairs and hiding them everywhere.

and he had no idea. But the fun I had from doing that, knowing that I was doing it in complete secret, was just hilarious. So yeah, it’s good fun.

Carla (07:00.916)
Oh yeah! That’s so good! So what kind of, I mean would you have to spend a lot of money to feng shui your house or like you said is it a case of thinking about what you’ve actually got that you can use?

Chrissie (07:14.355)
Yeah, yeah, so my website is going to be launching in early March, so I’ll have the services available from then. But in a nutshell, there’ll be three main services. The first one is called Plot My Home, and this basically looks at the floor plan of your home, makes sure that you’ve got a full energetic grid, because where we renovate and extend our homes, sometimes that can lead to areas in our home being missing.

And those different areas can have an impact on our lives. So for example, in my home, I had two areas that were missing in my home. One was my wealth area and the other area was my family and community area, which is all to do with support. So that was like a light bulb moment for me straight away. Well, obviously this is why I’m feeding like our finances are struggling and I have no support. So that kind of is sort of the introductory level to Feng Shui and it helps you start to get to…

understand the nine different areas and what they represent in your life and where they are in your home. So every area is different to each person’s individual home, which I also love. It’s not a one size fits all kind of thing. It’s much more personal to you and to your home. So I love that. So that’s the first service, the Plot My Home service, and that’s about £49. And then the second analysis, which is a second service, that is a much more in -depth service.

And that’s where we really start to delve quite deeply into what’s happening in your home to really uncover any sort of energy blocks that might need to be released and that sort of thing. So those are the two sort of services that I’ll be offering. And that one is about 4 .95. And then in terms of the remedies, again, we use the five different elements. So earth, fire, metal, water, and wood. And a lot of these can be…

reused from things that you’ve already got in the home. So for example, with fire, that is something that is that element can be represented by color. So for example, if you’ve got a red throw, or you’ve got a red candle, or you’ve got a red, you know, re -diffuser, all of those kind of things can be used as that remedy, but they just need to be put in the right place. So once you’ve had an analysis done, you’ll know exactly where they need to be. And these are the sort of like acupuncture sort of pinpoints that we

Chrissie (09:33.965)
specify in the report so that you know exactly where to put them to release those energy energy blocks so that all of that really positive, lovely energy can flow and just support you in every area of your life. So those are the main services that I’ll be offering. I also will do like a one to one service as well, but that’s kind of a bit more of an honor on a tailored basis.

Carla (09:56.054)
Of course, of course. So it’s not a case of right, you know, we need this, we’ve got to go and buy a load of things. So you can actually have, like you did, have a bit of fun with it and use things that you’ve already got and you know, oh that sounds so fun.

Chrissie (10:05.208)
No.

Absolutely. And there’s loads of things that you can do without necessarily even going for one of those services. So for example, I’m going to have a free download on my website, which will be the nine areas and it will just give you a few tips of sort of daily practices that you can do just to kind of help you get into that sort of rhythm of practicing Feng Shui. It’s a holistic practice and it’s kind of something that you can kind of do.

on a daily basis. So for example, for me, when I come downstairs in the morning, the first thing I do is open the back door because all of the negative energy, we believe in Feng Shui, goes out through the back door. So if you open your back door for like a few minutes every day, you’re just letting that negative energy off. It’s a little bit like a pressure cooker and you’re just lifting the lid off and just letting that all go. So for example, there have been many times where…

My son’s had a particularly bad night’s sleep and I’m a bit of a zombie walking down the stairs. So the first thing I do, let that energy out, go, go, go, go, go. And that just sort of just takes their pressure off. So that’s one of the first things you could do. But on my Instagram, I’ve got loads and loads of different tips that you can do for free that you can start to do just to start like implementing those in your home. So yeah, and…

Carla (11:10.486)
Yeah.

Wow.

Chrissie (11:29.102)
I think we’re going to talk about nurseries in a moment, but I’ve got loads more for you there.

Carla (11:30.806)
We are, I know I could honestly, I could talk to you all day. Yeah, so today, obviously an area for a lot of our listeners is the nursery because whether you’re expecting or you’ve got a little one that will be going into their own room, you know, the nursery is something that you do want this calm space, this lovely space. So.

What are your kind of tips on that and what would you say to parents to make sure that that is an energetic kind of calm space for your little one?

Chrissie (12:04.533)
I’ve been so excited to talk about this because this is like my two favourite babies married together, it’s wonderful. So you’re right, a nursery is an area that you want this to be their sanctuary. You want it to be a space where they go to be calm and to relax and to unwind. So the first thing that I would say to do is to start to become aware of what is going on in that room. So…

Carla (12:10.358)
Cut!

Chrissie (12:32.972)
What do they do? What are the activities that happen within that space? So they’re sleeping, they’re getting dressed, often they’re having their nappies changed. So, you know, there’s a nappy bin in there, which isn’t great, but sometimes that’s, you know, that’s not avoidable. That’s what we had in our nursery. And it’s just, you know, it’s got to be practical, hasn’t it? So you’re going to have the laundry baskets as well. And they may also do some playing there. So there’s quite a lot of different activities that are happening there. So I would say,

just to start to become aware of what is happening in that space from a sensory aspect. So, you know, babies are very, very sensitive to stimulation and it doesn’t take very much to like attract their attention and you know, their minds, their brains are developing at an extraordinary rate at that age. So between nought and five, they are literally growing and growing and growing and growing. They are quite phenomenal really.

But it’s difficult for them to switch off so they can very easily become over stimulated So I would say the first thing to do would be to declutter so and get organized as well So if you’ve got lots of stuff going on That is just going to create lots of visual noise if you like so it’s lots of different things to look at and and that’s not necessarily something that you want in that space and it just means that

the when the good energy comes into our space, you want it to stay there. And if there’s lots of clutter lingering around, that just absorbs the good energy and it doesn’t let it flow to all the areas that you want it to want it to do. So the other thing would be to make sure that you’ve got plenty of storage as well. So I you know, whether you’re talking interior design or whether you’re talking Feng Shui, storage is your friend. So you want to make sure you’ve got storage for clothes, storage for laundry, storage for the changing area as well. So like,

you know, like a nappy caddy where you’ve got like, you know, your creams and your ointments and the wipes and all that kind of stuff just to keep that nice and tidy and also somewhere to keep toys. So with the toys, I would also suggest going for toys that are less stimulative. So toys that are not noisy, toys that are maybe the calmer colors. Wooden toys are quite good for that sort of thing because they’re quite grounding and make sure that you’ve got somewhere to store them. Say like a little toy box and make sure it’s got a lid on as well because that’s…

Chrissie (14:54.729)
that toy energy is a very, very sort of excitable energy. So you don’t necessarily want that coming out into that nursery because that might, it might not help with sleep. So that would be those. With nappy bins and laundry baskets, I would always make sure that they have lids. If they’ve got a lid, then you’re containing that negative energy. So if you think about it, you know, when you’re changing their nappies, all of that waste energy that we’ve

we don’t want to keep is potentially going to be circulating around that home. So as a bolt and braces, what you could do is I think we had one of those little Tommy tippy ones that you twist and they lock. They’re really good. But also as a bolt and braces, you could pop that in maybe like a laundry basket with a lid as well. And also it just makes it a little bit more aesthetic as well. I mean, nappy bins aren’t exactly the most attractive things, are they? So that’s another thing you can do.

Carla (15:48.694)
No.

Chrissie (15:52.903)
With bed, I would always make sure you go for a strong headboard because that just creates that feeling of stability and security for your baby. And if you can go for cots that have got like curved edges as well because that just, it just creates that sort of softer, calmer sort of flow and it just creates a really nice sort of smoothness around the space. And also,

The cot beds tend to last a bit longer as well, so rather than going for a cot, the cot bed is slightly bigger, so they do tend to last a little bit longer. And then they obviously have a dual purpose as well, so there’s potentially a bit of money can be saved on that.

Carla (16:35.19)
Yeah, I’ve got one of those actually. With my son I didn’t and it was a big thing where I thought I should have done that. Because you think that that three years or however long they’re in the bed will be, you know, it will take ages to get to that but my little one now, she’s nearly two, I mean I wouldn’t put her in it yet because she just would not sleep if given the choice but soon she will be going into that and I’m so glad I invested in that now because you want to save money where…

Chrissie (16:47.335)
What?

Chrissie (16:58.725)
Yeah. Yeah. Expensive. They are. And they always need more things than you anticipate on as well. Or the things that you thought they might need, they don’t need. Yeah, you can waste a lot of money. I certainly did when we had our son. Because you’re clueless as well, don’t you? When it’s your first, you’re learning as you go. So, yeah. So, another thing you could… Oh, yeah. Sorry.

Carla (17:03.03)
Expensive little things these children. Yeah

Carla (17:21.846)
Yeah, yeah. So carry on, yes, I love all this, I’m loving all these tapes. No, I love it.

Chrissie (17:28.645)
I’m giving you like an essay here, so tell me if it’s too much. Yeah, so another thing you can do is to put the bed in the command, what’s called the command position. So this means that you’re basically giving the cot the widest view of the room that you can. So in theory it means that that leads to avoiding uncertainty because they can see what’s coming into the room. You’re not gonna get those like surprises and stuff.

And it just helps to cause, it just helps to create a sense of calm and stability and just avoid, it helps to avoid sleep disruption and just helps to avoid stress and feeling uptight and tense. But sometimes you can’t always avoid this. For example, in my son’s bedroom, initially we had the cot in the center of the room. But actually I felt that,

this he needed a bit more support so I’ve actually moved it to the corner of the room now so he’s got a solid wall behind him at the head of the bed but also on the side of the bed and he sleeps much better for that so that’s another thing you can do and he still he still has a good view of the door. Wavy pattern!

Carla (18:41.174)
That’s me moving at Olivia’s bed this afternoon. She does not sleep, that girl, honestly, in the night. The tiniest creak, you know when you see these memes and like, it’s like, they don’t wake up when you want them to wake up, but the tiniest creak, she’s like, mommy? I’m just like, no, no, please, go back to sleep. So I think I’m gonna have to move that. Thank you. Mm.

Chrissie (18:46.66)
Uh…

Chrissie (18:54.308)
See ya.

Yeah!

Chrissie (19:02.787)
Well, it’s worth a try. The next thing is colours and patterns. So this is quite a fun thing to do, because again, it kind of plays into the interior design aspects of it. But what we tend to do, so when they’re babies, we tend to opt for those lovely, calm, neutral kind of colours. But then when they sort of hit like two or three, they start getting into things like Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol or Spiderman, all these kind of like…

you know, and in comes all of these really, really bright, like in your face colors, which is fine for a playroom where you want it to have that really lovely, energetic, fun energy. But in the bedroom, we want it to stay calm and peaceful. So if you’ve got, if their bedding is lots of different bright colors, then I would suggest thinking about how would you sleep if your bed linen was that sort of color?

would you find it off -putting or under distraction or would you feel calm and relaxed sleeping in that? For me, I would find that quite a bit full -on. So I would recommend staying away from fiery colours especially and busy patterns. So if you’re going to have a pattern sort of, do you vote for example, I’d opt for more subtle patterns. Waves are meant to be quite good for helping with sleep.

I think there’s something quite relaxing about water, isn’t there? So that’s meant to be quite helpful for that. And again, go for sort of neutral shades and pastels. Greens are also really lovely in a bedroom as well, especially if you’ve got those really sort of like muted tones, you can get some really lovely shades of green and they’re very calming as well. So, which leads me on to paint. So this is probably something that is quite…

overlooked really because you can buy paint down at the local DIY store for a relatively inexpensive price. The only thing I would say to that is what’s called the volatile organic compounds. So the solvents and the chemicals that are contained in that paint can be quite high. So if you can, I would really recommend investing in water -based paints because there’s less odours, they’re more eco -friendly.

Chrissie (21:25.024)
and they’re often made from like natural materials. The VOC rate, so the volatile organic compounds, is much, much lower. So they are so much better for you, especially in a nursery, you know, where our babies are exposed to all those chemicals and things. You know that horrible feeling when you’ve just painted and that just, that smell is so strong, it’s so potent, and you literally leave your windows open for like three months just to get rid of the smell.

Carla (21:52.404)
Yeah. Yeah.

Chrissie (21:53.791)
You don’t get that so much with water -based paints. And so Little Green, I think it is, they have a certified child safe paint as well. So for a bedroom, a child’s bedroom, I would really, really recommend if you can, investing in that because the quality is superb, the coverage is fantastic, and it’s so much better for you from an environmental aspect, but also from a health aspect as well. So those would be my…

go to tips for nursery.

Carla (22:26.582)
I love those. And can I ask a question? Some people opt for feeding equipment in the bedroom because they don’t want to do those night feeds. What would you say to that? Would you say encourage that or not? It’s always a bit of a…

Chrissie (22:28.095)
You

Hmph!

Chrissie (22:39.838)
I, it’s a tricky one because I think in those early days, especially when they’re newborns, those days are hard. They’re really, really hard. So I think there has to be an element of balance. You know, it has to work for you from a practical point of view. I think if you can set up an area where you feel comfortable, so have a nice chair, have somewhere where you can put your feet up.

you know, have a little stall next to you where you can have a, you know, a nice, a nice drink, a glass of water or something, because you’re probably not gonna want a cup of tea in like three o ‘clock in the morning, are you? But just, just try and make that experience as enjoyable for you as possible, because at the same time, that’s a really special time to be bonding with your baby. And it is a difficult time, you know, and I, I remember those times only too well, but…

Carla (23:17.342)
I’m

Chrissie (23:36.476)
before you know it, they’re three, four, five, seventeen years old and they’re not little babies anymore. So although it’s a really, really difficult time and I know you’re sleep deprived and that can do strange things to you, but try and incorporate it as part of your self -care for yourself. So like I said, if you’ve got a nice comfortable chair there, you’ve got somewhere to put your feet up, you’ve got a nice cushion,

Carla (23:49.878)
Hmm, yeah, oh it can.

Chrissie (24:03.228)
just try and make it feel as luxurious for yourself so that you can enjoy that experience as much as possible. And if it means that that’s got to be in the nursery for convenience reasons, then that’s fine, that’s okay, because it’s not gonna be forever. So I would really urge you to just try and embrace that moment and make it as easy on yourself as you possibly can.

Carla (24:14.838)
Yeah.

Carla (24:26.568)
brilliant and another one I personally want to ask plants plants throughout the house right I I know you might frown upon this but I am a range gal and I don’t trust myself watering plants I can you know so I have a lot of you know false plants around that’s the word that’s the word that’s the word is that terrible or not right

Chrissie (24:29.692)
Yeah? Okay, Fred. Oh.

Chrissie (24:43.899)
Artificial.

Chrissie (24:50.523)
It’s not good, but I will be 100 % honest with you, before I found Feng Shui, I could open a shop of artificial plants. I loved them. Every single room had at least one, two, or maybe even 10. They were everywhere.

Carla (25:05.398)
Yeah, yeah, that’s like me.

Chrissie (25:09.946)
The only thing that I will say, and I never really noticed this before, and the lady who feng shui’d my house, she was even more anti -artificial plants than probably most feng shui consultants, but she was like, seriously, just humour me and just take them away, put them in the garage and see if you notice a difference with how your home feels. And I was thinking, oh, this is a lot of rubbish. How can this possibly make a difference?

But I’ll be damned. My God, it really did. So you know that feeling when you take down all of your Christmas decorations. That sense of just freedom, space. Yeah, and also I noticed that the smell in the air was different. It smelled less plasticky. And I was like, oh my goodness. Like seriously, I hadn’t even noticed this fragrance that the plastic had been giving off.

Carla (25:46.678)
Oh yeah, just that space.

Chrissie (26:07.769)
And then a few months later, because I started to notice a difference around my home, I thought, do you know what? I’ve decided that I’m not going to keep these, so I’m going to find new loving homes for them. Because I still love them, and I still thought they were beautiful. And I couldn’t bear for them to just be like, I wanted somebody else to enjoy them. So I did find them. They’re like little people, aren’t they? My little family of artificial flowers. And some of them can be quite expensive. Yeah.

Carla (26:19.894)
Yeah.

Carla (26:29.024)
Oh no! Oh no! Yeah I know how you feel like I’m laughing because I’m surrounded by one, two, three, four, five, five artificial, all hanging, oh six! Here’s another. So yeah, I am a sucker for those, I really am.

Chrissie (26:41.625)
You

Chrissie (26:46.88)
Yeah.

Chrissie (26:50.488)
Yeah, so I would say if you can try and maybe just start with one or two plants and just see how you go. And I am not somebody that’s particularly good at watering plants. I will fully admit that. So what I did was kind of, I sort of thought about how my lifestyle is. So I don’t have a huge amount of time. I’m a mum, I’m, you know, starting a business and you know.

Watering flowers can be a bit of a faff, can’t it really? So what I tried to do was find a plant that was low maintenance, didn’t need a huge amount of watering, and it would be okay in the different environments that I put it. So my house faces north.

So in one area of our home, I needed a plant that would be okay in a sort of relatively dark area. And peace lilies are great for this. I water it once a week, you know, and it’s fine. It’s absolutely fine. So what I tend to do is I just do once a week and I water all of my plants and that’s it, job done. You know, I don’t faff around watering them every day because I haven’t got time to do that. But at the same time,

Carla (27:58.806)
Yeah.

Chrissie (28:05.302)
I also want a plant to just, it does make a huge difference to your home. And when you bring a plant into your home, that instantly boosts the good energy. It’s a source of life. It’s a source of growth as well. They represent growth. And also they have a lovely grounding quality as well. So if you’ve got an office, for example, this is a great space to have plants because they help to purify the air as well. So it’s great for concentration. And again,

You know, with Feng Shui, we work with our intentions really, really heavily. So if you’re wanting to grow a business, having a plan in your office is just affirming that that is your intention. This is what you want to achieve. And you can go a step further. So for example, and this is where you start to look at like the different areas of your home. So in your wealth area, you might want to have a money plan, you know, and like,

in your dining room for example. Sometimes this can be an area where you get a lot of arguments. So a plant in that area can help to kind of diffuse those kinds of things as well. So plants are really, really powerful. But yeah, go for low maintenance. If you have a lot of artificial flowers in your home, go for low maintenance plants all the way. I know.

Carla (29:20.854)
Now I feel like I’m blooming. I’ve invested all this money in all of these. No, I mean, could I shift all of those to the very back of the house to a room that we don’t really use and then start?

Chrissie (29:31.476)
Yeah, so I did it on a gradual basis. I didn’t take them all away straight away because for me that was just like, no, I can’t bear to get rid of them. It’s just…

Carla (29:41.558)
I’m just thinking of all the money I’ve spent.

Chrissie (29:45.876)
are really expensive. I had some beautiful ones from Neptune and you know, Neptune is a beautiful place but it’s not the most, it’s not the cheapest of places is it? So getting rid of those was a bit of a, that hurt a little bit to be honest. So what I did was I just gradually started to thin them out a little bit and then once I thinned them down a little bit I then…

Carla (29:57.814)
time.

Chrissie (30:12.019)
I would sort of, I looked at the nine different areas of my home and I was like, right, okay, well, I’m just gonna have one in each area. And then I gradually reduced it down again until it got to the point where I had one artificial plant on one floor and one on the top floor. And I’ll be really honest, I still have one in my house now. But I justify that by, it brings me a huge amount of joy and it’s really easy to keep clean because the reason…

that artificial flowers and artificial plants are considered to not be great Feng Shui is because they collect dust, they collect dead energy and they’ve never been alive so they don’t bring anything to your home and then well they’re collecting all of this dead dust and dead energy they are then creating little pockets of negative energy so they’re creating energy blocks so just start by thinning them down.

and seeing how you feel and just do it on a gradual basis because yeah, for me, again, the money aspect was a big one, you know, and some of these artificial flowers that I had, I’d accumulated over a long period of time and some of them had quite sort of special, you know, special memories associated to them. So, I mean, some of them I used for, you know, styling our wedding, for example. So I didn’t necessarily want to get rid of those, you know, certainly not straight away anyway. So,

I think you’ve just got to be kind to yourself. If you really, really love them, just do it gradually and do the ones that you’re less connected to first. So save your favourite ones until the end. But also, like I said, I still have my ultimate favourite one and it’s a lovely orchid. It’s like a multi -stemmed orchid. So it’s really easy to wipe clean. Yeah, and they’re beautiful.

Carla (31:37.814)
live.

Carla (31:47.638)
Elca.

Carla (31:56.022)
Oh, I know the one. I think I’ve got one in my bathroom, actually. Yeah.

Chrissie (32:01.809)
In actual fact, a bathroom, if you’re gonna keep one, I would say the bathroom is probably quite a good place to have it, simply because the bathroom areas are considered, they’re considered the waste area, which doesn’t sound particularly attractive, but basically, it’s an area where there’s like a vacuum of energy. So when you, it’s the place where the energy is, the negative energy is washed away, is drawn away from the house. It’s a deliberate intention to remove that energy.

Carla (32:15.19)
Oh!

Chrissie (32:31.504)
So because they collect negative energy, it’s not a bad place to put them because it’s going to be taking that away, which is good. So yeah, I would say ideally opt for a real plant. But if you’re going to have one, that’s probably a good place. And also keep your toilet seats down because that just prevents any excess energy from leaving your home, which obviously we don’t want. We want to keep all of that good, lovely energy inside your home.

Carla (32:59.51)
Oh, I love that. Oh my goodness, Chrissie, that has been amazing. I love it. So what we’ll do is once your website goes live, we will pop your link underneath this podcast as well and what you mentioned. And then you can just, and then anyone can just connect with Chrissie that way. Chrissie, I’ve loved that. I’ve loved that. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Chrissie (33:01.904)
Bye!

Chrissie (33:11.298)
Amazing.

Chrissie (33:18.127)
Oh, thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for having me. I have loved, loved talking about this. It’s like I said, it’s literally my favorite two subjects and like being able to sort of just help people. And also just make people, help people make their lives easier for them without necessarily spending a penny. And just, it’s all about just looking at your home through a different lens and sort of starting to understand the things that we probably see every day, but.

you don’t really take much notice. It’s almost like you go like, you know, if you’re if you live next to like a motorway or a train track or something like that, you go you go sound blind, don’t you go noise blind. And I think when you when you see everything in your home on a daily basis, you don’t necessarily connect with, you know, the hidden meanings or the or the associations that that could be like the messages that you’re sending out.

Carla (34:10.198)
Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much. So, Chrissie’s links are underneath this podcast once her website goes live. And thank you so much. I’d love to have you on again. Thank you. Ah, thank you. I just pressed.

Chrissie (34:20.365)
Oh, I’d love to come on again. Thank you so much.