apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Hey maaan, you guys on the Left Coast are far out!

Seriously though, this post keeps getting better and better.

What your bathroom may lack in style it certainly makes up for in comfort and spirituality.

It's like a chi rocket with plumbing.

I'm sorry but you guys had to laugh at least a little bit when you wrote " a wind chime moves stagnant chi around..."

As my house concerns generally run the along the lines of how will I pay for that new roof, the phrase, "feng shui consultation" just made me chuckle. Consultation? I might be a hater, but if your feng shui needs are SO DIRE that a paid professional has to visit your home... well, i just can't stop laughing.

Wow, far out! Sorry, but I just can't accept the magical thinking behind this kind of thing.

I think the only thing a bathroom that small should be is clean.
I seriously doubt that a red ribbon on the door handle does anything. It's like wearing red underpants on new years eve to ensure your year is full of sex (or love... whichever you prefer).

hey, maybe she just had a knowledgeable friend or family member visit her home. i know my aunt and uncle used to advise us on things like bed placement. the concept of a feng shui consultation isn't really THAT far out. although i don't know if i'll be putting wind chimes in my bathroom anytime soon.

All that and we STILL don't know why you have crystals hanging from the rusted toilet plumbing?

i don't think the wind chimes are meant for the bathroom lemonpie. that one and the ribbon thing seems to be more general rules for the home.

but you still didn't explain the crystal! oh wait...i just googled 'feng shui crystal over toilet" and found this...

"You can also hang a crystal over a toilet with the intention of dispersing the chi horizontally so it doesn’t collectively go vertically down the drain."

...yeah.

OH, keep the toilet lid closed! Silly me. Of course that's why my money is getting flushed away. Surely it can't be that I spend too much of it on absurd baloney like feng shui consultations.

hey, ya know, whatever works. i'm not going to remove the plant from my bathroom or consistently close the door, but maybe I'll tie a red ribbon around the door handle and get a set of cute windchimes. what can it hurt?

I'm a believer in feng shui -- not necessarily every micro-solution, but in how it addresses the general sense of flow and structure of a space. It's thousands of years of observation and culture that's been crystallized into fortune cookie solutions by magazines looking for soundbites (e.g. red ribbon on door knob), but in reality the principles of feng shui are based solidly in aesthetics and psychology and spatiality: everything we think about when we think about interior and exterior design.

We spend so much time on this blog analyzing how to de-clutter, and arrange furniture, and bring in light, and construct flow and space, and harmonize colors: it's feng shui! Just our modern version of it. What works may be different for everyone, but there are general rules that we follow (e.g. use mirrors to draw in and bounce light) that I'm surprised everyone here is just instantly dismissive of an art (and dare I say a science?) that has been developing and distilling for so many centuries.

*steps off soap box*

I think, Caroline K, it's because of a crystal hanging on a toilet...that's why it's being dismissed.

Caroline K - well said! It's easy for some people to make fun of, criticize or follow a stereotype of something that they're not familiar with. I'm a believer in Feng Shui as well and before people should criticize it and criticize the people who follow it, I suggest that they educate themselves first about this age-old spiritual art and philosophy of organizing, decorating and maintaining a home/space. It may not be for you, but give some respect to those who follow it. I have heard of stories and also experienced life changing events after a simple Feng Shui change in the home. What I think is the most altering change is the positive thinking that's come of it. And I think because of the positive mentality, you create a sense of balance, happiness and peace not only in your home but life in general. Believe it or not, Feng Shui is one way to create harmony in your home and life. =)

Right on, Caroline K!

I've never heard about the crystal on the toilet. I wonder how sanitary would it be in the long run? That said, I'm all for promoting a positive home environment. I am proud to say that I do have one of those mini Woodstock wind chimes attached to one of my my shower curtain rings (between the liner and the curtain) The sounds make me smile whenever the curtain is moved.

ok about the sense of balance and avoiding to accumulate rubbish and many other things feng shui suggests or recommends... but do you seriously *believe* that closing your toilet regularly will help you saving money? in conclusions, possibly some of the suggestions are useful from the estetical/pratical point of view but not for the alleged explanations feng shui gives: for one thing, 'chi' (bad or good) is just a prescientific explanation of different kind of energy... I wonder how a 'plant in the bathroom counteracts bad Chi'...
BTW: I have a red ribbon around the doorhandles of my utility room... just a rest of some christmas decoration... wondering if it works there too ;)

I don't need a defined spiritual belief system to know where to put my couch....

But seriously, I think that this is being mocked because that bathroom is the antithesis of harmony and spacial flow. It has a ugly toilet cover and a dirty floor and hideous tile! So saying that the crystal on the toilet or the red ribbon are doing anything to evoke a "spiritual art and philosophy" is, well, hilarious.

Abby, I think the tiles in your bathroom are really pretty. They remind me of something Anthropologie would have. So sad that PDX01 is creating negative comments based on just two photos/tiny snipets of your bathroom before seeing it in its entirety. Once again folks, have respect for others. What may be beautiful or unattractive for you, may not be for some and that's perfectly fine because in the long run, it's you that needs to be happy with it.

Someone has chosen to hang a crystal in their toilet and then tell the internet about it disperses their chi. I almost feel that I'm REQUIRED to mock...

actually, PDX01, you're not required to mock. i feel sorry that your mindset is such that you think we're all sitting here at our computers, eagerly awaiting your snide and tactless insults, when in fact, i'm pretty sure most people who've commented just wish you'd be quiet.

i'm not necessarily endorsing the idea of hanging crystals on the toilet (beyond the fact that i think it looks pretty), but i will say that i believe that the concept of "chi" isn't as far-out and hokey-pokey as you might think. if even my old bosses -- highly intelligent doctors whose research has been written up in NEJM and mainstream newspapers -- could turn to chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture to heal their own bodies, then maybe we could follow their lead and not be so arrogant as to think that there's no validity to anything not covered in a typical western curriculum.

or perhaps you really do know better than everyone who was raised to believe differently as a result of thousands of years of practice. it's your call.

Ancient Chinese had flush toilets? Money and pooh are related? While Chinese philosophy and art might indeed have much to teach us, reducing those centuries of writing and study to red ribbons on doorknobs seems as dismissive as the comments.

Ever been to any Chinese place in Monterey Park? Seen any red ribbons on the doorknobs there?

I thought this was bunk until I read something like the richest woman in the world left her fortune to her feng shui consultant in Hong Kong.

When I really started paying attention was when an accupuncturist got a friend of mine who had 2 periods a month after the birth of her 1st kid to finally have only ONE a month. I don't know what the hell he did after 20 years of that 2x/mo bs and a lot of Western Medicing, but it worked.

What the hell do I know? I'm not religous, but something worked, finally.

My feng shui defense..sometimes I arrange furniture in a room and it just doesn't look right, or feel right...and then I get out the feng shui book and look for new ideas. You don't have to buy into the whole thing...but as kaanswfm points out, "something worked, finally."

My best feng shui apt. fix was the mirror hung over my desk...out of necessity, my desk faces a wall and I sit with my back to the room's only window. I literally _could not sit_ at my desk until I hung the mirror up...it's high enough that I don't see myself in it, but I do see the reflection of the sky and daylight. $20 made a whole awkward room work a lot better.