Feng Shui in the Kitchen

In Feng Shui, the kitchen symbolizes health and prosperity. Because the Kitchen is also the home's "heart", any problems with the Chi in this room can have a significant impact on you and your family.

To keep the Chi flowing and positive in the kitchen, follow the following advice:

1. Keep every thing in the kitchen clean, tidy, and uncluttered. This includes hidden areas like the refrigerator, pantries, cupboards, and drawers, and means getting rid of stale food, and donating excess food that still has a shelf life and unused or surplus utensils and gadgets.
2. Healthful organic food has better Chi than junk food, which is like clutter for your body.
3. The stove represents financial resources, so it is important to keep every part of it in good working order and to use every one of the burners. If you neglect to use one of the burners, it represents untapped resources and missed opportunities. This also applies to the oven.
4. Ideally, your stove is on an island in the middle of the kitchen which affords you a view of the entire room, and is known as a command position. A corner is a bad position for a stove. If your stove is up against a wall, then a mirror on the wall above the stove allows you to see what's going on behind you, which strengthens your position. If you don't have a mirror, a shiny surface that lets you see a reflection will work too, and should be as large as possible. If the mirror or shiny surface reflects the burners, making them appear to double, you invoke the doubling of your income. Don't put the stove by a window, as the prosperity would fly away instead of enriching your home. Don't put a microwave above the stove, as that oppresses the stove or oven's generative abilities and limits prosperity. Some Feng Shui masters recommend against using microwave radiation in any form. (This includes a wireless modem!)
5. Since the element of water weakens the element of fire, it is best to keep the sink, refrigerator, and stove 6-8 feet apart and at diagonals to one another like the points of a triangle. Don't have the sink opposite or next to the stove or oven. If they are configured this way, wood elements can mitigate the conflict. Introducing a green item between them, or an actual plant is helpful in this way. A green bamboo wood floor would be ideal for this purpose.
6. Wood elements are desirable near the stove, as wood feeds fire, and therefore enhances your wealth Chi.
7. In Feng Shui, dead dried flowers are inauspicious, and dying cut flowers or fake flowers are similarly problematic. It is best for the Chi in your kitchen, when you display real living, growing plants that flower, and/or a bowl of real fresh fruit. Silk copies of fruits and flowers are acceptable if they are very life like, but are less auspicious than the real thing (when the real ones are fresh).
8. Make sure you can move about your kitchen without running into sharp corners. Cover or round any sharp corners so that there are no "poison arrows" aiming at you, especially where you cook.
9. The number 9 is auspicious in Feng Shui, and oranges represent good luck. Find the biggest, most deeply orange colored, roundest, and most perfect looking oranges you can find, and keep 9 of them in a bowl at the kitchen's center (islands and trolleys are good for this). You can also keep the oranges on the stove when you aren't cooking. They must be fresh enough to eat, or the Chi they bring will be rotting or drying out as they are.
10. Hide blades from view by storing knives in a block and scissors in a drawer. The cutting energy of exposed blades can create conflict in the home.
11. Don't hang a bunch of pots and pans or other heavy items overhead where you work or sit. Like an exposed overhead beam, this creates an oppressive feeling for those beneath, and makes them unconsciously nervous about what might fall on them. People in these conditions feel overwhelmed.
12. Don’t leave water on the stove when you are done with it. Empty the kettle or pots onto house plants to save water, but don't let it stagnate.
13. Fix any leaky plumbing and dripping faucets, as they represent your positive Chi draining away, and with it your wealth.

Feng Shui is good design sense. If the Chi can flow like a gentle river on a clear path around your clean, tidy kitchen, there will be no stagnating energy depleting your wealth or health. Your whole home and family will benefit from the influx of positive Chi.