Looking for just the right new home is an overwhelming task! There are so many considerations, so many things to think about that it’s easy to get distracted and not notice features of the home and its location that could be problematic. And, if you’re not very sensitive to energy, you could inadvertently buy a home that is a feng shui nightmare–a place where it would be very difficult to feel comfortable and thrive.
Following are some suggestions for insuring that your house has good feng shui.
- Look for a house with a square or rectangular floor plan. Houses with irregular plans may be dramatic and interesting to visit, but ultimately have serious energy challenges and may not be optimal places to live. Those with square or rectangular plans are easier to arrange, have better energy and fewer major energy problems.
- Look for a house that is set squarely on its lot so the front of the house is parallel to the road. Houses set at an angle to the road look charming, but a dissonance is created when the main axis of the house runs at an angle to the street.
- Avoid houses located at the end of a street. The road ends in front of the house, but the energy flowing down the road keeps coming and slams into the house with great force. The intensity of the energy can be harmful to the occupants.
- Avoid houses with the main door located on the side of the structure. The front door is the main mouth of life nurturing chi (energy). It is best if the mouth is easy for energy to find. A house with a door on the side is like a face without a mouth.
- If you are looking for a garage built into the house, a house with garage doors facing the side or rear of the house are preferable to garage doors facing the street. When garage doors are the main feature of the front of the house, occupants of the house find themselves on the go all the time.
- Avoid houses where a central stairway runs directly to the front door. Energy coming down the stairs rushes right out the front door, depleting the home of life affirming energy.
- Look for a house that is on level ground or slopes from the back of the lot down toward the front of the lot. Avoid houses where the lot falls off behind the house creating an energy sink and lack of support in the areas associated with wealth and prosperity, fame and reputation and love and marriage.
- Avoid houses that have heavy beams overhead. Unless the ceiling is extremely high, beams create a heavy negative energy, an uncomfortable weight overhead.
- Avoid houses with bedrooms that have slanted ceilings or walls built on an angle. Slanted ceilings, like beams, have a weight that makes restful sleeping difficult. Walls built at an angle tend to spin the energy of the space setting up the potential for the occupants to experience accidents. People sleep best in square or rectangular rooms that have a human scale, typically 8 feet high with flat ceilings.
- Avoid houses that are mostly glass. It is difficult to place furniture in those houses so that people feel comfortable. People are most comfortable and empowered when they can sit or sleep in spaces where they have a solid wall behind them and a full view of the main door of the room.
If you live in a house that has one of the problem features listed above or if you’ve found the house of your dreams and it has some of the above issues, know that in many cases there are actions that can be taken to mitigate the problems. Check out some feng shui books available in bookstores or hire a feng shui consultant to assist you.

















“energy flowing down the road keeps coming and slams into the house with great force”
“spin the energy of the space setting up the potential for the occupants to experience accidents”
What kind of energy are you referring to exactly?
Will it help if I wear a tin foil hat?
Also avoid crossing the streams, as it could cause total protonic reversal.
What a nut.
“slopes from the back of the lot down toward the front of the lot,” because I want rain runoff to drain directly into my house. You don’t want a house to have energy coming at it from the street, but you also don’t want the energy to leave through the front door. None of this has any basis in reality – has anyone actually studied the lives of people in these types of houses, or is this stuff just completely made up?
I expect better from this site.
I like your blog – but please desist from posting on pseudoscientific topics like Feng Shui.
Agreed. This post makes me laugh: are McMansions the best Feng Shui homes? They’re square on their lot, generally square or rectangular, and have front-facing garages, but it’s because of sandwiching them in, not because of “energy.” :)
I, OTOH, appreciate the feng-shui articles; though they are unabashed pseudo-science. In this case, I am always “on the go” and my garage is on the front of the house. It is in fact easier to pull out of the garage and driveway than it is to step out of the front door. So my gargen gets less tending and thus my house is less welcoming and more of a place I go between errands than a home. I doubt “feng shui” has anything to do with it but it does give me an opportunity to consider my lifestyle and choices deliberately and make adjustments there, rather than to the color of my bushes or walls. :)
Tomorrow’s article: choosing a travel bag for your next astral projection.
I commented on an earlier post before I realized you were a complete Feng Shui adherent. Please ask yourself what evidence you have that this strange undetectable energy exists, besides your feelings? Consider the Placebo effect and the fact that energy is defined as the capacity to do work…if it can do work, it can be detected – therefore it should be detectable by instruments and not just by human feelings…
Another option is to not worry about mystical “energy” that is undetectable by any means except expensive feng shui “consultants” and has no effect on your life.
Lifehack has lots of great articles, but this one is very hard to take seriously.
Come on Lifehack, woo woo posts like this really detract from the general quality of your site. “the energy flowing down the road keeps coming and slams into the house with great force”? Really :-)
I am particularly interested to know if garage doors are included in this Feng Shui. They actually portray a very important role protecting the property.
It’s sad that these false ideas are spread to the masses. People need to buy homes that they love, not worry about nonexistent energies controlling their level of happiness.
Agreed – I love this blog – but the litany of Feng Shui posts lately has been beyond ridiculous.
I have had a house settlement delay over 2 weeks cause of Chinese lucky dates….
You don’t need to believe in feng shui for it to work. My husband is a feng shui sceptic, but when it came time to set up his office for his private practice, he welcomed my help. Not only did his practice thrive, but he enjoyed the comfort that comes when you arrange space using feng shui principles. I can’t prove that the use of feng shui principles led to those benefits, but neither of us need that proof. We just enjoyed the benefits.