How Tenants can Create Better Feng Shui
Doing Feng shui while you are a tenant can be complex, especially if you live in a small space that is part of a larger building. However, you can make a few little changes that will allow positive Chi to move freely around your rental home. Before we discuss Feng Shui, we need to consider your rental lease and your responsibilities as a tenant.
In the rest of this article, I’ll discuss the practical information you’ll need as a tenant. I’ll also go through some ways to invite and promote positive energy into your home as a tenant and how to keep your home safe, secure, and prosperous, even if you aren’t a homeowner.
Renting 101 – Practical Information
It can be daunting to rent an apartment or house, especially if you’re new to it. All the legal documents you have to sign, the responsibilities you must undertake as a tenant, and what freedoms you are allowed in the property are essential to consider during the process.
We’ll discuss some of the practical information for renting a property below.
Lease Agreements
Your lease agreement is the most crucial legal document you’ll receive as a tenant. The lease will include various stipulations designed to protect the landlord, the tenant and both of their rights. Your rental agreement may be relatively extensive and challenging to understand, so go through everything carefully before signing it.
Here are a few things your lease agreement might include:
Repair policies and landlord responsibilities
Whether you are allowed pets
Fees relating to your deposit, monthly rent, and contract termination
Rules for subletting
A lease agreement can be any length of time, but it is most commonly 1-2 years.
Surety Bonds
Also known as a security deposit, a surety bond or security deposit guarantees that you will pay your rent. A third party will act as a guarantor for you as the tenant, agreeing to pay the landlord should something happen.
These bonds are in place to protect the landlord, and if they do have to pay fees, they will require you to compensate them in return.
Should nothing happen that requires the third party to pay the landlord or management company, the tenant will receive the deposit in its entirety at the end of the tenancy. Essentially, the surety bonds act as insurance that you will pay your fees.
It is getting your surety bond back that can become a major headache for some tenants. Unfortunately there are landlords that will instruct their agents to keep the bond for any number of excuses. If you have kept to your side of the agreement, signed the original lease document on a good day and followed the Feng Shui advise here, then you can be assured of getting your bond back.
Tenants Advocates
Sometimes things happen, and it can be daunting for a tenant to fight a landlord against wrongful eviction or discrimination. Having an advocate to give you advice and lead you in the right direction is essential if things go wrong.
There are organizations in every state that act as tenant advocates and will often provide free advice to keep you in the know about your rights and responsibilities as a tenant.
For example, the Tenants Union is an organization designed to educate and empower tenants by giving them free advice and resources that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
HOA’s
More commonly known as Homeowners Associations, HOA’s are organizations designed to preserve the dignity of residential areas and communities. The general idea is that all the tenants and residents living under the HOA have equal responsibilities to care for their individual properties and the surrounding lands.
HOA’s might enforce monthly or yearly fees to maintain the communal areas associated with the residential space. If your rental property is part of an HOA, your lease agreement will likely contain information about it, including essential details such as which day to put out your bins and your rights regarding the use of space.
Each HOA has its own rules and regulations, and the fees could be anything from $200 to over $1,000 monthly.
Responsibilities
As a tenant, you are responsible for upholding the maintenance and usability of the property in which you’re living. The landlord will expect you to keep things clean, throw out your trash responsibly, and respect the communal areas of the building, among other things.
Before creating a safe space aligned with feng shui in your rental apartment, ensure you know your rights and responsibilities as a tenant.
Now onto the best Feng Shui tips for renters and tenants.
Top Feng Shui Tips for Tenants
Bring a Baby to Test the Feng Shui
Looking for a good rental property can be time consuming and frustrating, especially if there is a lot of competition. A surefire way to help with your shortlist is to take a baby or toddler along to the inspection with you.
Why? Because babies and young children are more attuned to the flow of energy than adults. They are also much more vocal about what they like and don’t like and you will quickly know if the property is good or bad by the way they react when you walk around the different spaces.
Who Was There Before You?
More than just a horror movie trope, before you first move into a new rental home, you should be wondering who lived there before you and what happened to them. Knowing this information is crucial if you want to achieve positive outcomes and have good Chi in your house or apartment.
The tenant there before you may have affected the likelihood of good energy entering and flowing through your rental home. If the previous tenants had poor luck or death took place in the space, you would need to know this before moving forward. It is a great idea to ask the realtor or agent why they moved out. You can also try asking the neighbors how the previous tenants were and if they know of any trouble.
You can help rectify past tenants bad energy in the house as long as you follow some basic space clearing steps to mitigate this. Deep clean the home and pay attention to how you place the furniture to allow your positive Chi to flow.
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Easy Feng Shui for Bad or Nosy Neighbors
Living alongside bad neighbors can be a nightmare, especially if your building is small and doesn’t have much space. Dealing with this means keeping bad energy away, while still allowing the natural good good Chi to enter your home.
Create borders of good, positive growth energy around your home using plants. Bagua mirrors can help to effectively reflect the negative energy away from your rental property without going against your lease agreement. The downside is that your neighbors may notice the Bagua’s and take offense.
A different approach is to use six small Buddha statues placed in a discrete location facing towards the neighbors from the edge of your property. They should be off the ground, and make sure to envisage the most positive outcome for both you and the neighbors while you are placing them.
Your front door is another ally in this situation since it allows energy to flow in and out of the space. Use good lighting around your doorway and remove things from the floor to keep the area clean and tidy. Additionally, you have the option of using water to deflect negativity by placing a wide bowl of water in the space outside your front door.
For a stronger effect I prefer to use one or two saltwater cures. Use this cleansing barrier to help mitigate the situation between you and your neighbors.
Easy Feng Shui To Keep You Secure
Security is often one of the most significant considerations when moving into a new rental home. You may be unsure of the neighborhood or want to feel more secure in the house. Keeping strong energy around you is essential to maintaining your security, and feng shui can help you do this.
Some rental properties only come with blinds, but for your security you should consider curtains for the windows. Cover the blinds (or replace them) with curtains since this will allow light to enter while keeping the inside of your home safe from the eyes of outsiders.
Here are three traditional Feng Shui methods that help keep your home safe -
1. Check the Annual formations. Look at the 7 star, Tai Sui and San Sha first. Any doors or windows in these directions can make you a target for thieves and backstabbers.
2. Calculate your Flying Stars. Look for the 5 and 7 stars and see if they are activated by big buildings (mountains), streets (water), doors, windows, stoves, refrigerators, TV’s etc. You can cure the 5 star with Metal Element and the 7 star with Water Element.
3. Calculate your homes Ba Zhai 8 Mansions and look for incoming water (drains, streets, water features) that are in the Wu Gui or Jue Ming directions. If you can’t change the flow of water to divert from the property, then block it from view with curtains or plants.
An actual ringing doorbell is also an excellent way to promote safety and security in your rental home. If it’s a metal bell, that takes it further, allowing clarity and virtue to enter your household.
Easy Feng Shui To Make It Feel Like Home
Comforts often make a space feel homier, so, usually, there might be precise and personalized ways to make your house feel like home. Feng shui can help you create the perfect space for your preferred mindset and future success.
You must always ensure your hallway is free from clutter and mess. Since you don’t own the property, it can be easy to become complacent about tidiness. Try to keep your shoes in a cabinet or shoe rack or out of sight entirely. Since this is the first place you’ll see as you enter, it needs to bring you calm and joy every time.
We are in Period 8 and about to enter Period 9, so for the best result when trying to make your rental feel like a home is to activate the 8 and 9 ‘mountain’ stars in the Flying Stars Feng Shui. 8 is Earth Element and 9 is Fire Element. Using the Feng Shui 5 Elements, you can strengthen each to bring you health and happiness.
Additionally, always remember that the bedroom is the most personal space for you. You are often at your most vulnerable in your bedroom, so try to ensure that it is clean, well-maintained, and brings you happiness and good rest.
Another Period 8/9 tip is by paying attention to the air circulation in your rental home. Leave windows open for 9 minutes at a time to relieve the home of bad energy. Make sure you check that the windows you open are the ones that avoid the negative directions mentioned above.
How To Boost Wealth and Prosperity in a Rental Home
Another symbol of prosperity you can use is by placing mandarines or oranges in a bowl on your kitchen counter. Oranges are an emblem of affluence and will help to bring good fortune into your rental home.
A preferred traditional application of prosperity is to find the 8 and 9 ‘water’ stars in your Flying Stars Feng Shui and/or your Sheng Chi direction in Eight Mansions Feng Shui. You can activate these with a water feature or a fireplace/heater or simply by opening doors and windows in these directions.
For a simple but effective water feature placement based on San Yuen Yuen Gua, watch my Sifu’s video here.
Final Thoughts
Feng Shui for tenants can be as simple as allowing positive Chi to enter your home and flow freely. This means paying attention to what you can change easily without costing you a lot of money. Make sure you look at your rental agreement before changing anything so you a) can get your bond back, b) live a safe and peaceful life, and c) grow in prosperity while you live there.
Feng Shui Resources
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