Selling the family home

First impressions count, and it is often said that buyers decide in the first fifteen seconds whether they like a house. You do not have to believe in feng shui to use it here. Most of what follows is good staging anyway, and the tradition holds that it helps a house feel harmonious to the people walking through.

Be ready to go

This is the most important part. Everyone who lives in the house has to be emotionally ready to move on. In feng shui, a reluctant household is said to block the energy a house needs to sell. Have a family meeting and make sure you are all on the same page.

If you raised children there, the grown ones may have feelings about it too, even if they have not slept there in years. Include them.

Start packing

Pack the family photos and mementos first. Buyers need to picture their own family in your rooms, so the house should feel more like a blank canvas. Then box up the extra clothes, the soft toys, the old hockey equipment. Keep the boxes together under a plastic sheet, in the garage perhaps. It shows you are ready, and it gets the energy of movement going.

Outside

Put the for sale sign to the right of the front door as you face it from the street. That is said to be the active, yang side of the house. Make sure the house number is easy to read from the road.

Curving walkways are good feng shui. If yours is straight, line it with flower pots so it seems to meander. Trim the shrubs and take out anything dead. The front door is the mouth of the house, where chi comes in, so keep it immaculate: a welcoming mat, a pot on each side (red or yellow flowers are good), fresh paint and the outdoor lights on.

The five senses

• Sight. Clear counters, shelves and dressers. Place an object on the diagonal from each doorway to draw the eye in and make the room seem larger.
• Touch. Something lovely at the front door, like stained glass or an unusual doorbell. A breeze through a window, or a fire in the dead of winter, makes a house feel alive.
• Sound. A sweet wind chime at the door, a bird feeder in the garden, or soft music.
• Smell. Earthy scents like cinnamon or pine are said to appeal to the widest range of people.
• Taste. A crystal bowl of chocolates or cinnamon candies on the hall table.

Room by room

• The front hall. A table on the right as you come in, with fresh flowers. Stand the agent's cards upright in a holder. Laid flat, the tradition says, they suggest the agent is lying down on the job.
• The kitchen. For most buyers this room matters most, and in feng shui it stands for health and prosperity. Clear counters, a tidy pantry, and a bowl of green apples or a jar of fresh baked cookies.
• The bathrooms. Doors closed, so a bathroom is never the first thing anyone sees. Spotless, with the toilet lid down, which matters a great deal in feng shui. Earth colours and pebbles suit them. Leave out plants and water images, which are said to add to the draining energy.
• The main bedroom. Calm, balanced, and neither his nor hers, in beige, cream, green or grey. Take away the framed photos.
• The living room. Easy to walk around, with comfortable furniture but not too much of it, arranged in an L or a U. Two pieces facing each other is a confrontational shape in feng shui. If there is a fireplace, hang something dramatic over it and light it.
• The dining room. The warmest room in the house in winter, ready for entertaining in summer. Fresh flowers or a big bowl of fruit on the table.

Before every showing

Turn on every light in the house two or three hours before anyone arrives, and open the blinds. The tradition says this gets the chi moving. Keep the room doors shut so each one holds its energy, and if a guest room goes unused, leave a light or some music on in it for a few hours a day.

Yellow flowers in the living room, hall and dining room, fresh or silk, are said to stir the chi and encourage communication. And the north west is the area of helpful people, which is exactly what you need when you sell. A metal object or some music there is the traditional way to wake it up.

None of this will sell a house on its own. It will help the house feel ready, and it may help you feel ready to leave it.

From the archive. First written for my journal years ago, and rewritten for life after 50.