For the most part, when I work with clients and exist out in the world, I try to keep my language as jargon-free as possible, as it often creates a belief barrier that an energetically-uplifting and intentional home is not for everyone. (It is absolutely for everyone and benefits all humanity.) It also can be a little bit of a bore, like you just want to watch the movie, not understand how every frame was shot. That said, I am a Feng Shui practitioner and my understanding of the environment is often viewed through the lens of the principles of that and having a shared lexicon makes it easier to navigate some of these deep dives together.

So as a starting point in bridging the gap between the ethereal Feng Shui masters of another dimension and your every day life, here is my take on a few terms of this discipline.

Quiz Time!

How do you feel when you think about the cords and electronics in your house?

A. We don't talk about Bruno.

B.  No. No. No.

C. We don't talk about Bruno!

D. Never should have brought up Bruno!

E. Neutral

F. Energized

G. Peaceful

Most of us mortals fall somewhere between A and D (or A through D). As technology becomes obsolete ever more quickly and we adapt our lives to "how things are now," setting time aside to organize and untangle our electronic lives can feel hard, overwhelming, confusing, and therefore at the bottom of our priority list. But I want to tell you why that it's exactly BECAUSE you feel these ways that you want to move such activities to the top of your list, at least the top of your non-life threatening list. Sorry Future-Me, that's going to be your problem.

Our homes are constantly reinforcing our beliefs about ourselves, even (especially) subconsciously when we're trying not to look. Every time we see (even without looking) the tangled cord mess, our energy dips a little and dips like that throughout your home add up to a whole lot of tired (and overwhelm).  That sounds like a Now-Me Problem. And since I love both Now-Me and Future-Me (and Past-Me, too. XOXO.) and I am totally in charge of how I feel, I want to make both of our lives better. And Future-Me is going to slay because of how much I am hooking her up right now, amirite?!

I'm not going to spend too much time trying to convince you to slay the dragon though because you will when you're ready (I can coach you if you think you'll never be ready! You're already here, aren't you?!). I want to talk about HOW to slay the dragon. Until you are ready and your thoughts align, the How is kind of irrelevant, BUT I want you to know how easy it is. So let's go!

First, decide on the space you want to work on. 

I love and appreciate that the KonMari method says bring it all out of every nook and cranny at once and have done with it, but some of us have to go to the dentist or pick our kid up from school or do anything except devote the next however endlessly long to clear all electronic and cord clutter in our house. You know your space and time best, so set your project parameters: e.g. "TV Cabinet area," or "Home office," or even more specific "Home office computer area." 

Set Your Intention. 

You don't have to bring in divine guidance for this task (unless you want to, in which case: great idea!), but take a minute to determine your goal for the area beyond "Please God, not this." One helpful way to do this is to take pictures of your cord situation. This is especially helpful if it's semi-hidden or difficult to get to. It will give you a better idea of your space and what will help the most.

For example, do you have white walls and black cords going in every direction you don't want to see anymore? Do you have things plugged in to inconveniently located outlets that could be moved? Do you have overloaded outlets? Is everything tangled? Do you even know what everything is and you'd like to know at a glance what you're unplugging? Consider where your pain points are. If all of them, don't worry; it will become more clear as you go. If it's obvious and you want to order some cord management products (cord labels, cord hiding wall kit to match paint, cable sleeves, velcro ties, etc.) ahead of time, go ahead. But be careful to order just what you need so the returns don't become another hassle. If you don't know, just wait, little chickadee. That is coming.

I also recommend taking pictures of the backs of devices where everything is connected so that you know for sure which cord plugs into what once everything is ready to go back in place. Take it from me; it's a bummer to realize you have no idea once everything is disconnected.

Editing, then Organizing (Fun part?)

Do not organize before you edit, unless you love wasting your time. Why neatly coil and label a cable you don't want or need? Just sayin'.

• Take everything out.

  Unplug cords from outlets, pull all devices and cords out (be safe! you may need help if you are moving something large like a tv).  Detangle and separate cords from one another. Group into piles of similar items. This will help you identify when you have multiples, as well as knowing what everything is.
  
  

• Weed out the duds.

  Did you, as I did, have a cord plugged into the outlet and absolutely nothing else? Were there miles of coaxial cables for days with no apparent destination? Are some of the cables broken, frayed, or known to be useless? Put all these in a big satisfying pile to toss. Is anything completely random (that belongs in another space) up there--no judgment here; note the karaoke microphone in my before pics above. Make a pile of items to rehome or take them to their place as you go.
  
  

• Wipe everything down

  (can be as you go): the devices, the cords, the space with a microfiber cloth to catch dust and follow with a magic eraser, or spray cleaner, as needed to remove additional gunk and goo. Ahhh, doesn't that feel better.
  
  

• Stage and Set-Up Your Space

  It may be helpful to have some additional muscle on hand once again to help you re-arrange as you work. Put all the major devices back where they go (or you now want them to) nearest the outlet that makes the most sense. Are your cords too long (most likely) or too short? Do you have enough outlets? Do you need a power strip or a cord cover to make your dreams come true? If you have the organizing products you need (could be as simple as twist ties or rubber bands to bundle too-long cords)?
  
  Plug everything in where it goes and add cord management solutions as you go keeping cords taut, smooth, and bound together or coiled, as needed.  Every situation requires a little something different, but I have made an Amazon list of some basic cord management products I have personally used with comments about their uses to assist you. Need more ideas, visit TheContainerStore.com and search "cord management."

Elevate and Celebrate! 

Want to add that little something extra to your space? What about some cute baskets to hold your video games and remotes? Or maybe a cute little potted plant? Add 1-3 special items that make the space feel extra personal and homey. Take an after picture. Send it to your bestie or post it on social media (or send it to me! I am so proud of you!). Do a little victory dance. I bet it feels good.

Let's create a powerful magnet to attract more love and abundance to your life, layering one beautiful intention on top of another in physical form.

The intention is what matters, but by making that intention into something you can experience with your senses, you are reminded of it constantly, subconsciously, which is how you--all of us--operate about 95% of the time. Our habits and practiced beliefs run the show and give our prefrontal cortex time to rest or work on others things we're undecided on. 

This is not different from keeping your gym equipment where you can see and access it readily if you have an intention to work out more. In this case, you're preparing your environment for love and abundance and telling your mind to get to work creating more evidence for it with repetitions. Lift more weights at the gym, get stronger. Live in the frequency of love more, become more loving and attract more love. 

With this magnet, you're stating that you believe it exists and that it's available to you and we always get more of what we expect!

So are you ready to prepare your environment for more love and tell the universe you know it exists for you?! Let's do it!

Ingredients you'll need to make the love magnet:

• a clean (no labels!), clear jar of any size (the jar you select will determine the amounts you need of each of the other ingredients)
• salt for grounding and purifying your space (I'm using pink salt because pink is romantic! and i have it on hand, but you can use any kind)
  
• dried orange peel calls in health, cheer, and joy
• rosemary, a purifier, calls in clarity and prosperity and is great for fresh starts
• a red rose, pointing outward, calls in love and passion

Let's talk about washing your produce! There are a lot of reasons to do it and a lot of ways to do it effectively, so I am going to do my best to break it down into bite-sized pieces of information so you will be empowered to do it yourself as easily as you like with a fully-informed understanding of why and how you prefer to do it. Don't be daunted by the amount of information here. If you prefer, just believe me when I say: you should really wash all your produce. Then skip down to the bottom for an easy DIY recipe and be on your way. But if you really want to start with why, let's go!

Why do I wash produce?

A few weeks ago, my dear cousin Liz came for a visit and while I was doing my regular produce wash following my weekly grocery pick-up, she asked if this was a practice I had adopted since Covid or if I had always done it. Wow--had not even thought about that. Though washing away the germs du jour is certainly as good a reason as any, I have always washed produce because it's just really dirty.

I'm not one to sanitize every surface in my house or fear bacteria or digging in the dirt in the slightest; I regularly pick things off my shirt, or my own floor (only my own floor), and "taste test" them. So please hear me when I say: produce is pretty dang dirty. While washing of commercial produce has really come a long way in recent years, here are some of the things that might be on your produce:

• wax and sticker goo--even if you remove the sticker
  
• the residue of the hands of all the other people in the grocery store that handled it before you
• the residue of everything else in your grocery cart (I am a plastic bag hater and use them as never as possible, but even if you do use them, it does not magically guard your already dirty produce from getting dirtier, so you could really skip the bag...or bring a washable cloth one that is likely cleaner and definitely less disposable)
• the residue from all the transportation modalities its been through to get to you
• the pesticides and/or animal waste used in/near the growing of your food (even if you are buying strictly organic)
• dirt/sand (especially on leafy greens)
• bugs (especially if you are buying organic)

"But Mary, I *only* buy from the farmers' market and farmers I know!"  Well, that's amazing and congratulations on being an exceptional locavore, but plants are still grown in dirt (usually) and are still on this Monsanto-drenched earth, and are still presumably handled by a human. If you are exclusively eating produce grown in your own hydroponic greenhouse and picked by you or a robot, then by all means, ignore my advice. 

By the same token, I don't want to be a fear-monger. The benefits of eating some residual pesticides because you're cramming your face with only fruits and vegetables day and night far outweigh eschewing them for sterile, highly processed foods. But can we all agree that if we can easily avoid common pathogens, it's worth it? And removing sand is better for your teeth? And most of us don't really crave a diet of bugs? Perhaps to our detriment, but nevertheless...

Do I need to wash produce that I am going to peel anyway?

Yes. Washing prevents the transfer of whatever is on the produce to: your cutting board, your refrigerator, your knife, your hands, etc. I am going to break down the specifics of when and how to wash produce, but yes, wash all the things--even onions and garlic, especially if they are going to be consumed raw.

When do I wash produce?

Obviously you want to do it before handling and eating, but how much before? In all cases, you can't go wrong with washing it right before you eat it because you do not risk premature moldiness from excess moisture. However, for all the things that I can wash ahead, I prefer to so that when I am ready to consume them, there is no barrier to the resistance of an extra step (and my kids probably won't do it at all). It also saves time in prepping dinner. When I get home from the grocery store, I wash anything with a thicker, more durable or waxy peel immediately in a big batch before putting it in my fruit bowls, produce drawer, etc. I remove the sticker as I put it in to soak and know that if it has a sticker, it has probably not been washed. 

Wash immediately*: apples, avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, celery, bananas, melons, and citrus fruit, beets, cabbage (remove the outer leaves after washing and dry thoroughly), all kinds of squash, sweet potatoes, radishes, blueberries, cherries, grapes, strawberries, ginger root, artichokes, pineapple

Wash on demand: onions and garlic, mushrooms (usually), broccoli, carrots (even prewashed baby carrots), leafy greens, and potatoes (washing ahead is asking them to sprout/mold).

*I came up with this list after years of trial and error, inadvertently prematurely spoiling many wonderful produce items due to my love of batch efficiency, but when in doubt, wash just before consuming/handling. While I do wash strawberries immediately, I always use the spray method for these delicate berries and do not leave them to soak.

What do I wash produce with?

Okay get ready for this mind-blower: you can just use water--running or a soak. Yes, even the FDA says so (and discourages commercial produce wash). Add a little scrubbing action with a vegetable brush or from your fingers and you're in business. That said, you can really do better and with not much more effort than water. If you're going to wash it in the first place, why not try adding one/some of these ingredients to kill bacteria, dissolve wax and sticker residue, and draw out bugs more effectively?

• Lemon Juice: adding lemon juice to water to clean lemons is very meta. But seriously, this high-acid (2.0 pH, baby!) fruit is great at dissolving grime and grit and loosening dirt. Citric acid is known by chemists as a mild reducing agent, which means that it has the power to denature or unravel the proteins that make viruses function (ever made ceviche?). It can't kill everything, but dang, it's a powerhouse. Plus, it smells so nice!
  
• Vinegar: readily available and oh-so cheap, vinegar, like lemon juice is an acid (2.4 pH) that dissolves grime and grease and while super smelly, is also super mild and safe for use everywhere in your house and around all your people. Can it kill bacteria? Well, it's not proven as a disinfectant.
  
• Salt: salt is a great absorber and very powerful in combination with acids like lemon and vinegar. Salt is said to draw out bugs in produce, as well as absorb pesticides. It is also an abrasive/scouring agent, but you won't really use it in this capacity in a soak or spray.
  
• Baking Soda: ...is a kind of salt (sodium bicarbonate) and like salt, it is a great absorber, effective at dissolving grime and grease, and a powerful partner with an acid like lemon juice or vinegar (volcano anyone?)

What is the best method for washing produce: soak, spray, or rinse?

Dealer's choice! I like to bulk wash most of my produce in a soak as soon as I get home from the grocery store because I can do other things like put the rest of my groceries away while that happens. For on-demand washing, I find a spray more convenient...or I just run it under water (onions and mushrooms).

With all methods, dry thoroughly after cleaning and refrigerate as needed.

Recipes!

Soak:

Fill your sink with enough cold water to cover your produce. Add 1/4 cup vinegar and 2 T salt or baking soda. Let sit for at least 10-15 minutes before rinsing with cold running water and drying thoroughly.

Spray:

Put the following in a glass or plastic bottle (metal is not recommended as the acids will deteriorate it)- 1 cup water, 1 T baking soda or salt, 1 T lemon juice (or juice from half a lemon). Add produce to be washed to a colander and spray thoroughly all over. Let sit for 10-15 minutes before rinsing with cold water and drying thoroughly.

How is a simple thing like trash can placement affecting your space?

Feng Shui is a wonderful practice for bringing mindfulness and intention to your space. Even when you are not able to strictly adhere to the ideal version of every concept or principle, being aware and conscientious about your space will raise the vibration of it--and you-- through the application of your loving attention.