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One of the best parts of working at home is being able to control your work environment. With some feng shui knowledge, you can turn your work space into a place of productivity and ease instead of the place where you just log your hours. And all it takes is moving a few things around. In less than an hour you can start to feel better and work better. You may even end up making more money.

The Best Rooms for an Office

To make the most of feng shui energy, your home office should be in the East, South-East, South or North-West part of your house. An office in the East part of a house is good for a new venture. There is a lot of strong, active, focused energy here. The South-East is very similar, but it is a little more gentle. If your business requires better communication and working with others, the South-East is better than the East. If you want a lot of attention and recognition, put your office in the South part of the house. If you want a more respected, established reputation, or are seeking to be a leader or a manager, then the North-West corner of the house is ideal.

It is especially important that the office not be in your bedroom. In feng shui, we want to keep conflicting energies separate, and the relaxing, passive energy of a bedroom does not work well with the active, focused energy required by an office. If you have to put your office somewhere, and you just do not have a spare room, then put it in a corner of the living room.

Decorating Your Office

Because there is so much electrical equipment in modern offices, and because that generates negative chi in feng shui, you’ll want to add a bunch of leafy plants to soak up the electro-magnetic waves. Plants that have round leaves also represent money, and that’s certainly a good charm to have in an office.

Avoid sharp corners of desks, file cabinets and anything else. This usually means that cheaper metal furniture is going to end up costing you in the end, as it will make working in your space harder and more frustrating. If you can not get around a few sharp corners, try covering them with cloth or draping a plant vine over them.

Good light is essential. Avoid fluorescents whenever possible, even if it means putting in a skylight or moving your desk a bit so you do not have to squint from light that is too dark or too bright. Remember — a lot of feng shui seems mystical, but really what matters most is that you feel relaxed and comfortable.

As you probably know, the biggest “sin” in feng shui is clutter, and this applies to offices as much as any other part of your house. To control the clutter make sure you have plenty of storage space, which includes enclosed bookshelves, roomy file cabinets, and well-organized office supplies containers. Having plenty of extra room is very important — you need to leave space for your new clients and new projects to come to you.

Cecilia Montrose is an office designer. She advocates using a wood filing cabinet instead of sharp metal cabinets in offices, and loves the wood file cabinet she uses in her home office.