“My cousin lives in a moderate size house but it is very stuffy and cluttered.  She often complains she is too busy and does not have enough energy.  How can I convince her to clean her clutter so she can increase her energy?”

Clutter means too much useless stuff and disorganization. The more clutter one has the less energy one has, and the less energy one has, the less organized one will be.  It is a vicious cycle. To reverse this bad cycle we need creative thinking.

Organized mantle

In the first place, it is human nature for people to prefer gains over loses.  In general, people prefer to have more than less.  Therefore when you tell people to get rid of this and that, it does not work well psychologically, thus they lack motivation to declutter. Try and explain this to them in terms of modern physics and not in feng shui terms. Space is a form of energy.  If the space is opened up, energy is gained.  Believe it or not, nobody refuses additional energy.

Additionally you should begin with a very small project, not even a room in a house. Many parents can relate that when you ask your children to clean his or her messy room, often it is too overwhelming for them. They might not know where to begin and resist doing anything.

First, start with something small like asking your children to pick up all the dirty socks from floor, and then ask them to remove some empty boxes.  This step by step process will work.  Use this same way to convince your cousin.  Start by telling her you will begin the project with her from a small corner of a room.  If you have already convinced her that she will get more energy by opening up the space, she could not refuse your working with her to clean a small corner.  The thing is, when a corner opens up, she will actually feel more energized. This new found energy will enable her to do a little bit more then planned, as more space creates even more energy. Hopefully, this energy will enable her to continue decluttering.  Before she knows it, the clear corner turns into a clean room.  The newfound energy combined with her accomplishment will give her the incentive to clean up the rest of house.  Once she feels good about the space and has an embedded consciousness that clutter and garbage deplete her energy, she will be more careful to keep the house clean and orderly, thereby reversing the cycle.

This is the secret of the Yin approach.

Shan-tung Hsu Feng Shui