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bay area Feng Shui Consultant includes toxic clutter clearing as well as greening
the family home in her services. SF and Marin clients are often in the process
of moving, remodeling or building a new home. Most of them are raising a family
or are planning to in the near future. So, in addition to artistic and traditional
Feng Shui design planning and cures, an important part of my consultation style
has become about creating a healthy home for children. With
more interest in the enviroment recently, the information my colleagues and I
provide is usually welcomed as enlightening and beneficial for the whole family.
The national nonprofit, Healthy Child Healthy World, a source of research findings
among many others available online, cautions parents to remove and avoid many
products traditionally used around the average home that expectant moms and children
spend so much of their time in. These will especially impact
the tender new
lives they bring into the home environment. Since the main impact is on indoor
air quality it also effects everyone in the home.
In addition to suggesting
green building materials and finishes, providing clients a list of what to remove
from the home can be a welcomed part of Feng Shui and clutter clearing services.
The list of chemicals to avoid in a residence is published by HCHW includes common
ingredients found in many popular cosmetics such as
parabens which are known
carcinogens. They list allergens found in cleaning products, body soaps and fragrances
in beauty products, scented candles and fabric softeners, poisons such as insecticides
and repellents,and fabics covered with fire retardant chemicals. The good news
is that these products can all be replaced with safe or in some cases safer alternatives.
Bay area Feng Shui consultant Christie Close and her colleagues, Green Architect
James Bill and Imogen Healthy Homes Consultant, Eva Craig are getting the word
out about conscious design, green home-making and healthy house-keeping practices
for parents in the bay area. As the wave of new information coming from the web
and the press begins to reach more residents and therefore new parents, it's the
perfect time for those of us in Feng Shui consulting and related service businesses
to reach out and educate them. It's a chance to tell them that more consciously
designing their new environment includes using Feng Shui principles and greening
and detoxifying the family home.
James Bill, principal of Inkmoon Architects
in San Anselmo Calif. is a Green Certified and LEED Accredited Professional and
presenter for the USGreen
Building Counsel states that "More clients are
flocking to green building for many reasons. Often their primary reason is to
protect their own and their children's health. Indoor air pollutants include,
among other contaminates, formaldehyde which off gasses from cabinets, carpets,
insulation,
and adhesives, organic chemical pollutants from cleaners, biological contaminants
like molds, and carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide from appliances. Green building
also creates a healthier world environment by protecting our rivers, forests,
and other natural resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions created by buildings,
which are estimated to produce 48% of the US greenhouse gases, and reducing ozone
depleting gas emissions, among other things".
With plenty of lead-time
a baby's nursery can be designed and decorated using Feng Shui principals, painted,
furnished and provisioned with safe green materials and products well in advance
of the birth. Many bay area parents who find this task daunting are seeking help
from the upcoming new generation of green businesses and professional green consultants.
Eva Craig, a Harvard trained architect turned healthy home consultant, practicing
in Marin and San Francisco observes: "The clientele that I serve is highly
educated and tends to be well aware of the press about health threats of products.
Since I focus my consulting practice on issues that face mothers-to-be and mothers
with small children, very few of them have time to fully research what they read,
to separate hype from fact, and to devise a strategy to change their home environments.
It is no surprise that they often feel enormous stress from trying to prepare
and maintain their homes in a way that nurtures their children. My job is to support
them in this effort, by doing the research and presenting it to them in a way
that is clear and applicable to their individual concerns. I help them analyze
their current home or review plans for a new one, make recommendations of safe
alternative materials, furnishings and products, and introduce them to caring
specialists if their situation warrants it. I love to see new parents gain the
calm they need to raise a child because they feel confident in their choices.
It is rewarding to see them realize that through their concern for their child
and through their purchasing decisions they have joined a powerful community that
influences the marketplace and helps preserve our world."
Parents
learn that the decision to paint interiors with low or no VOC paint, which is
easy with pastel colors and a bit more difficult to accomplish for more saturated
colors is now supported by most paint stores in the bay area. Furnishings, clothing
and bedding that are "green" may take a bit of research. and this is
again where the consultants come in handy, with their lists and catalogues of
safe and humanitarian products. Another possible strategy to spread the wave of
awareness and help out expectant parents might be sending out early baby announcements
that let their friends, family and business associates know that they are greening
the baby's environment and buying organic cotton clothing and bedding from companies
that do not use child labor. This practice may start a popular trend and help
raise consciousness among the next generation.
Information about Feng
Shui services provided by Christie Close, as well as green architectural and healthy
homes consulting services by James Bill and Eva Craig is available via www.inkmoon.com |
