10 ways to feng shui in an Airbnb or hotel
This week we're looking at temporary dwellings, the places we live for a work stint abroad or a week on vacation, in the spirit of Sukkot. (For those new to it: during Sukkot, observant Jews eat their meals for a week in a sukkah, a makeshift shelter on the balcony or in the yard, to remember the Israelites' years in the desert. Think of it as camping with divine instructions, which include decorating it beautifully and keeping the branch roof sparse enough to see the stars, so you remember who's really providing the shelter.)
The instinct in a temporary space is to rough it. Why unpack if you're leaving Thursday? Why wash the pan when it will be dirty again by dinner?
Annie Dillard wrote that "how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." By the same logic, the way you live in a space for a week is the way you spend that week, and a week is no small part of your life.
Feng shui works in an Airbnb or a hotel room the same way it works at home, with a lighter hand and a smaller toolkit, and some of these tips work in a sukkah too.
Here are ten ways to settle in.
1. Pause at the threshold. Before you haul the bags in, stand at the door for a moment and take in the space you're entering. Then open every window you can, to let the last guests' air move out and fresh chi in. Once you're inside, keep the luggage and shoes out of the entry so the path to the door stays clear.
2. Unpack completely, even for four nights. Living out of a suitcase, you never really land, and you end up digging for the charger at midnight. Give your clothes the drawers and your toiletries a shelf, and the place starts to feel like somewhere you live.
3. Check the bed. In feng shui the bed belongs in the command position, where you can see the door from where you lie without being directly in line with it. Most guest-room furniture can move a few inches. If it can't, a small mirror placed so you can see the door from bed works as a cure.
4. Bring a few things from home. A scarf to drape over an anonymous dresser, your favorite mug, a small speaker for the playlist you love, or something from your altar or shelf, like a crystal, a stone or a tiny figurine. Give each one a deliberate place. In a sukkah, this is what the decorations are for.
5. Add something fresh. Get flowers from the local market or a pot of basil for the kitchen window. It's for you, for the length of your stay, and it brings Wood energy, the energy of growth, into a room that's been sitting empty between guests.
6. Light incense where it's allowed. A few sticks fit in any bag, and I always bring some when I travel. Choose by what you want from the week. Orange or bergamot lift the mood, sandalwood or lavender help you slow down, and rosemary or frankincense clear the air in a space that's held a lot of other people.
7. Fix the light. Open the curtains first thing in the morning. In the evening, switch off the harsh overhead light and use the lamps, which almost every room has and nobody turns on.
8. Set the table properly at least once, even if dinner is takeout in cartons. Use real plates and glasses, and maybe the scarf from tip four.
9. Do the dishes and make the bed every day. It feels like the least vacation-like advice on this list, and it's the one I'd keep if I could only keep one. Coming back to a clean kitchen and a made bed is what makes a borrowed space feel like yours.
10. Leave it better than you found it. Wipe the counter and open the windows one last time before you go. The Torah's calendar of holidays in Leviticus 23 has a farming law set in the middle of it, about leaving the corners of your field for the poor and the stranger. A clean corner for the next guest is a small version of the same idea.
The dishes will come back, and so will the sand on the floor and the wet towels. When you tidy up anyway, you're deciding what kind of week you'll have.
Sukkot builds a whole holiday around that decision. The sukkah comes down after a week, its roof left thin on purpose so the sky shows through, and people still decorate it as beautifully as they can.
The book of Ecclesiastes, traditionally read during Sukkot, spends twelve chapters insisting that everything is vapor. It also tells you to eat your bread with joy and keep your clothes clean (9:7–8). Its author seems to have felt those two ideas belong together.
Our bodies are temporary dwellings too. We know they won't last, and we still brush our teeth and, now and then, go to bed at a reasonable hour. Caring for a temporary dwelling is most of what a life is made of.
The Torah explains the sukkah in a single verse: so that the generations after you will know how the Israelites were sheltered in the desert (Leviticus 23:43). A kid who watches you set a proper table in a borrowed kitchen will carry that into kitchens of their own.
So this week, wherever you're sleeping, pick one thing from the list and try it. Whatever structure you're in, it's the one you have right now.
Chag sameach, and enjoy the stars.
