This is a photo of my home when I lived in Austin. The garage was converted into a room by the previous owners. The garage is in the Service and Career areas of the Feng Shui Bagua.
Anyone who has ever lived in a place with extreme weather will most likely believe that their home’s garage is an asset, but is it though? The answer is more complicated than you might think. In Feng Shui, we focus on everything that is under the roofline of the house. So if you have a garage that is completely separate from your home, and not attached by a covered walkway, your garage may indeed be an asset. If your garage has been incorporated into the layout of your entire home, then we need to use a Feng Shui bagua to determine which life area is “housing” your garage.
The majority of homes used to have the garage somewhere in the front, near the front door, but today, many developers are placing them in the back of the house to allow for a more symmetrical and clean aesthetic view from the road. This type of design creates some concerns from a Feng Shui point of view because it flips the typical Feng Shui bagua placement from the front door, to the door that enters from the garage. I will save that discussion for another time, but suffice to say, it can cause some problems.
Garages have become synonymous with being a catchall for the entire house and thus can become a massive Feng Shui hazard if allowed to go unchecked. Today’s garages are often used more as a storage unit than anything else. If you can actually fit your car in your garage along with all of your outdoor toys, then you are doing pretty good.
The most common bagua areas that are impacted by a front-facing garage, like the majority of homes built before 2010, are either the Knowledge, Career or Service guas within the Feng Shui Bagau. There are layers of things to consider when it comes to garage placement, but one thing that everyone can do to improve their garage is to make sure to give in an annual makeover. Boxes, recycling, trash and holiday decor tend to multiply when we aren’t paying attention so keeping the garage clean, tidy and accessible will be a great start to ensuring that your garage is playing a positive role in your home and your life.
