The relationship between kitchen and wealth

The kitchen is a place to prepare and store food for the family.

Feng shui draws a parallel between the kitchen and a wealth vault and the women of the home. This is because food is a commodity converted from money and homemakers were traditionally women.

Wealth is the central concept which the kitchen revolves around. Traditionally, firewood “柴” (chai) was used to create fire. Its pronunciation is similar to “财” (cai), which means wealth. For this reason, the stove represents the wealth position and fire, which symbolises the continuation of life and its descendants.

As the kitchen provides both the usage of water and fire, it should be kept well-lit, dry and clean, and have good air circulation to attract the god of wealth and maintain a good level of energy.

Of course, the kitchen’s primary purpose is to provide three meals for the family, and it also belongs to the homemaker — the matriarch of the family. However, in modern feng shui, it is known that the kitchen directly affects all women who stay within the household.

How well the kitchen is maintained can be correlated to the health of the female owner within the household. The hygiene of the kitchen also affects the family’s health, as the saying goes: “健康是财富” (jian kang shi cai fu), which translates as “our health is our best asset”. If the kitchen is constantly embroiled in smoke from cooking and reeks from the smell of rubbish, it will disrupt the good qi gathering in the kitchen. This, in turn, will affect the family’s luck. Therefore, it is recommended not to leave any unwashed dishes around and dispose of filled rubbish bags to prevent the smell from filling the kitchen.

When planning the layout of the kitchen, consider adopting the principle of adequacy. This means that if the space is small, try installing an appropriately- sized sink or using a single stove instead of having one with more burners. This leaves good room for food preparation and other kitchen duties.