I’m not exaggerating when I say my husband has a habit of leaving his PC running for days on a stretch. The only time he turn it off is when it rains or going out. That is one bad habit I would like to see him change. Shutting down PCs at night would definitely save on energy usage.

Ordinary incandescent light bulbs are very inefficient at converting electricity to light because a lot of energy is wasted into producing heat. A house would save significantly if compact fluorescents are used instead. Good thing our home uses fluorescent lighting exclusively.

Wash dirty clothes with cold water at all times. Well I have never bothered about water temperature when washing my clothes. It had always been cold water.

Use microwave instead of the oven. Sounds good to me. The only time I use the oven is to reheat crispy and crunchy stuff. And I seldom bake.

Most household uses tankless water heaters, which is efficient in energy usage as it heats up the water on demand instead of constantly keeping a tank of water warm. You might even want to take it a step further by switching to aerated showerheads to conserve your water bill. CSIRO Melbourne, Australia, says it “has developed a simple ‘air shower’ device which, when fitted into existing showerheads, fills the water droplets with a tiny bubble of air. The result is the shower feels just as wet and just as strong as before, but now uses much less water”. It is said they intend to market the product at a very reasonable low price for consumers. When this hits the market in my neighbourhood, I’ll be sure to get one myself.

Electric appliances when not in use, pull the plug. I don’t always pay attention to this. Yes I know electrical stuff consumes a tiny bit of electricity in stand-by mode. All I’ve got in stand-by mode is the TV and air-conditioner at all times. So I guess the miniscule savings won’t matter much here.

Use less air-conditioning. With our searing tropical heat, this is one tough nut to crack. We try our best to limit our air-conditioner usage to our bedroom which needs only a small 1-horsepower unit to keep it cool. I really can’t tolerate sleeping in a hot and stuffy room.

Poison Arrows afflicting the main door and bed

Look out of your house and check if there’s any ‘poison arrows‘ pointing directly towards your main door. Poison arrows in Feng Shui refers to sharp and pointed structures which inflicts bad chi to the lives of afflicted inhabitants. It can be a sharp angle of a building, edge of a wall, pillars, trees, table corner and such.

Within your bedroom, observe and find poison arrows pointed towards the bed.

If you find any, both external and internal poison arrows must be shielded, reflected or hidden from view.

If you have any doubts with your own ability to recognise or suppress poison arrows, it is best to use a qualified Feng Shui practitioner for peace of mind.

The bedroom and interior decor

Again, take note of poison arrows pointing towards your bed and hide them from view.

If your bedroom is a mess you should probably give it a good spring cleaning now. Clutter weakens the ‘chi‘ in a given area. Since we’re trying to apply Feng Shui to bring about positive ‘chi’ into the bedroom, clean it up until your bedroom feels comfortable and relaxing to be in. Some feng shui practitioners suggest anything under the bed must not be disturb when couples are trying to conceive until the baby is born.

This is important: Position the bed so that your husband’s head is pointed towards his ‘Nien Yen’ direction, which activates his descendant’s luck. To find out your husband’s ‘Nien Yen‘ direction, you should first find out his KUA number. There are a number of feng shui related websites out there that calculates it for you – Smilingbamboo.com for instance, also has a chart of favourite directions for every individual’s KUA number.

Enhance fertility luck by having a painting or symbol of pomegranate in your bedroom to bring many healthy offsprings. One of the traits of pomegranate that signifies fertility luck in feng shui is that when peeled open, it reveals a lot of red seeds. In feng shui, the pomegranate symbolizes fertility and suggests descendants’ luck.

Feng shui experts suggest you place five pomegranates on your bed every morning when you get out of bed. 4 of them should be placed on each corners of the bed and the last one, in the middle of the bed. Remove and keep the pomegranates aside when retiring to the bed every night. Repeat daily.

To enhance positive yang energy in the bedroom, hang red paper lanterns on either side of the bed. A dragon symbol on the man’s side on of the bed helps too. Be aware though, do not place figurines of deities or gods in your bedroom. It is regarded as a disrespectful act to the gods.

It is advisable to display animal ornaments, symbols or subjects in a painting in pairs. Pairing symbolizes marital union. A pair of fish or mandarin ducks is a potent symbolization of marital union.

Place a painting of children in the bedroom. The more children in the painting, the merrier. A great example of such symbolic Feng Shui element is the famous ‘100 children‘ embroided screens found in the emperor’s room of the imperial palace of China, the Forbidden City. It symbolizes a great number of descendants for the emperor.

Placing prominent elephant ornaments as part of your bedroom decor or anywhere in the house will help, particularly if you want baby boys.

As for the rest of your house, the sector that governs the luck of descendants and children is the WEST sector. Energise this area with symbols and artifacts mentioned above. One of the best and most favourable item to occupy this area is the ‘Laughing Buddha with Children‘ figurine.

Miscellaneous tips

Planting a couple of fruit trees, the types that bear lots of fruits, are known in fengshui to symbolize fertility and children. Perhaps planting a pomegranate tree? And eat it too? It is also believed that women who eats a serving of pomegranate fruit during the Chinese New Year will be blessed with sons in that particular year. Admittedly, I’m somewhat amused by this

If you won’t mind buying something weird for your wife, how does an egg sound? Not a real one of course. Perhaps one made from crystals or stone. It is said to bring fertility luck to couples.

There are however members of my family who thinks I’m being overly cautious. But it’s one of those things where it’s better to be safe than sorry. There’s nothing wrong in having a heightened level of awareness of toy safety. Even reputable toy makers – Mattel, Fisher-Price for instance – are recalling some of their toys. Would you dare imagine the level of quality from toys made by bottom rung manufacturers. There are major scientific studies done all over the world on toy safety, and personally, I think we should be more concerned for the sake of our children’s health and safety.

Recent toy recalls has all been about dangerous lead contents. Ideally, toys should not contain lead at all. There is no standard lead level that is considered safe for children or adults. That level should be zero. Parents should only buy toys are are labelled non-toxic.

You might think that the government is in-charge of monitoring safe manufacturing practises for it’s citizens. Some countries have less stringent lead safety standards than some. If you’re in some third world or developing countries, you should be concerned. But that is all in the past. With countries including the US recalling toys due to lead toxicity levels concern right now, everyone should be aware of toy safety no matter where you live.

Lead exposure in toddlers could have detrimental effects on brain development. Even very low levels of lead exposure will have an impact on the brain which could cause developmental delays. Lead is also toxic to the kidneys and blood.

What makes it worst is lead exposure shows no symptoms at all. Damage to brain development is very likely to occur at levels of lead exposure which does not show any symptoms yet. Symptoms will only show when lead exposure reaches unusually high levels. Toddlers could develop head aches, anaemia or gastrointestinal pains.

Realising the adverse impact of lead exposure, parents are also advised to keep an eye on products within the reach of babies which are not toys. Your baby could be chewing away at lead contaminated booster seat buckles. That can of fruit juice might contain hazardous levels of lead in the solder. Or lead used in coloring in a candies. In fact, more children are reportedly harmed by other causes than lead paint in toys. Spare a thought for things which are beyond the category of baby toys.

Take necessary precautions no matter how remote the risks are that your Christmas tree might catch fire. It’s your responsibility as a parent to keep your family safe and sound.