What superstitions have you heard about house location and layout?

I was always told that any elephant pictures or statues/ornaments should always face the door otherwise they will bring bad luck.

PACHY!!! GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!

Sink and stove argue? Puhleezzzz. Feng Shui is a visual concept, not a behavioral one.

I’ve never heard of any such superstitions.

I have heard good advice though, about where to buy or build your house. NEVER at the bottom of a hill.

Not to put the bed pointed to the door.

Why not? My beds have always been pointed to the door.

@Dutchess_III I don’t know. Maybe some Flutherite can answer why.

Feng Shui

Don’t build a house on an ancient burial ground. (USA – from the movie Poltergeist)

Here is a list of 13 Superstitions About House & Home and which country where they are from. I haven’t heard of any of them.

I don’t think you’re supposed to have a mirror facing an external door because your luck will flow out.

You don’t want stairs that lead from upstairs straight out the door on the 1st floor – money will leak out.

You don’t want a house at the end of a T-intersection – gives you an uneasy feeling all the time. [in the modern times, that feeling would be due to the risk of a car not making the turn]

@Pied_Pfeffer I love the one about the knife.

Also, it says 0,5, and 8 end at the top of the page. My 5 doesn’t.

When I was a teen there was a house located a few yards back of an extreme curve. There wasn’t much warning and people consistently missed the curve and plowed in to the house.

Oh my gosh! Why didn’t they add a waning sign about the curve?

Well, I think they did, and I also think they moved the house. I haven’t been by that way in years, but I’ll make a point of checking it out.

That street was used by a lot of teenagers blasting around in their hotrod cars, in the dark.

Was the road on a hill? We had a curve on a road that was on a hill and people would lose control and swing out of their lane. It was called deadman’s curve by all of us. A girl in my high school was killed there, but we called it that from way before her death.

No, it was on flat land.

I’ve heard the one @RocketGuy mentioned about not being at the end of a T-intersection. The way I heard it it was just any house that has a long direct path going out of it that allows you to see it from far away.
Regarding the elephants, I was told they were not supposed to face doorways!

@dxs “Regarding the elephants, I was told they were not supposed to face doorways!”

Since my elephant is not facing a doorway, I choose yours as the better answer. ;)

I love these answers. I hope we get a bunch more.

I seriously am going to buy a new broom for my house and bring a fresh loaf of bread in with me too.

My address has an 8 in it. In fact, we were very happy with the house number, the first two added together is my husband’s birth month, and the last two added together are the day. Also, the first two numbers are my birth month and day. Plus, there is the number 18 in the address, which is lucky in Judaism; it means life. You would think it should be a good sign, but as many of you know building this house has been horrible. I hope the luck changes once it’s done. My husband had his car stolen a few hours after we got engaged, you would think that might have been a bad omen also. It was his dream car at the time.

You might also consider adding a mezuzah to, at a minimum, the front entrance door frame. According to the Talmud, keeping the commandment of mezuzah brings long life and protection for members of the home.

My house number is 88 and we’re very happy in it. It’s been a very fortunate house. In a previous house, everyone who lived there had divorced and I did too!

@dxs I recall that the reason elephants are supposed to face the door is because they are free spirits that bring bad luck if they are trapped! I don’t have any elephants so I’m not too concerned!!

I did some reading on how to bring good fortune into your house. When you move into your new house, you should carry some rice with you and two red pockets (those little red envelopes) for good luck.

You don’t want your house to face North.

Apparently, you should make up the beds as soon as possible.

You also need to make noise. Boil the kettle, turn on the TV and make a lot of noise. Turn on the lights too. This draws prosperity to your house (and the neighbours to tell you to shut up).

You should scatter coins around your living room to encourage prosperity.

Welcome in black ants. They’re lucky apparently. I should win Gold Lotto soon since black ants have been known to move in whenever it’s due to rain.

While you do want 8 in your house number, you don’t want 4.

When will your new home be ready?

@Pied_Pfeffer I’ve always resisted advertising I’m Jewish on my house. My FIL wanted to buy us a mezuzah when we were first married and I rejected it, which I fell badly about, because it was a very sweet gesture. Sometimes I think I should have done it, at the time we lived in a very Jewish city, so I had absolutely no fears, but I still feel in a way it misrepresents who I am and generally it just highlights religion a little too much for me in my house.

When I go into someone’s house with crosses everywhere I am not uncomfortable, but it’s like religion is brought out in front. Hard to explain without it sounding like I look down on it when people do it, I don’t at all look down or feel negative about it. My MIL has crosses and beads and Jesus in her house in almost every room and it’s fine. I sometimes sleep under a cross when I stay with her.

But, just to contradict myself, as I get older I care more about being Jewish and tradition and maybe I will change my mind.

I do have my Ketubah and my husband’s conversion documents framed and those hang in our house. I also have a few other decidedly Jewish nick knacks that sometimes are in display depending on the house and it’s display capabilities in the space.

@Earthbound_Misfit North facing houses are most desirable in Florida. Mine faces South and I was disappointed I couldn’t get North, so at least maybe that disappointment will turn into luck.

I always think of 8 as a female number and infinity. I know the female thing is basically a sex thing, but that’s ok.

I have an elephant. named George. There is no telling which way he’s going to be facing at any given moment.

Note that the number 8 has some negative connotations as well—the letter H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, and

“8” is used in some groups to mean Hitler, and “88” to mean Heil Hitler:

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I didn’t know any of that. Ugh. Ruined a perfectly lovely number. I might just try to ignore that information. I wonder if the neo nazis like to name their children with H names? I’m curious if German jellies see it a lot in Germany.

Ha! I thought exactly the same as I read @elbanditoroso‘s post @JLeslie. “I think I’ll just ignore that information”. I’m hoping when we come to sell there are lots of Chinese buyers.

Oh goodness, the direction thing is involved. There is a whole chart that tells you which directions are good and bad and if they are good for health, money etc. There’s a rider that says ‘don’t let it rule your life’ which sort of sums up how valid this whole discussion is but fun to play with nonetheless.

We also value a North/South aspect too or the house would be horribly hot.

Southern backyard is the preference here because then you get all day sun over the pool, without direct sun into the house where the majority if the large windows are. However, I have a friend who purposely picked a western backyard so the sun set on her pool. That’s nuts to me, because then the sun is in your eyes while you try to eat dinner after work.

I’m a 1 and my husband is 6.

@JLeslie We do not see a lot of Neo Nazis in Germany. They certainly don’t (typically) go around proclaiming their beliefs. I, personally, knew about the number eight being used as a code. I doubt the majority of Germans do.