Vastu for a Rented Flat: What You Can Actually Change

In a rented flat the main door direction, the position of the kitchen, where the toilets fall and the shape of the flat are decided. You are not changing any of them, and no reputable consultant should suggest you try.

This is less of a limitation than it sounds. Of the things a Vastu consultation would usually recommend for a home, the majority are about how the space is used rather than how it is built — and those are exactly the ones a tenant controls completely.

This is the single biggest lever a tenant has, and it is free. Before furniture goes anywhere, take a compass reading and work out which room sits where.

The south-west room is the traditional choice for the main bedroom. A west, north or north-east room suits study and concentration. Guest rooms and storage sit comfortably in the north-west. If you have been given the flat with rooms already labelled by the agent, ignore the labels and decide for yourself.

Sleeping with the head towards the south or the east is the traditional arrangement, and it needs nothing but shifting the bed. Avoid the head pointing north where you have an alternative, and avoid placing the bed directly under a beam or with the foot pointing straight out of the door.

For work, sit facing north or east with a solid wall behind you. In a one-room flat where the desk has to go against a window, a bookshelf or a tall plant placed behind the chair does a surprising amount, and it moves with you.

If you do nothing else, protect the north-east corner and the centre of the flat.

In a rental the north-east tends to become wherever the suitcases live, because it is often the room nobody claimed. Keeping it light, clear and reasonably empty is the most direct thing you can do, and it costs nothing at all.

The centre of the flat — the ब्रह्मस्थान (Brahmasthan) — is similarly the place where the drying rack, the gym equipment and the unopened cartons collect. Keeping the floor visible there is the second.

Most landlords will not allow repainting, and a tenant should not pay for it. Everything below achieves a similar effect, needs no permission, and goes into the next flat when you move.

Lighting is the strongest of these. A dark north or east side of a flat is a real problem in Vastu terms and a lamp is a complete answer to it.

The real opportunity in renting is that you move every few years, so you get to choose again. The checks worth making at a viewing are quick.

Which way the main door faces. Whether there is a toilet in the north-east. Whether the flat is a regular shape or has a cut corner. Which side gets morning light. Whether the room you would sleep in is in the south-west. Ten minutes at the viewing saves two years of working around a flat you did not look at properly.