I recently moved into a new apartment. Before I began moving my belongings into my new home, I wanted to spiritually cleanse the area from top to bottom. My intent was to completely remove the energy of the previous tenants, and replace it with a positive, protective energy that would both nurture my family and keep us safe.
The first thing I did was ritually sweep out the old energy. Having no idea who had inhabited the apartment before me, I didn't know what kind of energy they had left behind. Taking our household warding broom (more on that in a moment) I ritually swept the apartment from top to bottom. The floors, cupboards - I swept every surface that could be swept.
Ritual sweeping differs from normal household sweeping in two ways. First, you visualize that you're moving energy. I pictured big dusty balls of dark energy being swept into piles and then out the door. The second difference is that the bristles of warding broom never touch the floor. You're literally
sweeping the air inches above the surface you're sweeping. It's a ritual - not a physical cleansing.
Once the apartment was ritually swept, I smudged it from top to bottom with white sage. I smudged every cupboard and closet (inside and out), the walls (from floor to ceiling) - every possible space that could be smudged was.
To smudge with white sage, you light the sage on fire and then extinguish the flame so that the sage is smoldering. In a slow sweeping motion, with the smoldering sage in your hand, you direct the smoke over the area that you wish to smudge. I like to envision the smoke merging with the surface that I'm smudging, the wall and the smoke becoming one entity.
I also like to draw symbols over all of the openings (doors, windows, fireplace) with olive oil and lay
down warding brooms over both entrances to the apartment. In old pagan lore, a broom laid across a doorway is said to keep all harmful magic at bay.
Simple but effective, these techniques can be used not only at the time you move into a new home, but at any point in time you feel is appropriate.