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Lesson 10 of 12 · Rooms
Toilets, water, stairs and the open centre
The strictest placements: toilets, overhead and underground water, the staircase, the pooja room and the brahmasthan at the centre. Lesson 10.
Written by Khushal ThakkarReviewed by Review pendingUpdated October 29, 2026
A handful of placements get the strictest reading in Vastu: the toilet, water above and below, the staircase, the pooja room and the centre of the home. They share one principle: the north-east and the centre are kept light, clean and open, and weight and waste go to the south and west.
Toilets
| Zone | Reading |
|---|---|
| North-west, west | Favourable |
| South, south-south-west | Acceptable |
| North-east | Avoided: waste in the water corner, the most-cited Vastu concern in flats |
| Centre | Avoided |
| South-west | Avoided in most schools; reserved for the master bedroom |
Inside the toilet: the seat facing north or south, so the user does not face east or west; the door kept closed; a window or exhaust to the north, east or west; and the toilet not sharing a wall with the pooja room or the kitchen stove.
A north-east toilet is the placement people most often ask about. The tradition's balancing list: keep it spotless and dry, door always closed, ventilate it, keep the rest of the north-east zone light and open, and some schools add a bowl of sea salt or a plant outside the door. Nothing structural.
Water
Water has two readings: as an element, which belongs in the north-east, and as weight, which belongs in the south-west. So:
- Underground tank, borewell, sump: north-east, north or east.
- Overhead tank: south-west or west, as a heavy object on the roof; never north-east.
- Septic tank: north-west or west, away from the north-east and the centre.
- Water flow, drains: toward the north or east.
The staircase
Stairs are weight and movement together, so they go south, west or south-west, climbing clockwise, with an odd number of steps in the traditional counting. The north-east and the centre are avoided; a staircase in the centre is the placement practitioners most often call structural, because it cannot be moved without rebuilding. The honest reading for an existing one is to keep the space under the stairs clear (no toilet, no pooja, no store of heavy things) and the stairwell light.
The pooja room
Prayer belongs in the north-east, the corner of clarity, or failing that in the north or east. The idols face west or east so you face east or west while praying; a pooja corner is kept out of bedrooms, off toilet walls and away from the kitchen stove, and off the floor on a raised stand. In a flat with no room to spare, a shelf in the north-east of the living room meets the rule.
The centre
The brahmasthan, the central ninth of the plan, is kept open and light: no pillar, no toilet, no staircase, no heavy furniture, no kitchen. In a flat the centre is usually the living area or a passage, and the rule is simply to leave it uncluttered. The floor-plan tool marks the centre so you can see what sits on it.
Worked example
A flat's plan shows a toilet in the north-west, the overhead tank for the building in the south-west, the pooja shelf in the north-east of the living room and the staircase of the building outside the flat entirely. All four placements follow the tradition; the only thing to check is what stands on the centre, which turns out to be the dining table, which is fine.
Calculate yours
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