Feng Shui with Style! Working with Your Element Type

When you begin to study feng shui, you quickly realize the importance of the qualities and characteristics of the five feng shui elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This knowledge is essential to selecting appropriate colors, furnishings, and accessories for your Home. You can also use your understanding of the five elements to develop a personalized feng shui strategy, based on the element that is reflected most strongly in your own style of living.

Metal energy is clean, simple, and detail-oriented. Earth is lush, nurturing and comfortable. Water is free-flowing, expressive, and intuitive. Wood is ambitious, forward-thinking, and practical. Fire is passionate, excitable, and changeable. Each of us has a unique combination of these five energies in our own personality, usually with one element dominating. This is reflected in how we decorate and use our Homes. Some of us developed a strong style preference at a very early age, which continues to serve and suit us well. Others go through different phases as they progress through life. You may once have covered anything that didn't move in chintz and ruffles, but now find yourself appreciating the clarity of a more sparsely decorated space - or vice versa. During an earlier phase you may have been happy with few possessions and a minimalist lifestyle, only to find greater comfort now in the abundant colors and textures of a more lavishly decorated Home.

The element that is strongest in your personality right now will influence your current decorating style, housekeeping habits, and your approach to feng shui. Your experience will be more fun and more comfortable when you tailor your feng shui strategies to your element style. Let's begin by seeing which of the five descriptions below most closely describes you:

Neat Freak (METAL): I hate clutter! My Home is always immaculate, with everything tidy and well-maintained, and I am very thoughtful about what I bring into my space.

Pack Rat (EARTH): I love my stuff, and can't get rid of anything. My house is so full of clutter that when something is broken I can't even get to it to fix it.

Free Spirit (WATER): I'm too busy being me to clean up! If something's a mess, I just toss a shawl over it. People say my Home has lots of personality, and I am constantly redecorating and moving things around.

Go-Getter (WOOD): Housekeeping? Home dcor? Don't ask me; that's what the maid and decorator are for. I just want things functional and practical, and I need a quiet place to come Home to at the end of a busy day.

Whirlwind (FIRE): Enough of the quiz already! I have a million things to do and a short attention span-just tell me how to feng shui my house!

Many people are a combination of styles, so it may be hard to choose just one answer. If you're not sure, ask a few relatives or close friends for feedback; if you're a true Neat Freak, you may think your house is a mess even when it's immaculate by other people's standards! You may also find that you live one style, but secretly crave another. As a dyed-in-the-wool Free Spirit, for example, I regularly break the feng shui rules of good housekeeping because I'm just too busy creating, writing, and living to keep things as clean and organized as I would like them to be. But whenever I visit a Neat Freak's home, my soul goes "ahhhhhh." The trick is to be aware of what type of space you are really, truly most comfortable in. As much as I like visiting pristine, zen-like spaces, I know that I don't really want to live in one -- that if I did it would soon look just as lived-in as my current Home.

Here are some guidelines, based on the element-affinities described above, to help you develop a personalized feng shui strategy:

NEAT FREAK - Your home is so neat and tidy that it may be a little rigid, sterile, or monochromatic. You tend to l