How to: Reflect your personal values in your home

Emotions/feelings
It is so important to you to share your feelings. Family and friends are your priority. You have created a home that nurtures those who dwell within it and those who visit. Your furnishings promote comfort and are arranged to encourage conversation.

Leadership
You love to “rally the troops.” You are probably involved in many different volunteer or professional organizations at a high level. You need space at home to organize all of these “campaigns.”

Mastery
You value being very good at what you do, whether that is your work, sport or hobby. For instance, if you love cooking and you value mastery, your kitchen will be your kingdom; the dining room is where you hold court.

Pleasure
It's highly important to you to experience pleasure in all its forms. This may be physical, so perhaps you've upholstered your furniture in soft, sensual fabrics like velvet and silk. Or maybe your bathroom rivals the Windsor Arms and Stillwater spas!

Relatedness
You are a people person; an extrovert through and through. Your home is all about welcoming people, the more the merrier! You probably have a very special guestroom that's often actually used! Playing games and having fun might also be honoured in your home with a very well organized and cosy family room.

Sensitivity/niceness
You are sensitive and it's important that people are kind to you. Your home is welcoming and highly personal to you –- it's where you can have personal “space” to feel comfortable. Your home must feel safe to you.

Spirituality/God
You are a believer in a higher power and you may express this in your home through art choices or through a special sacred space where you can quiet your thoughts and pray or meditate.

Teaching
You love to pass on knowledge. If you have children, you might have a special area for homework and projects where you can work together when they need assistance.

2 TAKE INVENTORY
This exercise raises your awareness of what objects really reflect the inner you.

TRY THIS: Go through each room in your home and, as methodically as possible, categorize each item – from the sofa to the smallest vase – in terms of what it means to you. (Do only one room at a time. If you have a lot of items, this could take awhile.) For each item, ask yourself the following questions:

Do I like this?
What do I like about it?
What does this say about me?
Does it reflect who I am now or who I was 10 years ago?

Then eliminate the items that do not represent you or serve you in some way. Celebrate what's left and with the knowledge gained about who you are, make future decorating decisions and purchases with confidence.

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