Monthly Archives: January 2011

My Greenimalist Home Office

I can work while traveling because my entire office fits into my backpack. (At Taichung Train Station)

Right now, my entire home office fits in my backpack. Here’s my set-up broken down by category:

Furniture

I don’t own any. When I stay in a furnished apartment, I’ll use chairs and tables. Otherwise, I just sit on the floor, lean against the wall, and prop my laptop on an old cardboard box. I use ambient lighting when practical.

Electronics

My electronics are not cutting edge. My Kodak Easy-Share camera is almost a decade old, and I’m using a pre-owned 2006 Macbook. I also carry a headset, a mouse, and an ethernet cable. As for cell-phones/smartphones, I’m currently not using any. In total, my electronics are worth around $500.

Phone System

I don’t have a single landline or cell phone subscription: my telephone is completely online. I signed up with Skype for an online number, which includes unlimited calls in the USA, for $60/year. My laptop has a built-in web-cam that I use for videoconferencing, and with my headset, calls are fairly clear. An alternative, Ekiga, works well with open-source.

Fax

I personally haven’t had the need yet, but I may use Fax1 or MyFax. I haven’t tested FaxZero yet, but it claims to offer free faxes with ads.

Mail

Sending mail online is extremely simple. snailmailr, snailmailme, and 1hrmail will print your letter–including color photos–on recycled paper and mail it for a $1-$3. I haven’t tested any yet, but I’m quite impressed.

Receiving mail digitally is much more expensive. Earthclassmail seems to be the most popular service. Besides scanning your letters for online viewing, they also send letters, deposit checks, and forward mail. I probably need to get this soon; my mail is currently just piling up at my old PO Box.

Books

I’m a web developer, so I read a lot of tech books. O’Reilly, Informit, Apress, PragProg, and PeachPit sell DRM-free PDF e-books. By searching around, I can often find free tech e-books licensed under Creative Commons or the GNU FDL. I hate DRM, so I avoid Amazon Kindle/Adobe Digital Editions. If I can’t find a DRM-free e-book, I search the local library.

Documents

I try to minimize the documents I receive. I don’t have auto insurance, magazine subscriptions, or cable, and I receive my bank and loan statements in digital format. Besides saving paper, it save space and headache.

I recycle as much as possible to avoid wasting storage space. I rarely scan documents. So far, I’ve been able to cram everything inside a thin folder.

Printing/Scanning/Photocopying

For those rare moments when I need a scanner, printer, or photocopier, I just borrow one. I usually print at the library ($0.10/page) to avoid the high prices at FedEx Kinko’s. I also try not to scan anything I’m sure I’ll never use again. After all, minimalism is also about removing digital clutter.

Productivity Supplies

I digitized my to-do list, memos, calendar, and address book. For my online whiteboard, I use Twiddla and Dabbleboard. Twiddla is more intuitive, but Dabbleboard includes videoconferencing. I’m using Google Docs for document collaboration, and Google Calendar for my to-do list. Basecamp is a popular alternative for simple project management. I experimented with Zoho last year, but the experience felt unpolished.

My home office is tailored to my needs, not yours. Go and discover the type of Greenimalist office that fits your lifestyle. Maybe your office won’t fit inside a backpack, but I hope I’ve inspired you to get more done with less.

Do you have a method that works better?

Gain Freedom, Save Money, Be Minimalist

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Do you want freedom? Stop spending money.

Think about it. What are you doing today? Is it something worth doing?

Chances are, you’re working at a job, not because it’s meaningful, but because it pays well. You might be working in an office cubicle, attending a business meeting, or sitting in a classroom. Whatever it is, it’s not important–you’re doing it just to earn more money. And if you don’t take control of the situation today, you might be sitting in that same place thirty years from now.

Imagine what would happen if all your living expenses dropped to $0. You wouldn’t need to earn money anymore because you have no expenses. Would you still keep your job? What would you do with the extra time?

I used to measure a person’s success based on his salary. I worked hard at school so I could have a high paying job. Then I’d turn around and squander my money on stuff that doesn’t matter.

Deep down, I didn’t really care about stuff. But sure enough, my money was being siphoned away and spent on laptops, cars, restaurants, and housing.

I didn’t think of myself as being wasteful: it hurt my ego too much. I had friends who spent far more than I did, so I found many ways to justify myself.

It only got worse when I bought practical items. Last year, I bought a new computer under the pretense that it would make me more productive. I was the runner who blamed his shoes. I told myself that I needed the best equipment possible to get work done. The truth, though, was that I usually needed far less than what I wanted.

True wealth isn’t about the possessions you own, and happiness isn’t about having a mansion with a white picket fence. Most of us understand this intuitively, but with the way we spend our money, it’s hard to tell. We dedicate our working hours to earning money, and we dedicate our leisure hours to spending it. Whether we care to admit it or not, we’ve created a culture that glamorizes and glorifies shopping.

Money is a form of time. When we waste money, we’re really wasting time. But time is precious: there are only so many hours for us to waste. Once it’s gone, you can never get it back. Time is too precious to waste on meaningless consumption.

If we seek out Christ with our time and money, it will last for an eternity. For those of us who are Christians, let’s use our new-found freedom for ministry, for reaching out to the lost, for loving our neighbor, rather than for monetary possessions. Life is short; don’t waste it.

Imagine if we could regain our freedom to focus on what’s important and meaningful in life. What an impact it could make.

I Sleep On The Floor Now

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Recently, I’ve been experimenting with minimalist sleeping–which translates, in less poetic terms, to sleeping on the floor.

My reasons are half-philosophical and half-practical. Philosophically-speaking, mattresses are anti-minimalist. They’re large, heavy, and expensive; I can’t imagine packing one in a backpack. Practically-speaking, my shared apartment in Taichung can’t fit another mattress. I couldn’t use one even if I wanted to.

Many cultures throughout the world don’t use mattresses. The Japanese, for example, sleep on tatami mats. The modern mattress can actually harm your spine if it’s too soft. The harder the mattress, the better it is for your back. So I figure I should just use the hardest support of all and sleep on the floor.

The benefits of sleeping mattress-free are legion. Mattresses are extremely difficult to transport, which makes moving an enormous hassle. Professional moving teams are expensive to hire, but it’s grueling to carry a mattress by yourself.

In general, I dislike furniture, because it limits my flexibility and freedom to travel light. I don’t mind sleeping on a mattress if it’s offered, but I don’t want to have to depend on one. If I rent an unfurnished apartment of my own, I don’t want to own any furniture. I love the freedom that comes from minimalism; I can pack my bags and move in an hour. If I bought a mattress, I would lose that flexibility.

I’m also trying to reduce my pollution by reducing consumption. For all of this year, I’m trying to never buy anything new. I’d have to buy a used mattress, then, but this idea doesn’t sound appealing to Hsinya. She would be perpetually worried about sleeping on a dirty mattress.

For the last two weeks, I have been sleeping on the floor. The first week was terrible. I’ve slept on mattresses my whole life, so I didn’t expect the floor to be so uncomfortable. I had difficulty sleeping each night; I would spend an hour lying awake from back pain. Every three hours, I’d wake up feeling sore and groggy.

Maybe the problem was due to my poor posture. Because of the curvature of my spine, all my lower body weight rested entirely on my tailbone. The pain was unbearable at times, but I refused to give up. I was determined to adjust my posture and get used to sleeping on the floor. Eventually, I conceded to borrowing a thin bamboo mat to give my tailbone some cushion against the hardwood floor. In the future, I’ll try to use spare clothes for minimalist padding.

I’m gradually easing into it now. Sleeping on the floor definitely isn’t as comfortable as sleeping in a mattress, but I have now confirmed that it’s possible to sleep anywhere without paying a dime for a bulky, anti-minimalist bed. So the next time I spend the night at a friend’s place, don’t look for me on the sofa-bed; you’ll find me on the floor.

Do you think minimalist furniture is practical?