miss minimalist logo

Technology

Go placidly

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. -Max Ehrmann, “Desiderata”

Is it just me, or has the world become noisier lately? Not in an auditory way, but an information-coming-from-all-directions way.

I remember, maybe five years ago, people lamenting the increase in online noise because “everyone” had a blog. Well now it seems “everyone” has a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, and a multitude of social media accounts. It’s starting to feel like too much to absorb, too much to keep up with, too much time traded for too little in return.

My digital attention span has hit its limit.… {Read more}

100 Possessions: Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500

When I was a carefree, world-traveling digital nomad, with no permanent address or mailbox, it was fairly easy to be paperless. I had few commitments, and little contact with people or organizations who found it necessary to bestow piles of printed matter upon me.

Now that I’m a homeowner with a child, being paper-free has become more of a challenge. In the past two years, paperwork has been flying at me in all directions: from mortgage statements, to home improvement invoices, to medical records, to school info, to utility bills that aren’t available electronically (I like to keep the latter to track water and energy use).… {Read more}

100 Possessions: Laptop

When you live with as little as possible, every item has to pull its own weight. And the more needs a single thing can satisfy, the greater its value in a minimalist household.

With that in mind, if I had to pick my most “valuable” possession, it would be my laptop. It’s a true minimalist workhorse; not only has it enabled me to purge scores of other items, it’s also greatly reduced the amount of living and workspace I need.

How has my laptop helped simplify my life? Oh, let me count the ways! This one little device has eliminated the following physical things from my home:

1.… {Read more}

Minimalist Holiday: Gifting Kindle Books

Good news for minimalists this holiday season: you can now gift Kindle books on Amazon.com. Woo-hoo!

As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of ebooks. They save trees, they save energy, and they save space in our homes.

You can imagine, then, how excited I was to learn about this feature. I come from a family of readers, and we’ve always enjoyed giving each other books. However, most of us have given up physical books in favor of digital ones, so our book gifting days had drawn to a close…until now. :-)

Here’s how it works:

1. Click the “Give as a Gift” button (pictured above) on the book’s Kindle page.… {Read more}

Minimizing Digital Commitments

Last year at this time, I’d never heard of the term “digital sabbatical.” And I had no reason to: while I spent my days in front of my computer (writing, blogging, working), I rarely had need to log on during the evenings or weekends.

As the year progressed, however, my digital workdays grew longer: there were more blogs to read, emails to answer, tweets to write, etc, etc. I’d find myself online late into the night, or on a Saturday or Sunday, answering blog comments, working on projects, or simply keeping up with daily correspondence.

Sometime this summer, I realized my life was out of balance.… {Read more}

Why I Love Ebooks, Part 2

In Part 1 of this topic, I talked about how moving overseas (and being separated from my favorite tomes) made me a huge fan of ebooks.

Even before I moved, however, I was growing weary of physical books. I didn’t like how everything I read seemed to stick around on my bookshelf. Consequently, I committed to get rid of (resell, pass on, or donate) books directly after I’d finished them. I’m a fast reader, though, so in many cases books would leave my house just a day or two after I purchased them! That didn’t feel quite right either.

To compound the problem, the town I lived in (before moving to the UK) was NOT part of the county’s library system (!).… {Read more}

Why I Love Ebooks, Part 1

In response to my post on Printing to PDF, Stuart brought up the subject of ebooks. Oh Stuart, you had to get me started… I know this is a controversial topic here, and some of you fundamentally disagree with my opinion. But it’s an issue near and dear to my heart, and I just can’t refrain from pontificating on it. :-)

I have a love/hate relationship with books. I love the content, but I hate the physical format. It’s not that I don’t like to hold a book in my hands while reading it; I don’t mind that at all, and in fact, sometimes relish the tactile experience of diving into its pages.… {Read more}