Minimal Universe

Minimal Universe collect posts from our favorite minimal-related blogs listed on the right.
  • cats-pajamas: Wherever this is… yes.



    cats-pajamas:

    Wherever this is… yes.



  • The Road to Emptiness: Zen Travel

    The Road to Emptiness: Zen Travel

  • 12 Essential Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk | Zen Habits

    12 Essential Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk | Zen Habits:

    1. Do one thing at a time.
    2. Do it slowly and deliberately.
    3. Do it completely. Put your mind completely on the task. Don’t move on to the next task until you’re finished.
    4. Do less.
    5. Put space between things.
    6. Develop rituals.
    7. Designate time for certain things.
    8. Devote time to sitting.
    9. Smile and serve others.
    10. Make cleaning and cooking become meditation.
    11. Think about what is necessary.
    12. Live simply.

  • "The best part about traveling is the forced minimalism. My life at home, as it has evolved, is quite..."

    “The best part about traveling is the forced minimalism. My life at home, as it has evolved, is quite complex and full of stuff. On the road I’m reduced to what I carry in a small backpack and hand bag — clutter becomes a physical burden. I really enjoy this simplicity as it helps me focus. One of my favorite things to watch as a friend or colleague travels more is how their bag gets smaller and smaller with each trip.”

    - Travel Minimalism

  • Tumblr, again

    Since tumblr is again deleting posts from my queue, I will post in the next few hours all the posts there.

    There aren’t many, but I just want to be sure they don’t get deleted again.

    Apparently the queue feature is at over capacity and they are rolling a new queue feature. While I am thankful for tumblr and its team, I can’t help it but think this strted the day Marco left.

  • How to revive the lost art of sitting still | Minimal Student

    How to revive the lost art of sitting still | Minimal Student:

    As people, we have been trained to believe that doing something is always better than doing nothing, like mindlessly flipping through a hundred channels is better than doing nothing…better than sitting still.

  • Minimalist Philosophy: To Walk Away, Empty-Handed | Miss Minimalist

    Minimalist Philosophy: To Walk Away, Empty-Handed | Miss Minimalist

  • simpledesks: Submitted by Claudia Tavernese.



    simpledesks:

    Submitted by Claudia Tavernese.



  • "Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine."

    ““Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.””

    - Shunryu Suzuki

  • Collector’s Loft

    Collector’s Loft, designed by Texas-based Poteet Architects, is a haven for minimalist design, contrasting elements, and modern decor. The apartment is commodiously clean and warmly comfortable. The floor-to-ceiling windows extract plenty of light to illuminate the purposefully selected furniture pieces. Recognizable classics by Arne Jacobsen and Saarinen are positioned throughout the rooms to provide both inspiration and aesthetic pleasure.

    Interestingly, the home’s major furnishings – which include the sofa, bed, and table – are outfitted with a neutral palette; the paintings, accessories, and even flowers, on the other hand, engender bold colors and serve as accents. Overall, there is a harmonious balance between the objects and the space.

    poteet_collectors_1
    poteet_collectors_2
    poteet_collectors_4
    poteet_collectors_6
    poteet_collectors_7

  • lessisless: start living…



    lessisless:



    start living…



  • "It is desirable that a man […] live in all respects so compactly and preparedly that, if an enemy..."

    “It is desirable that a man […] live in all respects so compactly and preparedly that, if an enemy take the town, he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without anxiety.”

    -

    Henry Thoreau: Walden

    My answer is yes. A couple of years ago my wife and I moved countries. I was able to almost just leave with nothing but a small backpack. I sold or donated all my possessions accumulated during my bachelor years and just leave with what then I considered my essential things: 42 things. They all fit on a 65 liter backpack.



  • Addiction, Step One of Twelve, and Focus for A Fiver

    Not too far from my home, is an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting house. They have several meetings a day. I would guess ten to twelve (the house is large enough to accommodate). I regularly observe the people coming, going, mingling outside on the porch between meetings. They’re from all walks of life. They are all at various steps of dealing with their addiction to alcohol. No matter who you are, step one is always the hardest and most important. Believe me, I get that and have a lot of respect for it.

    That said, I often wonder as I see them – almost as a rule – chain smoking, downing cup after cup of coffee, chatting endlessly on their mobile phone, if they are merely confronting the one addiction that was causing the most problem, and ignoring the others that are not. Have they really confronted the real problem? The problem of addiction itself? And by confronting and applying the steps to that core problem would it be successful in not only the battle with alcohol but in countless other ways? Have they really done “step one”?

    I’m starting to wonder about the numerous applications one can now buy to help with “focus”. There are many of these I have covered here before. Heck, there are many that I use myself. I’m using one right now. That said, am I really curing the root of the problem? Am I simply replacing it with new ones? Would working on the root of the issue eradicate my need for an application like Writeroom when I find even my Desktop too much to handle? Have I really done “step one”?

    Don’t get me wrong, I know that these root problems are much harder to tackle. I know that, on the surface, throwing down a fiver on something that will help seems like the right thing to do. But pretending that will cure the real problem, and in many cases not simply replace it with others, is the same as the chain smoking, coffee swilling alcoholic who claims he has dealt with his addiction because of the color of coin in his pocket.

    “Hi. My name is Patrick. I have no self control.”

    See? Step one. Where’s my medallion?

    See also: On distraction and virtual crutches « The Quillink Observer – A similarly themed and introspective post that was brought to my attention in the middle of writing this one.

  • The Lifestyle of a Minimalist Digital Nomad

    The Lifestyle of a Minimalist Digital Nomad:

    At some point during my travels, I decided to count how many items I was living with and the number came surprisingly close to twenty-five.

  • stevenf: Automator is unbelievably useful for “smart” batch...



    stevenf:

    Automator is unbelievably useful for “smart” batch renaming of files. I’ve used it for all kinds of things, like renaming a few thousand .JPEG files into .jpg files in a matter of seconds.

    The workflow shown above solved a problem where I had two folders full of photos named in the IMG_0001 style that were all unique pictures, but with countless filename collisions. I wanted them to all go into a single folder peacefully. The workflow takes all the files selected in the Finder and prepends the creation date of the file to the name. Worked like a champ.

    Automator is a deep and underrated application and it comes on every Mac. I don’t mention it enough because I don’t use it enough. It certainly deserves it, because it is another one of those apps to think about when you find yourself in need of a way to script repetitive or batch tasks. This is a fantastic example of that.



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