lifehackers

A Minimalist With Large Possessions

/ Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

11.11.2019

0600

I realized that with living a minimalist lifestyle, there are a lot of assumptions about people who live this lifestyle. Minimalists are seen as people who own very few possessions and despise consumerism. There are a number of images that float around on the internet in which bare, white walls, and minimal items are featured in homes. I rarely see images of minimalist homes that hold large possessions. They usually feature the essentials in the kitchen, bedrooms, living room, bathrooms and the rest of the house. I never seem to come across images of minimalist homes that also own sports gear.

However, not all minimalists own the bare minimum in their homes, and not all minimalists stick with the typical standard. I personally do not own a lot of possessions anymore. However, there are activities in my life that do involve large possessions, that I have not given up. In my past blog posts, I have shared the contents of my capsule wardrobe, but I actually do have sports gear that does not get counted into my wardrobe. It’s not counted because it is not daily wear and I only use those sporting clothes on a seasonal basis. I still have my surfing gear and my snowboarding gear that I didn’t count into my capsule wardrobe. My running gear stays active year round, but it’s still not day to day wear.

In my surfing gear bag, I own a wet suit, rash guard, swim suits and board shorts. Since surfing season usually occurs in the summer, I’ll wear clothing pieces from my capsule wardrobe once I change out of my wet suit. Surfing doesn’t require as many specialty clothing pieces compared to snowboarding, so my surfing bag is significantly smaller.

With my love for snowboarding, comes my snowboard, snow boots, and all my riding gear. My riding gear includes my helmet, goggles and neck gaiter. I actually snowboard with a backpack that has emergency items in it, in case my friends or I get into a sticky situation on the mountains. It helps to be prepared to help another person who might be stuck in the snow, when snowboarding. I carry extra snow gear for strangers in case I do need to wait for help to come.

I don’t limit how much clothing I have for each sport, but I also don’t own an excessive amount of clothing per sport either. I’ve gone snowboarding for many years, and I own enough clothing pieces that can last me the entire trip. The longest snowboarding trip I’ve taken, was a one week trip and I always had enough clothing to last me the whole trip. My riding gear never changes, but once we get off the mountain, I’ll change into regular clothes. Usually the temperatures are so cold, I’ll sometimes wear my snow pants and jacket just to stay warm, even after I get off the mountain. I am conscious about how many pieces I have per sport. I have a set bag that I use for each sports, and everything fits in each bag.

Since I run on a daily basis, I have running shorts, sports bras, pants, shirts, sweaters and thermals that can last me year round. I only have two of each clothing piece, but so far, this amount is working for me.

I’ve always loved to play sports and sports have always been a part of my life. When I started my minimalist lifestyle, I didn’t know how other people dealt with their sport clothing, or accessories that come with each sport. I never mentioned it, because it seemed “unminimalistic” of me to hang onto my sport items. The minimalist lifestyle images that I came across on the internet, never included sport items so I felt that my lifestyle needs was somewhat out of place. Everyone seemed to live with the bare minimum. But I love the sports I participate in. I love my running gear, my snowboarding gear and my surfing gear. They make me happy, and when I’m gliding down the mountain or sitting on the ocean, I’m so very thankful that I have the opportunity to experience those places. So my minimalist lifestyle includes my capsule wardrobe, my sporting gear, my ceremonial Vietnamese dresses and a few other items. And although, I don’t live with an excessive amount of clothing, I don’t seem to fit the minimalist standard either. With the implementation of minimalism into my life and knowing that I don’t exactly fit the images I find on the internet, I still wouldn’t have it any other way.

Pros And Cons Of Minimalism

/ Yen-Van Tran / 1 Comment

10.07.2019

0600

So I’ve written a lot about the benefits of living a minimalist lifestyle, but I admit, there were adjustments during the process as well. I tend to talk about the positive benefits of minimalism, and living a minimalist lifestyle, but I never talk about the struggles that I had to go through. There are a few drawbacks when it comes to a minimalist lifestyle, especially when starting out.

A lot of The process is trying to figure out your footprint and how you want to go about living in this lifestyle. Categorizing your life from daily routines to evening routines, what is necessary and unnecessary, and then going room by room to illuminate items is a bit daunting. Sometimes, this can be a guessing game where a small pile of “maybe items” gets created. That pile did come in helpful though, and it lived in a closet for awhile.

However, if you think through the declutering process slowly and carefully, having regrets will not likely be the end result. With everything you own in this world, everything can technically be replaced. During my decluttering process, that temporary pile really helped me out. It helped me mentally and emotionally detach room the object, which made it easier to part with. Once I knew that I hadn’t pulled anything from the pile out in awhile, I would donate that pile.

Here are some Pros and Cons with transitioning to a minimalist lifestyle:

Pros:

  • Less clutter
  • More organized
  • Save money
  • Value experiences over stuff
  • Cleaning is easier
  • More time to enjoy your life
  • Freedom
  • Less stress after getting rid of toxic “friends”
  • You’ll spend your time better because you’ll be more organized and you’ll know what to do.
  • You’ll have fewer tasks simply because you’ll be fully aware of your priorities.
  • You’ll have more money because you’ll spend money only on the essential things;
  • You’ll clean your home faster simply because you’ll have fewer things;
  • You will know what to wear because you’ll be wearing pretty much the same clothes every day.
  • You’ll be more focused and more productive.

Cons:

  • Accidentally getting rid of something you later need
  • You might look poor
  • Spouse might not be willing to adopt a minimalist lifestyle, causing arguments
  • If you have kids, they will always want stuff and while they can’t have everything, as a parent you don’t want to be cruel.
  • If you love shopping, minimalism will not come easy to you.
  • Not everyone will understand what you’re doing. Probably your spouse won’t be happy with your decision and you’ll have conflicts. Your kids, well, they are kids. They will want more stuff all the time.
  • It’s hard to resist new cool gadgets especially if you love technology.

Admittedly, I have donated items in which I did have regrets about, but those items were not meaningful items. They were items that were simply useful to specific situations. More so, my adjustment to this lifestyle was an adjustment for those closest to me. When the holidays or my birthday, rolled around, it was difficult for me to explain to my gift giving family members that I didn’t want physical gifts. If I had to choose a gift, I just wanted to spend time with them, and share a meal. Sometimes that went over well, sometimes it didn’t.

There were also moments, when I wanted to buy a particular product, but I really had no need for it. I’m human, and I still have desires to own certain products because it’s technically it’s an upgrade to something I own. I always end up lecturing myself and reminding myself of the many reasons why I don’t need it. I still like cool products. I still like interesting clothing. I still have wants that I have to pull back on. This will never go away, so I just have to figure out an exit plan, each time it does come up. Most of the time, I default to the responsibility of maintaining the new item. That’s usually the ultimate reason why I won’t end up buying a product.

There are always benefits and drawbacks to every lifestyle. These lists are the items I remembered about my experience with the transition. Even though there are drawbacks to living minimally, the gains outweigh the losses. the change in my mindset also helped me transition to the lifestyle easier, because I realized that I didn’t need much to be happy to begin with. If you want to test out this lifestyle for awhile, I highly recommend it. Make use of the “maybe pile”, if you unsure about donating an item. Think through your decisions, and enjoy the process along the way. It can be a wonderful learning experience, and you may discover that you are happier, owning less items.

If you want to know more, check out this article by Rocio Espinoza, “How to Become a Minimalist and Love It“.

The Zero Waste Lifestyle Commitment

/ Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

07.22.2019

0600

The zero waste lifestyle is a 24 hour a day commitment. I’m not gonna lie, but you do have to be conscious of it. I’ve slipped up a few times, because I wasn’t aware of how a restaurant packaged their food, or that the restaurant automatically gave me disposable utensils (even after I asked them to not include it). I’ve walked away from restaurants, with a plastic drink container, because I forgot that my water bottle at home. (I hang onto the cups to contain my smaller trash items.) but it is so easy to slip up and make a mistake, so don’t feel bad if you do. There are disposable utensils, cutlery, napkins, sauces, wrapping, etc. at every restaurant in the United States; usually comes in the form of take out. Some of the disposable items do serve a purpose such as, sanitary situations, but more than likely they are used for a very short amount time and then tossed into the landfill.

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably carrying around one of these reuseable utensils kits. This kit will likely include a reuseable spoon, fork, knife, chopsticks, a metal straw, a cloth napkin, and perhaps a cloth handkerchief. I will also carry around a water bottle and sometimes my coffee tumbler too. Most of the time, my water bottle is empty in case I want to go get coffee, and then I just use my water bottle to contain my coffee. 

Being aware that the zero waste lifestyle is a constant commitment, means that it influences where you decide to eat, what you decide to eat and even where you decide to go to spend your time. Even though it is a conscious effort, and a lifestyle commitment, it does become easier over time.

I have my favorite restaurants that I go to, and even coffee places that I go to. I also have “go to” food choices that I will pick at certain restaurants, because I know that the food item doesn’t come with packaging. One of the easiest places to go look for zero waste packaged food, is the grocery store; specifically, the deli section. Your menu is the entire deli.

At my local grocery store, I have a variety of different pre-mixed salad options, a variety of meal solutions, sandwiches, sushi rolls and wraps, soups, meat choices and cheese choices. There is also a section for fresh baked bread and fresh donuts, that’s also freshly made each morning. It’s a great place to search for a quick solution for dinner.

The good thing is, as long as you’re aware of this zero waste commitment, and you try to stick to making small changes, you are making a difference. The zero waste community is vast and continues to grow. Around the world, we are presenting our methods and solutions to our every day issues of plastic packaging, wasting resources, and the growing plastic pollution problem.

As long as we are conscious about what we choose, and how we choose to spend every dollar, we are telling our story of our commitment. We are telling our neighbors, our friends, or family that this is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Plastics In The Bathroom

/ Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

07.01.2019

0600

I definitely have plastics in the bathroom. I did try to transition to glass bottles for my bathroom products, but the glass was too slippery and didn’t seem efficient. When it comes to products are used in the bathroom, I do have a set amount of items that I can refill. However, there are items that do come in plastic packaging and plastic bottles, that end up being recycled or go into the landfill.

I have bottles that I refill for my Dr. Bronner’s liquid peppermint soap, my body lotion, and my conditioner. I use bar soaps a lot, so I buy bar soaps that either don’t have packaging at all, or come in recyclable paper packaging.

For the items that do come in plastic packaging, that includes my sunblock, my face moisturizer as well as dental floss.

My bathroom isn’t completely zero waste. I do use plastic containers and refill them as needed. And for specialty items, they come in plastic containers. I wish sunblock didn’t come in plastic containers, but so far, mine do. I think it’s entirely possible to have zero waste bathroom though; mine just isn’t. When it comes to my conditioner, I will transfer some of it into a larger stainless steel water bottle, and add water to dilute the formula. I’ve noticed that my hair responds better when my hair doesn’t have residue left over from the conditioner. For my other items that come in plastic containers such as dental floss, face moisturizer, I haven’t found a good alternative is for my skin yet. I’ll keep looking though, I think the battle is always on going when it comes to striving for a zero waste lifestyle.

Car Floor Mat Towel Sleeves

/ Yen-Van Tran / 3 Comments

04.01.2019

0600

Materials:

  • 2 Bath Towels
  • 4 Hand Towels
  • Sewing Kit
  • White Fabric Pencil

Tools:

  • Sewing Kit
  • Sewing Machine

It’s interesting how we pick up habits from our parents or other figures in our lives. When the rain season comes, my  mother has always wrapped an old towel across her car mats to absorb the extra water that would get dragged in by everyday use. To this day, I’ll see her break out the towels around the middle of October.


As for me, I never cared for my floor mats in my car. I honestly never liked my car. The car was bought without my input and I was stuck with it thereafter. But recently I did get new car mats, along with a new car, and since I didn’t want to drag a bunch of water into my car, I too, wrapped my car mats in towels. But I soon realized that the towels would get tugged and moved around from the daily use of them. I had to solve this issue. I didn’t want to constantly re-tuck the towels under my car mats, because sometimes they were already dirty and wet.


The front floor mats were a large size and I knew that bath towels would be a perfect fit. I decided to make some towel sleeves for my car mats. Since my carpet in my car is black, I knew I had to find black towels to create my towel sleeves. With the towels sleeves, it would be easier to catch the dirt and rocks that would be brought into my car, and the towels would be easy to clean, since all I had to do was take off the sleeves and throw them into the washing machine. 

I found two bath towels that were 52″ long by 30″ wide. Since my front floor mats are about 31″ long and 21″ wide, I only needed the width of the floor mat sleeves to be about 22″ wide. the size of these bath towels would give me 26″ width. I didn’t mind if the towel wasn’t long enough to cover the length of my floor mat because the mat could stick out a little bit.

I folded the towel in half, length-wise and pinned the edges together, to prepare for the sewing process.

I wanted to leave one of the shorter edges open, so I could slide my floor mats in and out easily. In one continuous line, I sewed along the yellow arrows (in the picture below). For the corners of the towel, where the material was thicker, I angled the long sew line and continued on. I then went back and hand stitched the corners, so they would stay together better.

As you can see, the folded towel was still large enough to fit over my floor mat, and there was still extra room.

In order for the sleeves to fit to the car mats better, I sewed rough outlines of the shape of each mat on each of the sleeves. First, I flipped the car mats over, onto the back of the car sleeve. Then, using my white fabric pencil, I drew rough outlines of each mat. I did this because I didn’t want the white washable pencil to show, when I fit the sleeve over the car mat.

I only outlined the rough outline of the car mats, because I still needed to remove them easily. I created the outlines about 3/4″ from the actual edge of the car mats. I left a bit of a boarder, for the fact that the towel might shrink in the washing machine and also, I wanted the sleeves to slip off easily, when needed. Towards the closed end of the car sleeve, I tightened the outline a bit, but in general, I kept the outline lines straight in from the open edge.

I placed each of the front floor mats into my car, and folded the edges underneath the floor mats accordingly. You don’t have to fold them under, but I chose to.

For the rear seat floor mats, I found eight hand towels to create the set in my car. My rear seat floor mats are 24″ long, by 16″ wide, so I found hand towels that were 26″ long and 16″ wide. The sewing process for these floor mat sleeves follows the previous steps for the front seat floor mat sleeves.

I stacked two hand towels on top of each other, making sure that the tag was facing inwards for both towels. I then sewed along the yellow arrows around the towels. I left one of the long edges open because I wanted to slide the floor mat in easily. For the corners of the hand towel sleeves, I angled the long, linear sew line to complete the stitch, and then I went back to each corner and stitched them together carefully. My machine doesn’t like it when the material gets too thick, because it can’t pass under the needle easily.

These rear seat floor mats had a lot of extra room around the edges, so I knew that I might have extra floor coverage.

This size hand towel seems to accommodate different car brands and the mats still fit really well within the parameters.

Now, when I need to clean my floors, I’ll just remove the floor mats from the towel sleeves and either wash them or shake them out. I might have to vacuum the edges, but that doesn’t take long at all. These towel sleeves makes my life a bit easier, by allowing me to keep my floor mats clean, and that’s always a good perk.

What’s in My Sport Emergency Kit

/ Yen-Van Tran / 2 Comments

12.19.2017

0600

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Depending on the season, I participate in annual sport activities each year. Since I enjoy hiking, snowboarding and surfing each year and each needed emergency kits, I figured out a way to combine my emergency kits into one kit. I had to create a Sport Emergency Kit that would work all year round. So this is what I included in my kit…

My larger items include:

  • First Aid Bandages (white bag)
  • Dry Bag (for wet clothes, which is the blue bag)
  • Emergency Flashlight (with a Radio, Compass, Flashlight and)Siren
  • Ropes
  • Bag of smaller items (black bag)
  • Female Urinal Funnel (black handkerchief wrap)

 

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In the white bag for bandages, there are:

  • 3 black bandanas
  • 1 triangle bandage
  • 2 Elastic Wrap Roll Bandages

 

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In the black bag of smaller items I have:

  • 1 pocket knife
  • 1 knife
  • 1 mirror
  • 1 knife sharpener
  • 1 SE FS374 All-Weather Emergency 2-IN-1 Fire Starter & Magnesium Fuel Bar
  • 1 deck of cards
  • 1 collapsable frisbee

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This is just an example of what is in my Sport Emergency Kit. it’s an example to follow if you chose to. You can add to it or simply use it as a template for what you might have in your own kit. I hope this helps and I hope the kit comes in handy when the time comes. If you want to check out what clothing items I keep on hand for each sport, check out Zero Waste Closet- Part II.

Rollup Christmas Tree

/ Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

11.28.2017

0600

Materials:

  • 8 baseboards at 28″ long
  • 15 pieces of 12″ long thin twine rope
  • Extra: Matches to melt the ends of the twine together so it doesn’t come apart over time)

Tools:

  • Miter Saw
  • Drill & Drill Bits (Need 1/8″ drill bit for all holes)

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  • Measure each base board at appropriate length
  • Organize each baseboard to it’s general location on the tree formation and mark the corners of where you plan to make the 45° cuts. I made my marks for my 45° cuts on the bottom edges of my baseboard pieces so my baseboard lengths would stay consistent.
  • Using a Miter Saw, take each baseboard and cut each end of each baseboard at 45°
  • Starting with the top of the tree, mark off each of the holes for each piece.

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  • Drill each hole to create openings
  • Using the twine pieces, start tying the pieces together. To keep each space consistent, I tied the knots towards the end of the rope and the same amount of twine end to melt later.

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It’s a simple tree where the clean up is just rolling up the tree.  When I put up the Christmas lights, I simple wrap them around the edges of the pieces. I usually go in one direction so that the lines are more evenly spaced. Same as my blog post Minimalist Christmas Tree, I hang my ornaments off of the lights. For the more fragile ornaments, I hang them from paperclips and then hang them from the cord.

This was created as an option to not use push pins on the wall, but it was an interesting take on a holiday tree as well. Give it a try if you’re interested, and you can even change out the material I used too.

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Minimalist Christmas Tree

/ Yen-Van Tran / 5 Comments

11.21.2017

0600

Materials:

  • Christmas lights (Used a 25′-0″ length Christmas Light cord)
  • Ornaments
  • Paper clips (Used 14 for the tree + a few extra)

Tools:

  • Measuring Tape

Christmas is one of those holidays that comes with more decorating than the others. It’s not just the food that’s plentiful, but the decorations as well. Which means of course, that I was determined to minimize my decorations for this holiday.

My family has always used a fake tree so we always knew exactly how much mess to expect when decorating for this holiday. However, I wanted to figure out a way to simplify that. This lead to my Christmas tree design, made up of Christmas lights.

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I wanted the base to be 36″ wide, simply because it was the width of a standard door. For a 25′-0″ cord I was using, it seemed like a good base point. I first plugged in my cord and measured out 36″ in the direction I wanted my tree to be located, and then 6″ up. At that point, I placed a pushpin. I then hooked a paperclip to my cord so that it would reach the pushpin. This 36″ length of the cord would create the bottom branch of the tree.

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From there, I measured out 34″ of the next section of the cord and moved in the opposite direction of the bottom branch and measured 6″ up, where I placed the next push pin. I straightened my 34″ section of the cord and placed a paper clip onto it and hooked it onto that pushpin.

I repeated these steps, for each branch of the tree, where each time I subtracted two inches for each branch and measured six inches up to place the next push pin. The height of your tree will really depend on the width of your bottom branch. If you have a longer length of cord and you want the bottom branch to be wider, you can do just that. However, if you have a longer cord and you still start out at a 36″ wide bottom branch, your tree will be taller, which may look just as beautiful.

If you really want to test out how far your can push this design, link up two cords and see how tall you can make it. However, the longer the cord, the wider the base should be. The sequence for each branch will still be the same. The height of this tree ended up at about six feet high from the floor.

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I hung my ornaments around each light and distributed them as needed. If you have trouble hanging the ornaments up, hang the lighter ornaments on the lights themselves and hang the heavier ornaments on the pushpins. If you have delicate or fragile ornaments, consider double looping them around a Christmas light or using a paperclip to hang them up by securing it to the branch (the way you secured the previous paper clips to the pushpins).

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A lot of my ornaments are fairly light and I create ornaments from old keychains I’ve collected over the years. You can click on that blog post, Christmas Ornaments Hack and read about how I made them. It’s interesting when I stand back and look at the tree, because even the keychain pendants have a unique memories tied to them.

You can place a blanket in front of the tree to place presents on and it’ll still look like and regular Christmas Tree. I like to wrap my gifts in reusable fabric and reusable fabric bags and place them under the tree. I wrote about how to create a Zero Waste Christmas or an Eco-Friendly Christmas, in my other blog posts and you can check it out if you’d like any ideas.

Well there you have it, my minimalist Christmas tree. If this works for you that’s great! I hope this blog post inspires you or jogs up some ideas for you.

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Blogger Recognition Award

/ Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

11.14.2017

0600

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I am very happy to announce that Design Life Hacks has been nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award! After many topics and posts that I’ve covered, I’m glad that I still can create interesting content. 😊

What is the Blogger Recognition Award?

Blogger Recognition Award is given to bloggers by bloggers to encourage and acknowledge the hard work and effort that goes into creating posts. It’s an opportunity for bloggers to recognize one another for each of our contributions. A big thanks to Emilia Cantero Dieguez from The Green Choice for the nomination!

How my blog started?

Living in the Bay Area in California, located in the United States of America, life can be pretty stressful. Nationally, a middle class yearly income for a household of three people is considered to be between $42,000 and $125,000, according to the Pew Research Center. Low-income would be anything under $42,000 and upper-income is above $125,000. Here in the Bay Area, an income of $100,000 is now considered low income.

I believe that if I can share a design hack to make life more simplistic and easier to manage, I should. Transitioning into a zero waste lifestyle started this momentum for my blog. Living a zero waste lifestyle made life simple, cleaning became quick and easy, I even saved money and minimized the errands I had to run during my free time. My daily routine improved and I enjoyed going to work each day as well as coming home and relaxing. You can read more about my story here.

Two pieces of advice if you just start with your blog:

  • Schedule out what topic you want to talk about and how to correlate them with your social media. Also, stay on top of your social media.

  • Network, network, network… find bloggers who blog about similar topics as you and collaborate with them. Whatever the purpose of your blog , finding a community to share your ideas and posts with will greatly help expand your viewing statistics and increase visitors to your website.

My nominees!

When you are nominated, there are a few simple steps that you need to take to accept the award nomination. These are the guidelines:

  1. Write a post about your award

  2. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to her blog

  3. Give a brief story of how your blog started

  4. Give two pieces of advice for new bloggers

  5. Select up to 15 other bloggers to nominate

  6. Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them and provide the link to the post you created.

Congratulations to all nominees! You are an inspiration to me! Once again, many thanks to Emilia, from The Green Choice, for nominating Design Life Hacks.

With Love Always,

Yen-Van Tran

 

Eco-Friendly Christmas

/ Yen-Van Tran / 8 Comments

10.15.2017

0600

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Having an Eco-friendly holiday isn’t as daunting as it sounds. It might sound complicated because the concept is different, but it’s actually pretty simple.  So for each holiday there are basic aspects of the holiday celebration I like to check off: decorations, food and entertainment. I don’t always cover all three categories equally and majority of my focus will usually be on the food.

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Decorations tend to be covered easily being that Christmas is such a huge holiday celebrated. Honestly, any type of decoration that is compostable or reusable is a good idea. Here are some ideas for zero waste holiday.

  1. Decoration Ideas:
    1. Seasonal
      1. Seasonal leaves, fruit, create a centerpiece suing branches and colorful seasonal leaves.
    2. Christmas
      1. Use existing jars filled with some seasonal and colorful leaves to decorate the table
      2. Use branches and leaves from outside to decorate the table surface

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  1. Zero Waste Food
    1. Consider using fresh fruits and vegetables as ingredients in your dishes. You can compost the skin or the non edible pieces after
    2. Buy your ingredients from the bulk aisle or bulk bins
    3. For ingredients that usually come in packaging, consider making your own homemade version or looking for it in paper, aluminum or glass packaging
    4. Share recipes or give the gift of different types of dishes to one another

Notebook

Gift ideas can be tricky for this holiday since it’s based around an iconic tree as well as what surrounds it on Christmas Day. However, here are a few ideas for zero waste gifts, you might want to consider. Check social media sites (Groupon, Living Social, Ticketmaster, etc.) for great deals for events and activities for family and friends during the holidays.

  1. Gift Ideas:
    1. Compostable Gifts
      1. Food, snacks, bulk candy wrapped in reusable packaging or compostable packaging
      2. Buy bulk foods and create a recipe kit for a gift
      3. Seasonal fruit, fruit basket gift
    2. Gift of Goods and Products
      1. Consider checking out thrift stores to find a gift for the recipient
      2. If you want to give a new gift, look for gifts with no packaging or recyclable paper packaging
    3. Gift of Experiences
      1. Sporting events ( football, soccer, tennis, gymnastics, baseball, etc.)
      2. Theme parks (check for local theme parks near you or near the recipient)
      3. Outdoor experiences (pedle boating, wind sailing, kayaking, rowboats, canoes, skydiving, zip lining, rock climbing, trampoline time, golfing, etc.)
      4. Gift card or money for food & drinks (breakfast, lunch, dinners, coffee, tea, desserts, wine bar, wine/beer tour)
      5. Gift card or money for activities (cooking classes, yoga, spin class, kickboxing, zip lining, etc.)
      6. Gift card/money for events (museums, concerts, festivals, fairs, movies)
      7. Gift card or money to treat yourself (spa, massage, facial)
    4. Service Ideas (This will differ based on location, so check your local listings)
      1. Volunteer for a charity or organization that will help hand out food during the holidays
      2. Donate toys, clothes, coats, shoes to an organization that will help distribute them this season
      3. Volunteer your time in a hospital, care home, nursing home to those who may not have family near or at all

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  1. Gift Wrapping:
    1. Reusable cloth gift bags with string to tie bows (if wanted)
    2. Fabric sheets or bandanas to wrap and tie around gifts
    3. For the larger gifts, I’ll use a pillowcase or really large bed sheets to wrap the gifts
    4. For medium sized gifts, I’ll wrap the gift in an extra t-shirt.

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Entertainment during the holidays can be daunting as well. Usually families have kids around or simply need entertainment playing while the day is happening. 

  1. Entertainment
    1. Movies- if you are able to stream movies, there are a few great resources to stream holiday movies during this time. Check YouTube or other streaming media, they usually have full movies uploaded to watch.
    2. Board Games – Ask your guest if they have any board games to play or would want to bring for the kids to share and play with
    3. Card Games – these games are always fun because a deck of cards can be really versatile

I hope this outline helped to brainstorm ideas for you. This is an overall idea list and if you want to check out other holiday blog posts, check out these holiday blog posts from these websites:

Car Hack For Cell Phone Calls

/ Yen-Van Tran / 1 Comment

09.19.2017

0600

Materials:

  • Cotton Rope

Tools:

  • Know your knots
  • Scissors

This is a very simple hack and I use it when I put my phone calls on speaker mode. I simply tied two ropes around my car visor where it was tight enough to carry the weight of my cell phone. The ropes still don’t interfere with my visor mirror use as well.

The rope loop on the left side of my visor was tied as it was placed on my visor, then tied off. The rope loop on the right side was actually measured by gauging how much rope I needed to wrap around the visor and then I tied a knot to close off that piece.  I slid it over the visor and because it was a tight squeeze, I knew the knot would naturally tighten more as I was trying to stretch the rope accordingly. I wanted this lop to be tight because it would carry more weight compared to the other one.

The right rope loops is tight enough to hold my cell phone in place in a vertical position. Sometimes I’ll write down my directions if I know I’m going somewhere, where I know I won’t get good reception and place the paper behind the left rope loop. These are good for lists too (ie. grocery lists, errand stop offs, to-do lists, etc).

If I’m driving long distances and I need to swing my visor out to block out the sun from the driver’s side window, I’ll usually slide the phone in on the other side of the visor. It will still hold it in place and technically, the microphone will be even closer to hear and speak into. If you do use this method, just remember to not swing the visor too aggressively. If you do need to use your visor for a short time, keep in mind which side of the visor your phone is on.

So there you have it, my very simple car hack for cell phone speaker mode.

Please don’t text while driving.

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Revisiting Design Hacks

/ Yen-Van Tran / 1 Comment

02.28.2017

1200

Design is ever changing. It evolves, grows up, mutates and sometimes dies. As someone who consistently designs functions for different objects, and re-designs those function issues, I’ll come across methods that are better for the product itself. It never stops. As people grow in the sense of mentally, physically, emotionally, we will change our habits and routines. Sometimes it’s based on a simple scheduling issue, sometimes it’s a physical disability that we all the sudden need to integrate into our routines. Maybe our routines change due to new people coming into our lives and that includes children and adults.

For these many reasons, I re-visit many of my design ideas. I re-visit them as often as I can.  know that I’m designing from my own perspective and from what I know, but I also know that there’s a whole different world out there who may not have the same resources or the same materials readily available.

So let us take a walk down memory lane… and we’ll re-visit some of my old blog posts and some updates I have for this one.

In addition to my Car Hacks blog post, I had to add one small change. I actually learned this from my mom, but since it made sense, I started doing this as well. It’s very simple. IF you have the room, it’s easy to organize you’re items using boxes in your truck. I have two different sized boxes so that when I go grocery shopping, I can place my bulk liquid items in the smaller box and I know that they won’t spill on the drive home. I use the bigger box for larger bulk items and even for my take out food containers. It’s nice that the smaller box fits well inside of the larger box and I can limit the movement of the objects when in motion.

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For the front of the car, I actually looped an S-Hook through the rope that I exists from that original Car Hacks post. The S-Hook allows me to hang my purse when I need to as well as smaller bags that may roll around. When I brought my lunch to work, I would hang my bag from this hook, and (thank goodness for the consistency of gravity) my food never spilled or toppled over. I really like this hack.

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At my work desk, which I wrote here, Work Desk Essentials, I now changed items out and the final setup is a jar of bulk green tea, and a jar of raw almonds and dried cranberries. I have one extra jar in case I run to a grocery store to grab some hot food from the hot foods bar. My coffee tumbler is by Contigo and it has a 20 oz capacity.

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On my desk… I now keep a set of utensils, tea infuser, lip balm and hair bracket in a bag. In the other bag I keep my earphones and phone charger together too. I carry  a handkerchief now and store it along with my napkin. I use my leftover Aquaphor to help me moisturize my skin during the winter.

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In my shoulder bag, I now carry a pair of chopsticks and a handkerchief along with my set of utensils and cloth napkin. Although when I air travel, I will replace the metal utensils for my bamboo set (knife, fork, spoon). My coffee tumbler is also by Contigo who has an excellent spill proof lock.

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These are only a few design hacks that I keep revisiting. As a designer, your perception of a good design always changes and it take a few trial designs to settle one final design. also, as life moves on and time marches on, your routines and needs will change- so your designs will have to adapt.

Websites and Resources List

/ Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

01.10.2017

0800

website-resources

So I was asked awhile back to list some resources that I use, so here they are:

Issues dealing with everyday life and the earth:

  1. Earth 911 – http://earth911.com/
  2. Life Hack – http://www.lifehack.org/

Zero waste issue dealing with the home:

  1. The Zero Waste Home – http://www.zerowastehome.com/
  2. Trash Is For Tossers – http://www.trashisfortossers.com/
  3. Eco-Cycle- http://www.ecocycle.org/zerowaste
  4. Going Zero Waste- https://www.goingzerowaste.com/

Minimalist Articles and websites:

  1. The Minimalists – http://www.theminimalists.com/
  2. Becoming Minimalist – http://www.becomingminimalist.com/

Social Media in general:

  1. Other WordPress blogs about zero waste living and minimalist lifestyles: If you just do a simple search, then you’ll be able to find keywords regarding blogs you’ll be interested in
  2. Twitter: Simple word search
  3. Instagram: Simple word search
  4. Reddit: ZeroWaste Sub

So those are just some of my resources- Hopefully they will be able to help you out.