I’m so happy this article is up online from Sunset. It’s an inspiring story about a family (The Johnsons) who cut out so much of their stuff and try hard to live the Zero Waste life. A commenter on their site named Stephanie summed it up pretty well “This article has stuck with me, challenged me, frustrated me, and inspired me.” Seriously, you cannot win; I remember reading about their compostable toothbrushes being sent from Australia and thinking “well, shipping from Australia kind of cancels out the fact that they are compostable.” Also, the wife mentions that she sends the little sticky strip from Netflix back to Netflix so it won’t go in her own trash. O.K., but you haven’t eliminated it. But these are the words of a cynic. The greater point is that these people are trying very hard to live smaller, produce as little waste as possible, and spend less. Their tips regarding toys, food, and wardrobes is great, and overall, if you can pick up just one good tip from the Johnsons then it was worth reading.

Speaking of working with a small budgets and small wardrobes, here is another article that will help you cut down from The New York Times this year. It’s about going a month on just six pieces of clothing and includes links to some fun blogs where people share what they come up with.

image by Thomas J. Story for Sunset Magazine

Yes folks, even our attorney has a house full of Design Public goodies. Actually, out of all of our customer profiles Cyrus wins the prize for having the greatest number of DP products in his home. Well done, Cyrus! Your places looks stellar.

Name: Cyrus

Where do you live? San Francisco, CA

What do you do? Attorney

DP Purchase/s: Fatboy, Flensted Mobile Airplanes Mobile, Singgih Kartono Magno Wooden Radio, Jonas Damon Numbers Clock, David Weeks Hanno the Gorilla, Hybrid-Home Spaceship Print, Wallter Slat Rack, Mod Mom Furniture Owyn Toy Box.

What’s your favorite DP product and why? The Wallter Slat Rack for sure. It’s right by our front door and we hang all our coats, hats, keys, etc. on it every day. It’s generally buried with stuff so we can’t see it, but love it anyway.

How would you describe your design style? Minimalist.  Don’t have much stuff, but take a lot of time to think about each thing that comes into the house and how it fits.

Four sites/blogs you visit daily: Apartment Therapy, Boing Boing, Fast Company Design, Twitter

Tell us about your home, office, workspace, or favorite nook and cranny. We have a two-story loft in a renovated box factory from the early 1900s in the Mission.  We use as a living space, office, workspace for my wife and me.  We recently renovated to Read the rest of this entry »