I built my dream minimalist desk setup
I’ve been embracing minimalism lately. Minimalism to me isn’t all about reducing. It’s more about not overconsuming. Here are some of my minimalist choices.
I don’t want a Thunderbolt 5 dock.
I have 4 Thunderbolt 5 ports on my laptop, plus HDMI, an SD card reader, and an audio jack. I’d just be buying a dock to replace the perfectly good ports already on my laptop, and then I’d have to deal with an extra cable and an extra power cable. I have a USB dongle on the back of my monitor that handles ethernet and the receiver for my mouse. It also charges my laptop at 90W.
I don’t ever use my laptop in clamshell mode.
It seems like a waste to close the lid when my MacBook has a nice 120Hz ProMotion display, good sounding speakers, a keyboard I like, and the best laptop trackpad I’ve felt.
Some small design choices I made:
Table legs were taking up leg room and reducing table space, so I made a floating table. Lighting was uneven, and the lamp was taking up desk space, so I put an LED strip on the inner edge of the nook. The LED strip now illuminates the items on the shelf. I installed a wall mount monitor arm to clear visual clutter when my laptop is closed. The top shelf is made from the same butcher block as the table. I added a desk clamp outlet since I work with raspberry pi's and other gadgets that I need to plug in. Now I don't need to climb under my desk to power other items. One of my favorite minimalist purchases was my 1 gallon Yeti. I fill it up once and try to drink it in the span of two days. Now I don't walk back and forth to the fridge to fill up small cups.