IKEA: Is It Green? Like many people, I have a love-hate relationship with IKEA. They made modern design affordable and popular, while at the same time making it almost impossible for local designers and short-run production to compete. They have taken many green initiatives, but still are a suburban big box vendor with much of their production outsourced. Their quality is dramatically improved in recent years, and you no longer drive all the way out there to find truth in the old joke that IKEA is swedish for "Sorry, Out of Stock." But can you call it green? Inhabitat took a close look and the results, like a LJUSÅS YSBY fixture, are illuminating. According to Adrianne Jeffries at Inhabitat, IKEA is pursuing sustainability in a big way. They stopped using plastic bags. They are investing $77 million in clean technology startups like solar. Today, 71% of all IKEA products are recyclable, made from recycled materials, or both. The company recycles 84% of the waste generated in its stores.

When a country introduces stricter emissions rules, like when Japan decided to restrict formaldehyde emissions to levels close to zero, IKEA imposes the new restrictions on its global operations. As a result, Ikea’s policy reflects the strictest emissions policies in countries across the world, even though it sometimes drives costs higher.best price glider chair Inhabitat looks at IKEA initiatives on products and materials, suppliers, and climate change and comes away impressed. chaise lounge chair indoor for saleRead more at Inhabitat.la-z-boy office chair repairThey have done great things, but they have done to furniture and home furnishings what Wal-Mart has done to everything else- taken over the market, at the expense of Main Street and the local design and production industries. cheap inflatable camping chair

Everything has its price. IKEA Puts $U.S. 75 Million Toward Cheap Solar IKEA Bans Plastic Bags For Good IKEA Lighting The Way To Warmer LED Lamps IKEA Gives Out 60,000 Free CFLsClick here to add note or comment Soon after relocating to Japan, you'll want to get some essentials like figures and Gundams. ladder back chairs ebay ukAfter that you'll probably want some furniture.office chairs for posture For most of the years spent in Japan, I got a lot of my furniture from Tokyu Hands - the department store that sells just about everything under the (rising) sun. leather chairs for sale torontoTokyu Hands have many stores in Tokyo so its convenient to buy stuff. antique spinning chairs for sale

I think could be because they have a hefty rent bills to pay that they sell everything at retail price. Muji and FrancFranc are other places that I get stuff from and the online store Rakuten is another good place to look. It wasn't until recently however that Ikea decided to give Japan a try and enter the market. sofa chair for gamingI didnt understand what all the fuss was about and heard many including Roy complaining about the service. Wifey had driven down to Ikea in Yokohama many times and convinced me to make the trip. Despite getting there early there were a ton of people lining up to get in! Click here to add note or comment If you are used to Ikea stuff then the new stores around Tokyo will come as a welcome relief. It was only when I made the trip when I realized why Ikea is so popular - the stuff is cheap and quality is quite good - some of it is crap though. This wall mountable shelf was 9,900 yen.

Great for HG or GFF figures. I suppose you can adjust the shelves and put in bigger figures though. Did I mention that people in Japan love to form queues? Take something to fidget around with (NDS, PSP, Figure, Pantsu etc) when you are in Japan as queuing is a way of life. Got fed up of the small tables on the third floor and decided to get new shiny ones. Throwing together a leg - each leg cost about 3,000 yen. Room with the previous tables removed. Dont you just love wires? This is what the room currently looks like. We got two sheets of glass - each costing 8,000 yen - total of 28,000 yen for the lot. Each measured about 150cm X 80cm. Kept one old table and decided to chuck the other. In Japan, you cant just throw big stuff away and need to first contact your local ward office and let them know what you want to get rid of. They will tell you how much it costs and arrange for a time to come and pick up your unwanted stuff. You then get your booty along to your nearest convenient store, buy a Sodai Gomi(粗大ゴミ(そだいごみ)) (Bulky garbage) sticker to stick on the side of your trash and chuck it out on the day and time arranged between you and the ward office.

If you want, you can be a good citizen and stick out your unwanted table/TV etc nearby your house and leave a note saying "please take." If nobody takes it because your table has brown smelly skid marks on it, you should continue to be a good citizen, bring it back to your house and deal with it as described above. This is the reason why some of your friends may tell you that they find free electronic goods and furniture lying around the streets. Just thought I would show you what that shelf of figures currently looks like. Activity/Photo of the Day Montessori at Home E-Course! Otis 13 - 17 months Otis 18 - 23 months Photo/Activity of the Day What we are making - What we are baking What's on our Shelves Subscribe to this blog's feed Enter your email address: Blog powered by TypepadThe wrong chair = real health problems. (Total read time: 8 minutes) In this post I’ll cover how I identified the best high-end chairs in the world, which I ultimately chose, and the tangible results that followed.

In January of 2005, I found myself on a veranda in Panama after the usual afternoon rain, dreaming of the upcoming year and reflecting on lessons learned since leaving the US. Maria Elena, the matriarch of the Panamanian family that had adopted me, sipped her iced tea and pointed at my bruised feet: “Tim, let me share some advice I was once given. Buy the most comfortable bed and pair of shoes you can afford. If you’re not in one, you’ll be in the other.” I followed her advice upon returning to CA and the results were sudden: Plantar Fasciitis disappeared, as did shoulder impingement after switching from coil-spring to foam-layered mattresses. But what about chairs? On January 4th, 2009, I tweeted out the following: “Is the Aeron chair worth it? http://tr.im/2uxd Do you have any fave chairs for extended sitting and writing?” Even though I’m financially comfortable now, I didn’t grow up spending a lot of money, which I’m thankful for. To this day, I’ve never paid for first-class airfare for myself.

Not that it isn’t worth it — I just can’t do it. Similarly, I had trouble believing a chair could possibly be worth $850-$1,200, but my back pain led me to pose the question to the omniscient Interweb. More than 95% of Aeron users replied with “yes, absolutely”, but it wasn’t the only chair with a cult-like following. Four of the five are manufactured by Herman Miller (HM) and Humanscale (HS). Prices are from Amazon, as are the star reviews, but discounts of $200-400 can be negotiated with dealers. Both eBay and Craiglist offer similar discounts. In descending order of popularity: 1. Aeron (Fully loaded) (HM) – $879 (1 review; average review: 5 stars) Used at NASA mission control and tech start-ups worldwide. 2. Mirra (fully loaded) (HM) – $829 (14 reviews; average review: 4.5 stars) Note: the Herman Miller sales representatives I spoke with preferred the Mirra seat feel for shorter legs vs. the Aeron. Easier to adjust: Mirra is about 9 revolutions from loosest to tightest settings;

3. SwingChair – $495 Recommended by a strong contingent of writers, including one of my favorite visual storytellers, Kathy Sierra. I like the design concept, but I would suggest other forms of “core exercise”. 4. Liberty (HS) – $899 (6 reviews; average review: 3.5 stars) 5. Freedom Task Chair with Headrest (HS) – $999.99 (1 review, average: 4 stars) Used at the FBI and by other governmental agencies with three-letter acronyms. 6. Embody – $1,800 list price (negotiated with dealer: $1,200-1,300): Basis of chair design – sitting is bad; Even in locked position, it still has some backward flex at the top position. No forward tilt option. For personal testing, I also added a Swiss-ball chair (Isokinetics Balance Ball Chair – $75) to the mix, as seen below: Surprisingly, the Isokinetics chair is more comfortable than most fixed chairs I tested, though there is some minor… ahem… testicular compression that isn’t nearly as pleasant as it sounds.

If you don’t have jewels to worry about, this chair could well be an ideal cost-effective choice. The chair I most wanted to test was the Mirra, which seems to have the best combination of price point (bought used or via eBay) and multiple 5-star reviews. Not to mention it’s also the name of one of the best BMXers of all time. In the end, I bought a used C-size (technically a bit too large for me) Aeron for $450 on Craigslist. I’m impatient and didn’t want to wait over the weekend to schedule sittings for other Herman Miller chairs with a certified dealer. Once I have some conclusive comparable data, I want closure.I’m 5′ 8″ and 170 lbs., but the C works with no problem. 1) The lumbar support is — by far — the primary determinant of comfort or pain. I’ve lowered this adjustment and found that maintaining the natural S-curve through pressure on the lower back is what prevents pain most consistently. Comfortable sitting time is now 7-8 hours vs. less than 2 hours, with no ill after-effects.

Sliding lumbar support on the Aeron. 2) Seat height (and secondarily, depth) will determine the rest. If the flats of your feet don’t make complete contact with the floor, you will move your hips forward and slouch, eliminating the S-curve in the lower lumbar. If your seat is too low and your knees are above your hips, you will shorten the habitual range your hip flexors (negative neural adaptation) and end up with severe lower-back pain. Aim to keep your hamstrings parallel to the floor, and if the seat is too long for your femur (thigh bone) — as is mildly the case with my C-size Aeron — just separate your knees a bit. If you’re not wearing a tight skirt, I’ve found a basketball of space between the knees to provide the best lateral stabilization, which reduces torso fatigue. Take off heels when sitting at a desk, lest you end up with hot calves and Quasimodo-like posture. Not good for mating. If you are wearing a tight skirt, I suggest taking up the Japanese tea ceremony and sitting on tatami side saddle.

It’ll be more comfortable than crossing your legs all day.True, I’ve thought more about chairs in the last few weeks than anyone should, but I do it to save you the trouble. Benefit from my OCD so you can obsess on other things. 3) Using a 3′ long and 6″ diameter foam roller three times per day for 5 minutes can eliminate persistent middle-back pain from mediocre chair use; conversely, it can extend your comfortable sitting time by 30-40%. Knowledge workers often log more ass-in-seat time than sleep. Coders, in particular, are often subjected to a steady diet of Mountain Dew and hunching for 12+-hour marathons. I don’t put in these hours, but I found myself with severe mid-upper back pain from using a non-adjustable chair and craning over a desk that was too low, even for 30-60 minutes per day. Two doctors suggested various therapies, but a quick experiment (placing a laptop on top of a dresser and writing while standing for two days) proved that posture was the problem.

In less than a week following my switch to the Aeron, all upper middle-back (lower trapezius, rhomboid major) pain disappeared completely. The results: better output during work and writing, faster and deeper sleep, and a huge smack on the forehead. Why the hell didn’t I do this earlier? In my case, was it worth it at $450? Particularly looking at the value of time per hour and the lost income due to doctor visits, massage, etc., this is $450 I should have invested years ago. Odds and Ends: Twitter Giveaway WinnersThe travel bag and Fujitsu color travel scanner are gone. More giveaways coming here this week… Posted on: January 27, 2009. Please check out Tools of Titans, my new book, which shares the tactics, routines, and habits of billionaires, icons, and world-class performers. It was distilled from more than 10,000 pages of notes, and everything has been vetted and tested in my own life in some fashion. The tips and tricks in Tools of Titans changed my life, and I hope the same for you.