How to create a minimalistic OS X desktop

For those of you that like na-da on your desktop (like me), here is how you can tweak OS X so that neither icons, dock, or menubar gets in the way of a squeaky-clean desktop:

• Hide the dock: You can easily do this by adjusting your system settings. Once in system preferences, click on “Dock”, then check “Automatically hide and show the Dock”. There goes your dock! To find it again, just hover your mouse near the bottom of the screen (or side of the screen, if that is where your dock lives), and it will pop up again.
• Hide your icons: I use TinkerTool for this (a nice piece of freeware that lets you tweak all kinds of hidden settings). Once you acquire and run this software, click on “Finder” from the top menu, then check “Disable Desktop Features”. Now your icons are gone. (Unfortunately, your finder keyboard shortcuts are gone, too. This doesn’t bother me so much, so I live with the trade-off.)
• Hide your menubar: Download menufela (from ninjakitten), another piece of freeware whose simple purpose is to hide your menubar. Install and activate it.

Now your desktop should look something like this:

Sweet!