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So, once upon a time I used to run Slackware Linux using the Fluxbox windows manager. It was an awesome setup and oh so fast and simple. Now, many years later I'm using Arch Linux and Gnome. No regrets either, Gnome is much more powerful and much more polished than it was in those days, but on my laptop (with a max resolution of 1024x768) Gnome is a bit cumbersome.

So now I've switched back to Fluxbox as my laptop's window manager and I figured that since I was going through the motions I might as well share with you, the Outload Network. Now, some things to note. I'll be of course speaking from the perspective of an Arch Linux user. Though, if you're using another distro you should be able to follow as long as you know how to use your distros package manager.

So, let's begin:
1] Install Fluxbox - Run #pacman -S fluxbox
2] Restart X - Do a Ctl+Alt+Backspace :: You should now be in your new, unconfigured Fluxbox environment. It's really not going to be much. You should be able to right-click though and bring up a menu; there should be an option at the top that says 'rxvt'. This is the default terminal that Fluxbox uses (it can be changed later).
3] Generate a new menu - Open up an 'rxvt' terminal (first choice on the right-click menu) and type $fluxbox-generate_menu :: This will rebuild the right-click menu to reflect what Gnome has in it's 'Application' menu. If you don't have Gnome installed then I'm not sure what your menu will look like or consist of.
4] Battery monitoring - Run $gnome-power-manager & :: This should put a little battery charge monitor on the right-side of Fluxbox's bar. If you had the 'suspend' ability working with Gnome this icon should allow you to make your machine suspend. To make sure that this starts every time you start your laptop edit ~/.fluxbox/startup and put 'gnome-power-manager &' in it.
5] Get gtk-chtheme - Run #pacman -S gtk-chtheme :: This program will allow you to control many of the aspects of your theme, ie. font, font size, colors, etc.
6] Setting a background - Install eterm #pacman -S eterm and then run $fbsetbg -t /path/to/image.extension :: Since you want this to happen all the time you're most definitely going to want to put that bit of code in your ~/.fluxbox/startup file as well.
7] Customizing your menu - Run $nano ~/.fluxbox/menu to edit your menu's configuration file :: Use the Fluxbox Documentation here to help with learning the proper way to format and organize your stuff. For example, I've set up my laptop's environment to have a 'WiFi' section in the menu, in that are folders with names of states and within those is the code needed to ask for my root password and: start my wifi card, connect it to a wifi point I've already been to and input any security information (as much as I can at least), then get an IP address when I'm verified. So with a simple point-and-click, I can access the internet and be up and running in moments instead of wasting all that time typing it all out.
7a] Further customization - While you're editing ... :: This is also the file where you can choose what programs you want to be able to start from a link on the menu. For example, if you take the example I used at the beginning, of the terminal you should/have to use (rxvt), then you might notice at the top of section of code, with their lines begining with [submenu] and other such bracketed words, you'll see a bit of code that says: [exec] (rxvt) {rxvt}. This should be pretty obvious as to what it's saying to do... "[exec]ute the link called (rxvt), which had it been manually input it would've gone like ${rxvt}." So, for instance, if you're like me and would actually like to have a DIFFERENT terminal than rxvt then this is the place to make that change. I use Gnome-terminal, mainly because it has that awesome GUI for customizing your terminals, so here I would take that line above and make it look, instead, like this: [exec] (gTerm) {gnome-terminal}. So now when you right-click you should see 'gTerm' where 'rxvt' used to be and not only that but when you click on 'gTerm' it should start Gnome-terminal, you should notice a destinct difference between the two.
8] Customizing your command prompt - Edit $nano ~/.bashrc :: Using the Arch Wiki page on the Bash prompt, here. You'll soon no longer be looking at a bland, one-colored prompt. Not only that but you'll be able to make it VERY clear whether or not you're a user ($) or if you have root (#) privaledges.
9] Conky - Install by #pacman -S conky :: Conky is a wonderful system monitor application. It runs as a daemon on your system and can be fitted to your current theme with incredible beauty. I ended up finding a fluxbox theme that had a Conky config file already with it, so that was fortunate. Here is Conky's Sourceforge site, complete with screenshots and config files (the links below the screenshot is the config file)