trying to switch from gnome to something more minimalistic.
After trying hackedbox I like it. Two questions however.
I want to switch mouse buttons (so basically a left handed mouse)
and is there a way of placing icons on the desktop

I've never used hackedbox, but fluxbox. In fluxbox you can use fbdesk to get desktop icons. You can change to lefthanded by something like this:
xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1"

It worked for me. This is, however a temporary solution you have to do everytime you start a new X-session, so you could add it to .fluxbox/startup to do it every time fluxbox starts. Xmodmap would work with hackedbox also, but I don't know if there is a startup file.

From what i can see about hackedbox, you may want to switch to Flux or Open Or Black. Hackedbox doesnt seem to have any support or people using it. I use Fluxbox myself and find it easy to use and set up with a lot of support for a small footprint. Dasktop icons can be acheived in Flux in several ways. Running rox Desktop with fluxbox is probably the easiest but right clicking and selecting is easy enough. "Fluxmint" provides everything you might want and would be a good way to become accustomed to the "boxes" I use Debian with flux myself and it is very fast.