diff --git a/.bashrc b/.bashrc
index fd2681d..8fc359a 100644
--- a/.bashrc
+++ b/.bashrc
@@ -84,3 +84,11 @@ if [ -x /usr/bin/dircolors ]; then
     alias fgrep='fgrep --color=auto'
     alias egrep='egrep --color=auto'
 fi
+
+export NPM_PACKAGES="$HOME/.npm-packages"
+export NODE_PATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/lib/node_modules${NODE_PATH:+:$NODE_PATH}"
+export PATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/bin:$PATH"
+# Unset manpath so we can inherit from /etc/manpath via the `manpath`
+# command
+unset MANPATH  # delete if you already modified MANPATH elsewhere in your config
+export MANPATH="$NPM_PACKAGES/share/man:$(manpath)"
diff --git a/.npmrc b/.npmrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5cf9847
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.npmrc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+prefix=/home/m/.npm-packages
diff --git a/bin/install-dotfiles.sh b/bin/install-dotfiles.sh
index 144704a..5f16f4c 100755
--- a/bin/install-dotfiles.sh
+++ b/bin/install-dotfiles.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 # list of files/folders to symlink in homedir
-FILES=".bash_aliases .bash_prompt .bashrc .profile bin .vimrc"
+FILES=".bash_aliases .bash_prompt .bashrc .profile bin .vimrc .npmrc"
 
 for FILE in $FILES; do