{"id":612,"date":"2023-04-28T05:26:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T09:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roamers.rentals\/?p=612"},"modified":"2023-09-08T13:32:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T17:32:36","slug":"living-with-less-than-100-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/living-with-less-than-100-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Living With Less Than 100 Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might think it\u2019s unrealistic to live with so little or that we are depriving ourselves.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, we can and do indulge.\u00a0 We are foodies and we have no problem indulging in the best tapas in Sevilla or tasting the best wines in France (\u2018cause we are also wine lovers).\u00a0 This is the magic of cutting out mundane expenses for material things in order to create memorable experiences.<\/p>\n

In a previous article, <\/strong>we promised to share with you how minimalism led us to move from a house with a garage to an apartment and to finally live with less than 100 items in a suitcase and a backpack, living the life we have imagined.<\/p>\n

So, here we are.<\/p>\n

(If you are new here, make sure to read that article<\/a> as well.)<\/p>\n

Before we tell you what it\u2019s like to live out of a carry-on and backpack, let\u2019s just go back to where it all started.<\/p>\n

Our WHY \u2013 What matters the most in our life<\/h3>\n

When the pandemic hit in 2020, like most people, we did some major reflecting on our WHY.<\/p>\n

Why we do what we do, what we want for the future, what motivates us and is most important to us.\u00a0 What is our vision of life and work.<\/p>\n

This reflection led us to identify the 3 things we are passionate about:<\/p>\n

-travel<\/p>\n

-experiences<\/p>\n

-freedom<\/p>\n

So, we made the decision to design our lives around these 3 things.<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, this meant a lot of change.\u00a0 Perhaps the most important change of all was Frank\u2019s decision to retire early from the police, a job that was no longer aligned<\/u> with his WHY.<\/p>\n

Retiring from a 100K+ salaried job is, well, frightening, to be honest.\u00a0 Not to mention all the perks you give up: insurance, retirement plan, paid holidays.<\/p>\n

But during those hard, confined, somewhat boring periods of the pandemic, we also stumbled upon minimalism<\/a>.\u00a0 Living more intentionally.\u00a0 Living with less.\u00a0 More specifically, minimalism means that everything you own brings value to your life.\u00a0 This was exactly aligned with our WHY.\u00a0 By living with less, you become more mindful of your spending and make conscious decisions about where you put your money.\u00a0 You also quickly realize you NEED less to live, so giving up that 100K+ job suddenly became less anxiety-inducing.\u00a0 It became a possibility.<\/p>\n

We would have loved to dive deeper into minimalism here, but we have so much more to cover in this article.\u00a0 We will share how minimalism allows us to base our lives on experiences over things in another article, but don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re not cheap, we\u2019re just experts at optimizing value!<\/p>\n

Getting rid of the things we don’t need<\/h3>\n

The next step in aligning our lives with our WHY was our decision to sell our house, mostly because we intended to travel significantly and having a house simply no longer made sense.<\/p>\n

We ended up moving from a house to a small apartment and had to make decisions regarding the things we owned.\u00a0 And when you start going through all your \u201cstuff\u201d, you realize how many things you are no longer using or worse yet, you have never even used!<\/p>\n

Frank was so excited to buy tools on sale at Canadian Tire: \u201cThese will be so useful now that we have a house!\u201d.\u00a0 Still in the box 5 years later\u2026Mister Handyman \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

More importantly, you ask yourself questions like:\u00a0 Do I really need two laptop backpacks, a hiking backpack, a travelling backpack, a gym backpack and 2 casual backpacks??\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>So, we gave away and sold everything (thanks, Facebook Marketplace) we no longer needed.<\/p>\n

Eventually, we ended up buying an apartment in Quebec City in search of a new experience and as a home base that we could rent out when we go Roaming to blend travel and work (our real-estate investment journey is also the subject of a future article).\u00a0 More here on why we love Quebec City.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Furbished<\/a><\/p>\n

Feeling charmed by the idea of Roaming Qu\u00e9bec City?\u00a0 Quebec City is the oldest city in Canada.\u00a0 Its Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for its well-preserved architectural heritage and its European-style urban landscape. The Old Town is characterized by its narrow, winding streets, stone buildings, and historical landmarks, and is a popular tourist destination for its beautiful architecture and scenic views.\u00a0 Quebec is a safe and welcoming city with several charming neighbourhoods, where you will be greeted with a smile and genuine conversation.\u00a0 You can rent our apartments in Quebec city \u2013 click here to see availability<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The next thing on our list to manage was our car.\u00a0 In today\u2019s society, we are so conditioned to own a car, that the idea of not owning one has never crossed our minds.\u00a0 Even though we were not really using our car, the thought of not having one was\u2026strange.\u00a0 But when you think about it, a car comes with incessant stresses. \u00a0You worry someone will damage \u201cyour precious\u201d, you worry about something breaking, etc. Not to mention the costs of owning a car. (Hello, gas prices!)<\/p>\n

Plus, we also had to think about what we would actually do with our car when we were away, especially during the wintertime.\u00a0 You cannot leave a car parked, let alone unused, through a full Canadian winter.<\/p>\n

We quickly realized not only that we didn\u2019t need it, but that there was actually an emotional charge linked to having it.\u00a0 You guessed it: owning a car was not adding value to our life and not aligned with our WHY.<\/p>\n

So, we sold it.\u00a0 And today we seriously wonder if we will ever own one again.\u00a0 We are quite enjoying walking and biking anywhere we can, and using a private driver (Uber, Grab) when needed.\u00a0 When we absolutely need a car, we just rent one.\u00a0 Simple and no strings attached.<\/p>\n

Packing up our life<\/h3>\n

Unattached to a house or car, it was then time to plan for our first Roamers experience, officially.\u00a0 Which meant, time to pack!<\/p>\n

What do you pack when you\u2019re leaving for 5 months and heading to 6 different countries, including a winter in Portugal, the hot season in Asia and spring in France?<\/p>\n

First of all, we decided to travel with only a backpack and a carry-on suitcase.\u00a0 When you\u2019re travelling to several different countries, having to check baggage every time (and wait for it on arrival) and lugging around a giant suitcase is not ideal.\u00a0 Plus, there\u2019s always the risk of checked baggage being lost (Air Canada, you hearing this?!)<\/p>\n

Fitting 5 months of travel in one backpack and a carry-on may seem impossible, but it is actually not that difficult when you have downsized your belongings and needs to the essentials.\u00a0 Thanks again, minimalism.<\/p>\n

We won\u2019t lie to you though, there are decisions to be made (some are tough).\u00a0 We will discuss these and share our ideal packing list with you guys in a subsequent article (we know, we have lots more articles to write!)<\/p>\n

At the time of writing this, we are in Thailand, just nearing the start of our 5th<\/sup> month of Roaming to blend travel and work.\u00a0 So far, we can\u2019t say we have missed anything.\u00a0 What we mean is, there hasn\u2019t been a time where we\u2019ve said: \u201cI wish I could have packed this or brought this\u201d, or even \u201cI wish I had this\u201d.<\/p>\n

We have also rented our apartment in Quebec City way beyond our return date to Canada.\u00a0 This means we are without our home base and will need to continue living with less than 100 things.\u00a0 And we\u2019re ok with that.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Because for us, this means that we are living intentionally.\u00a0 What we have is what we need\u2026and it fits inside a carry-on suitcase and a backpack.<\/p>\n

New to our blog? <\/span><\/p>\n

We are the Mai & Fran\u00e7ois Roamers. We share with you how to harness the power of Roaming to combine travel and work and create a life of freedom and fulfillment.<\/span><\/p>\n

We would like to hear your comments on this blog: your questions, your ideas, your concerns, your advice, everything! We can’t wait to read you <\/b>\ud83d\udc47<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might think it\u2019s unrealistic to live with so little or that we are depriving ourselves. Don\u2019t worry, we can and do indulge.\u00a0 We are foodies and we have no problem indulging in the best tapas in Sevilla or tasting the best wines in France (\u2018cause we are also wine lovers).\u00a0 This is the magic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unclassified"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":776,"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roamers.rentals\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}