The First Move of 2011: Montreal, QC

– 6 February , 2011Posted in: Minimalism

Yep. I moved. Again.

This time, returning to a city I had previously left – MONTREAL!

Here for a short jaunt and then in about another month, I will be leaving for another city (Toronto) to relax and start preparing for my trip to Asia which we have still yet to book and pay for.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE US TO MOVE?

I casually kept time so I could keep track for everyone.

I packed for about 3 hours the night before and using a cart, I loaded everything into the car in about 4 trips (4 cartfuls) because we had two bikes *sigh*, and that took about 3 hours before we were done and on the road.

We unpacked in about half an hour, unloading only 2 cartfuls (we left the bike stuff in car “storage”), and we had the rest of the day to chill out and do whatever we wanted.

BF unpacked the kitchen and I am leaving everything in my suitcases.

TOTAL TIME: 6.5 hours (packing, shifting stuff from hotel room to the car, and unpacking)

DO I WANT TO GET RID OF ANYTHING NOW?

Hell yes. I think I want to unload those bikes ASAP. Those things were monsters to dismantle and get into the car.

I think we can do better, and I can already see how we can unload a good chunk of our items

List of stuff to get rid of:

Bikes (We are leaving the country, so we won’t bring them)
Printer (It’s a monster and we only really use it to scan items.*)
Leaving one of my old laptops for my dad to use
Unloading the personal finance & investing books I brought to read
Getting rid of my magazines (I had two from Europe from summer 2010)

*I am thinking of buying this Planon Docupen. Or something similar. Have to do some research here.

Okay, so I looked into it more, and it looks like the Docupen is a mess to use because you have to use the pen to move it down a page and it can cause a page to blur and so on.

Instead, Mochabear suggested: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Color Mobile Scanner $239.99, which The Unclutterer actually gave away 3 of! I think this might be it. You can find it at Staples in Canada. If/Once I buy it, I’ll review it.

I’m going to go through my suitcases again and unload as required.

Tags: 2011, City, Move, Moving, Packing, Suitcases, Travel

About everydayminimalist

I'm a 20-something year old girl who lived out of a single suitcase in 2007, and now I'm living with less, but only with the best. You don't have to get rid of everything to become a minimalist! Minimalism can help simplify and organize your life, career, & physical surroundings. You can read more about me as a minimalist. Or come and visit my other blog Fabulously Broke in the City where I got out of $60,000 of debt in 18 months, earning $65,000 gross/year.

http://blog.jasonhanley.com jasonhanley

For portable scanning, you might want to check out a few cheaper ones at: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/c…

I'll be getting something like this when we move to Europe next year.
My recent post Why not private healthcare
- http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
  
  Thanks for the tip! I am definitely going to do more research. I want an autofeed scanner, something that scans to PDF and is powered by USB.
http://www.minimalistpackrat.com Tanja MiniPackrat

Montreal. Chilly! My sis is living up in Canada and I haven't visited in the winter yet. I love that it only took you 3 hours to pack and 6 hours total to move. We moved in December out of our 2 bedroom rental. I was amazed it only took us 5 hours to pack and haul everything. Back in my packrat days it took me months (literally) to get everything packed and ready to go.

About the printer/scanner. We got rid of both a few years ago. I only printed things that I "thought" I needed and it was actually turning into paper clutter around the house. Now if I need to print I go to the library or Staples. The scanner we never used anyways. It sounds like you use yours frequently though.

Sounds like exciting travels for you. Asia. Wow! I'm a teeny bit jealous but very excited that you get to romp around the world.

Cheers,
Tanja
My recent post Honoring Memories – Sentimental Clutter Series
- http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
  
  Montreal is not AS cold as some cities in Canada. There are far colder ones near the river or the water.
  
  That\’s amazing that it only took YOU 5 hours!!! I took weeks before but if I had a home, it\’d be months without a doubt.
  
  I don\’t print anything, I scan everything and then shred the paper. I ask people and companies to NOT give me paper but they can\’t help themselves, so I make everything into a PDF and store it as my to-go filing cabinet on USB keys.
angela

For scanning documents, what about using a digital camera?

I think the newer point & shoots even have a "text" function meant to act like a scanner, but I've never had problems with taking photos of documents for archival purposes this way for the past 10 or so years.

Might have to practice a few times to get the lighting/angles etc right.
- http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
  
  What a smart idea!!!
  
  I just only need it as a PDF though. And this scanner I am looking at will be able to convert it into a SEARCHABLE PDF
  - J.
    
    Searchable PDF's would be very handy. I scan my documents with a digital camera at the moment, using macro mode. When lighting is somtimes annoying, I just bluetack the page to the wall and it's perfect picture every time.
    
    My work around to searching text is to load everything into OneNote that comes with Windows, which isn't a bad software actually, where I can sort them into folders and OneNote can search the text.
    
    Might be an idea if you urgently need a 'portable scanner' option?
    - http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
      
      That is a really smart idea. I might try that, and maybe try to get that image converted into a PDF!
      
      Thanks for the tip.
http://paigesix.wordpress.com/ Paige

That sounded like a painless move for the most part. 3 hrs to pack! Each time I've moved apts, it seems like it takes forever!

I never heard of this Docupen, but I want it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I love Montreal!!!!!!!!!!
- http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
  
  I did a little more research and apparently it\’s a mess to use. You have to keep your hand steady to slide down the page or else it gets blurry when it scans.
  
  The best is a portable scanner you can feed a page into
Lacey

I know this is a "give-away," but the scanner featured in Unclutterer: http://unclutterer.com/2011/01/11/and-the-three-w... is very portable and to my understanding, works very well. Just seemed like something up your alley!
- http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
  
  Thanks for the link!! I really need to search for a good one that is hassle free. BF found one he thinks, but.. even so.
J.

Oh my gosh. Had a look at the docupen, think I am in love!

I've seen that type of printer in action about two years ago when a renovation consultant came to our home, and I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the technology then… it needed to be plugged in, was still quite clunky at about 10cmx30cmx10cm, took a long time to locate the printer on their laptop, and the paper they used was specific to the machine and came out very curled and not durable. I'm very curious to see how much technology can be improved in two years!
- http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
  
  Well I did more research as I mentioned to Paige, and it doesn\’t look like a good thing. Mochabear suggested this though: The Fujitsu Scan Snap!
shortystylee

There are many metropolitan areas with bike-renting and bike-sharing programs, you could definitely get rid of your personal ones if you don't get enough use out of them (or a roof rack, but that's just more stuff to have).

Jessica
- http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
  
  Bike renting and bike sharing tends to have bikes that aren\’t so great. They aren\’t the quality of the ones we normally buy, and I\’d rather have my own bike than to rent one.
  
  I do get a lot of use out of my bike, but only in the summer because Canada is winter/ice for most of the year or is TOO cold. We have to store the bikes after a few short months of biking.
SoCal

Wow that's super fast for packing and unpacking! How long did you live out of your suitcases for? I'm doing some decluttering this weekend…I've always luv'd doing that…
- http://www.everydayminimalist.com evrydaymnmalist
  
  I started living out of my suitcase last year, around Feb? We\’ve been going from Hotel to Hotel since… this coming March, I won\’t be out of a suitcase for a while, at least.. until I go to Asia

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In a Nutshell

other blog: fabulously broke in the city
minimalist since: 2007 -- why minimalism?
talk to me: contact me here!
current location: canada/usa
home: hotel room
owns: 3 suitcases 2 carryons of stuff
# of items: more than 100!
furniture: 1 japanese futon
works: business consultant
gadgets: macbook pro, ipod touch (pda)
drinks: earl grey cream tea
practices: rebel yoga and de-cluttering
loves: minimalism, $$ management, traveling
quirk: must prep my food before eating
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The First Move of 2011: Montreal, QC

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE US TO MOVE?

DO I WANT TO GET RID OF ANYTHING NOW?

*I am thinking of buying this Planon Docupen. Or something similar. Have to do some research here.

Okay, so I looked into it more, and it looks like the Docupen is a mess to use because you have to use the pen to move it down a page and it can cause a page to blur and so on.

Instead, Mochabear suggested: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Color Mobile Scanner $239.99, which The Unclutterer actually gave away 3 of! I think this might be it. You can find it at Staples in Canada. If/Once I buy it, I’ll review it.

About everydayminimalist

Advertising

In a Nutshell

Most Recent Posts

Categories

Archives by Month

Advertising

Contact Me