100 Thing Challenge - It has begun!

Ever since I first saw the 100 Thing Challenge years ago, I have wanted to give it a try, but when I first saw it, the concept was preposterous. I had over 100 things in the nearest box of mementos, of which I had five, not to mention the rest of my things strewn between my mother's house, my apartment, and the office. After several years of effort and a great deal of Freecycle listings and trips to Goodwill, I have finally been able to take the first official step -- I managed to inventory every single personal possession I own!

The keyword above is "personal", because when there is a family involved, the concept would quickly become murky if I had to count my wife's possessions and things that we shared. I personally think the challenge is simpler for someone like myself, since I don't have to count things like furniture or televisions, although my household is constantly in the process of paring our shared possessions as well.

But I digress. There are many rule variants out there, but here are mine:

• Only my personal possessions count
• I may declare anything a "set", to count as a single item, using discretion

So far I have made no real exemptions, but the usage of sets can always be murky, so I am trying to use the designation sparingly. So, my first tally, which will probably require some recategorization, is 260. This means, of course, that I will need to reduce another 61% of my already reduced possessions to reach the arbitrary goal. However, I do intend to consult with some of the other people who have been doing this for a while to see if some of my ideals are misguided. For example, I am counting each pair of socks and every pair of underwear as a single possession; those two alone, accounting for winter socks, adds up to 33 by themselves! I also have tried to be as diligent as possible with my accounts, but the next couple weeks will show if I missed anything obvious in my tallies. For example, while writing this post, I added two things that I keep in the car at all times and forgot about.

So, wish me luck! I have no deadline on when I would like to finish this project, but it begins NOW!