100 Thing Challenge

Yesterday I was trapped in a windowless conference room all day - fortunately it was wi-fi equipped and I had my iPad!  I was doing a lot of tiny house reading, following links down rabbit trails, and I came across the 100 Thing Challenge by Dave Bruno.  (He has also written a  book about it, but I can't order it, because then I would be down to 99 things!) I think I've heard about it before, but I wasn't really in a position to seriously consider it.  Now?  Well, now I'm in a serious enough position to at least start counting and see where I am...

I read some posts from others who have taken the Challenge, and I'm glad to see there is space for independent thought.  For example, I read that grouping some things is generally considered okay:  Silverware, pots with lids (probably not an entire set of cookware, but maybe...) lingerie, things with multiple pieces, like my KitchenAid mixer, some people even group their books and count that as one thing.  I also read that for some people, perishables/consumables are not counted at all.  That seems logical to me.

I have to say, though, that doing the actual counting seems really daunting.  How do you do that?  Room by room, I presume, but short of putting stickers on everything, how do you keep track of what you have counted already?  I guess if you have 100 things - not 1,000 things - it probably isn't that hard to keep track!  I may have to start with 100 things per room.  Er, or 100 things per box.  LOL

And then today I stumbled upon the Reverse 100 Thing Challenge which, I read, "invites you to dump 100 things before the end of the year. If you’ve always thought that the 100 Thing Challenge is extreme, and that it would be impossible to only live with 100 things, then giving away only 100 things should be a breeze." Gosh, if only I had heard about the Reverse last Fall, I could totally add that to my list of accomplishments ten-fold.  Alas, I did not.

Regardless, I think the 100 Thing Challenge an interesting concept, especially if you plan on going down to under 150 square feet... Okay fine I'll just say it - 112 square feet. At a minimum I'm at least  going to take a stab a counting my belongings.