You want to do what?!?

"I want to get rid of half of our stuff"

When Lauren said this to me, my sleep deprived mind very briefly thought "why do you want a divorce?" - but I quickly realized what she meant and began to think "but I like my stuff... can we just get rid of all your stuff?  That's half our stuff, right?".  A couple of conversations later... and we're getting rid of half our stuff.  Six months from now, that's where we are gonna be - a streamlined house with half of each of our possessions donated, thrown out, or if we really want to hold onto it for another day or two, eaten.  There will, of course, be ground rules - but more importantly, there will be competition.  Who can get rid of half of their stuff first, you ask?  (What?  You didn't ask that?  How about, just for me, we pretend you did...)  Over the next six months, that is exactly what we will find out.

Here's the basic rules:
1. We clearly will not be getting rid of any living creatures, so Lauren, Ginny, Sorin, the dogs, and myself are safe.  I did not list the fish, because with our success rate so far, getting rid of half (or all) of them should be unintentionally very simple.  Poor fish...

2. We will be deciding upon categories from which we must part with half of the items from each category.  Otherwise, I could sell all my baseball cards and have gotten rid of well over half my possessions if they are counted equally, and Lauren could donate/throw out all of her mismatched socks that I can never find a partner for and have disposed of 90% of her possessions.

3. Categories will be divided into three categories: Lauren's, mine, and joint.  To claim victory, the joint categories must also be halved along with that individual's categories.

4. It will be a running total.  So, any new shirt adds into the clothing category, a new DVD goes into the entertainment category, and any new dark chocolate goes into my stomach.

5. Not everything fits into a category - we won't necessarily be getting rid of half our furniture, cars, kitchen appliances, tools, or rooms in our house.  This came as a huge relief to me, as I was not at all sure how we were going to go from 2.5 to 1.25 bathrooms - neither of us were looking forward to attempting to sit on half of a toilet.

6. Other items may fit into a "catch-all" category.  Only having one of something we don't need doesn't mean we don't get rid of it, it just means it comes out of the "other stuff we probably don't - or Lauren strongly assures me I surely don't - need" category.

So, in the upcoming days, we will make our counts, assign categories, and take some photographs of our... um... slightly(?) disorganized house.  But the clock is running... August 31st is only six months away.