How to get a properly indented custom enumerate list (with checklist-style blanks)?

Question

I'm trying to make an enumerated checklist that looks like this:

    Paragraph text here that says really cool stuff. Notice how the list after is 
    properly indented

    ___ 1. Thing 1
    ___ 2. Thing 2
    ___ 3. Thing 3

    And the paragraph afterward, with good margins

This (though cumbersome) gets pretty close, but for some reason the margin gets messed up:

Paragraph text that says really cool stuff.

\begin{enumerate}
\item[\underline{\hspace{0.5in}} 1.]
\item[\underline{\hspace{0.5in}} 2.]
\item[\underline{\hspace{0.5in}} 3.]
\end{enumerate}

And the paragraph after.

The output looks like this:

    Paragraph text here that says really cool stuff. Notice how the list after is
    NOT PROPERLY INDENTED

___ 1. Thing 1
___ 2. Thing 2
___ 3. Thing 3

    And the paragraph after.

I've dinked around a little with enumitem, but I have the same margin trouble. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

I dinked around in enumitem just a little bit more. Try

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[textwidth=3in]{geometry} % so shorter lines wrap
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}

Some text - a long line so that it wraps and we see the paragraph
indentation

\begin{enumerate}[itemindent=0.5in,
label=\underline{\hspace{0.5in}}\arabic{*}.]
\item Thing 1
\item Thing 2
\item Thing 3
\end{enumerate}

More text, indented as the start of a paragraph. Long enough to wrap.

\end{document}

The itemindent is hard coded, which is a little ugly and may not be robust enough in some cases.

You could wrap the enumerate in your own environment in order not to cut and paste the item options.