Hasta La Ideas

Whenever I watch a cooking show on television, I’m always humored by the absurdly detailed mise en place. The chef will talk to the camera about adding an eighth of a teaspoon of salt to her dish, and then she’ll hold up the world’s tiniest glass bowl containing a speck of salt. The viewer never sees any measuring, just a platter full of itty bitty bowls with unlabeled ingredients that are waiting patiently to be dumped or dashed into the pan.

Are there people who do this at home? Is there someone out there who dirties 14 miniature bowls each time he cooks?

I’m in favor of gathering all ingredients and measuring supplies together before starting the cooking process (or even while the oven is heating to its desired temperature). Beside that, however, I usually just measure as I go. That is, unless I have ingredients that shouldn’t mingle needing to use the same measuring device, such as if the recipe calls for a teaspoon of milk and a teaspoon of lemon juice.

I think about the celebrity chef mise en place vs. my cooking style whenever I’m organizing. I remind myself that if my system is too detailed, all I’m doing is figuratively dirtying too many bowls. It’s okay that I put all of my paperclips together in a container in a drawer, even if some paperclips are gold, some silver, some large, some small, and some plastic coated with decorative prints. I don’t need separate bins for every style of paperclip in my drawer to be organized. In fact, being overly detailed with an organizing system can be a form of clutter.

When organizing anything — papers, socks, rolls of toilet paper — ask yourself:

• Is this the most obvious and easiest way for me to store this item?
• Will I consistently put the item away in this location in this manner, even when I’m tired?
• Am I organizing because the new system will improve things, or am I just organizing for the sake of organizing?

Being honest and realistic with yourself can help you to develop organizing systems that will work for you and that you’ll maintain. Set limits to keep clutter — even super-organized clutter — out of your spaces.

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