The Pot Roast Story

Have you heard the famous story about the woman who cuts the ends off her pot roast before putting it in the over?  If you haven’t already, here it is:

A newly-wed man would watch his wife would cut an inch off from both ends of meat for pot roast before putting it into the oven.  When he asked why, she answered, “That’s how you are supposed to cook it.”  Not satisfied with this answer he pressed further until she said she learned to do it this way from her mother.

The husband calls up his mother-in-law and asks her why she cuts off an inch from each end of the pot roast.  She answers, “That’s how you cook pot roast.”  He presses further until his mother-in-law says she learned to do it that way from her mother.

So the man calls up his wife’s grandmother and asks her the same question about why you cut an inch off each end of the pot roast before putting it into the oven.  He still can’t figure out why cutting off good meat is a requirement for cooking a pot roast.  She says, “My mother  did it this way.  Let me call her.”

She calls her elderly mother and asks her why she used to cut the ends off the pot roast before cooking it. The great-grandmother laughs and says, “We used to be very poor and didn’t own a lot of cookware.  I cut the ends off so the meat would fit into my only pan!”

So ends the story.  Why share this?  Organizing is the same way.  Sometimes an item is placed somewhere with little thought.  Perhaps after a move it seemed logical or convenient at the time.  Or there was an unused space.  In any event, if something is bothering you and you don’t know why, you might want to give it some thought and troubleshoot the reason.

There just may be a better solution, a more efficient way of doing it.
As an home organizer and neutral observer, with no emotional attachment to your “stuff”,  I do the troubleshooting for you.  A fresh set of eyes, so to speak to make the best use of the “pot roast” and make it all fit.