The Mother of Invention

Sometimes when you need to solve a problem of organization or material handling, looking at the items you can get in a grocery store or a big box store is helpful. I’ve already extolled the virtues of trays, but there are more!

Need something cheap to hold a lot of little parts in a single layer? Try a rimmed baking sheet. Need to make sure all those little parts don’t slide around everywhere? Put a silicone baking mat on top of the baking sheet. Food storage containers excel at keeping cables and partially disassembled assemblies in one place without losing anything. (And they usually stack!) Need to run some experiments on how various materials respond to certain solvents? Throw them in some canning jars. (Well, there were canning jars last year…)

(This goes both ways, of course: the line between scientific equipment and cookware is completely blurred now as well, with sous vide machines, vacuum sealers, dehydrators and other gadgets.)

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but hospitality and food service are its midwives.