Pesach Kitchen Usage Question

amother

Khaki

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 1:32 pm

If you have a pesach kitchen.... I'm curious, do you use it just to get a head start but end up anyway kashering you regular kitchen? Or do you exclusively do everything out of your Pesach kitchen and close off your regular kitchen? Do you not kasher your regular kitchen but maybe just clean it up and cover the counters so you can still put stuff down there?

I'm remodeling a house and it will have a small but functional (I hope) pesach kitchen. Just wondering what others do and also since the regular kitchen is very open to the rest of the house wondering (and yes I can ask my own LOR but I'm curious anyway what others do) if I must either kasher it or close it off or if there is some in between - to just clean it and not cook anything there but still be able to pass through and maybe put things down on covered counters, etc.

THANKS!

Blueberry Muffin

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 2:19 pm

I use my pesach kitchen to get a jump start on pesach prep. I do turn over my regular kitchen to be kosher for pesach two days before pesach. My regular kitchen is large and its a hangout area. I do not have anywhere for seating in my small pesach kitchen, and I would not want everyone to eat in my dining room all week long.

amother

Oak

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 2:26 pm

We own a duplex that has two kitchens. Right now we have a tenant but when they move out we are going to use the whole house. One side will be the reg kitchen and the other side the pesach kitchen. I don't plan to kasher the regular kitchen, what would be the point? I'm not looking for extra work.

I've been thinking of breaking the wall bet the kitchens to make one large kitchen and a small pesach kitchen. But that will be expensive so that is more of a long term plan.

amother

Jade

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 2:31 pm

It's more about the cabinet space aka not needing to "change over" by dragging out the Pesach items from way up high or way down below (bringing up front basement or down below from attic, emptying drawers from regular utensils, filling them with Pesach utensils from the storage boxes, spending two days out of the kitchen in the in between kashering stage once kitchen is cleared up, kashered 24 hours later, to when cooking actually starts), and things just already being set up in their place. Just open the cabinet doors and pots are stacked in their place. Next cabinet, dishes all stacked and ready, no dragging.

Then it's about not being confined to cooking everything in just the week before yom tov on a not sleeping marathon.

In the main kitchen the counters and sinks get kashered so they can be used, all of which takes 10 minutes, but there is no changing over. Main kitchen gets used all YT for prep and hanging out which is all done on actual YT days but don't necessarily cook a lot there which gets done before yom tov.

Blueberry Muffin

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 2:33 pm

oh - let me just add... my pesach kitchen is on my main floor of my home. My husband did not want us to be shlepping things up and down the stairs for pesach - my sister-in-law has a full pesach kitchen in her basement and it has an open concept to the rest of the basement. (not a small room) She does not kasher her main kitchen. Instead, they bring long tables and nice chairs into the basement and put a tarp down on the floor and have their sedarim and all their meals in the basement

Blueberry Muffin

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 2:36 pm

I keep all my pantry items in the pesach kitchen pantry and most of the cooking pans and serving wear in the pesach kitcehn, but I do clear out some drawers in my regular kitchen to store some commonly used spices and serving plattersd and paper goods so as not to have to run back n forth between the kitchens to get something or to put spices away and then need to pull them o
ut again

STMommy

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 2:42 pm

I exclusively use the Pesach kitchen on Pesach. I have room next to it to open a folding table to use for seating. I do not kasher my regular kitchen. However I do clean it. I put a visual siman in the regular kitchen and close off the cabinets, fridge, freezer, etc to make them unaccessible so no one makes a mistake. However you should know that we are still in the situation of going to parents for the yom tov days of Pesach. We use the Pesach kitchen only for chol hamoed. Once we are in the position of making full Pesach at home I see us doing it differently. Having the Pesach kitchen for people to start their coooking early has been extremely helpful to friends and family (I let other people use it).

anotherima

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 2:45 pm

I do have to kasher my regular kitchen because it is easier for me to heat up food and wash the dishes instead of carrying things up and down six steps to my Pesach kitchen.
But I do enjoy my Pesach kitchen because I can start my cooking after Purim if I want and I come into yom tov with most of my yom tov in the freezer.
If your Pesach Kitchen is on the same floor as your regular kitchen then you can easily just use the pesach kitchen and just kasher and cover what you like in your chometz kitchen (cover counters, kasher sinks etc) good luck!

OOTBubby

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 3:08 pm

I had a separate Pesach kitchen for many years, but it was in the basement and there was no nice place to eat there. Plus my regular kitchen was so much spacious and nicer that I would've hated to only use the Pesach kitchen. So I used it before I was ready to kasher upstairs, and it enabled me to wait to kasher the upstairs kitchen later. It worked well when I had young children who wouldn't have wanted the regular kitchen to be kashered too earlier. As an empty-nester, though, I stopped using the basement kitchen totally -- it was a pain to run up and down to cook, and with just me and DH, it was easy to kasher the fleishig side of the large kitchen early enough. We either ate kosher l'Pesach fleishig food or milchig/pareve chametzdik. Now that I built a new home, I did not even put in a Pesach kitchen as I personally no longer have a need for it.

amother

Oak

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 3:10 pm

Blueberry Muffin wrote:

I hope her basement is really nice then. I know many people who move into their basement while they are cleaning upstairs but sounds a bit weird to me to eat all the yt meals in the basement.

Iymnok

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 3:27 pm

amother wrote:

I hope her basement is really nice then. I know many people who move into their basement while they are cleaning upstairs but sounds a bit weird to me to eat all the yt meals in the basement.

Sometimes it's the largest space. Great for all the visiting family and huge sedarim.
Think unfinished basement that's finished enough to be pleasant.

MyKidsRQte

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 4:08 pm

The main purpose of my peisach kitchen is so that I don't have to pack and unpack before and after Yom Tov. I sometimes cook in it. I always turn over my kitchen because my peisach kitchen is very small, and it becomes claustrophobic.

Blueberry Muffin

Wed, Sep 14 2016, 4:28 pm

amother wrote:

I hope her basement is really nice then. I know many people who move into their basement while they are cleaning upstairs but sounds a bit weird to me to eat all the yt meals in the basement.

yes it is quite nice and definitely a luxery that the previous owners thought to install a full kitchen in their basement along with the rest of the basement being completely finished - hence the tarp - to make sure the nice carpet does not get ruined. (the kitchen part itself has laminated flooring, but the rest of the basement area is carpet