Did you love/hate your Pesach Program in a Hotel?

amother

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 7:32 pm

MaBelleVie wrote:

No matter how much help you hire, pesach cleaning is still a pretty big stress. But I can definitely see the appeal of staying home (my preference by far) PLUS having all the food catered so no work beyond heating things up and setting the table (with disposables of course!). I'm sure it's still far cheaper than $2000+ pp.

much of pesach preparation is cleaning/decluttering the house. Say what you want, many houses need occasional cleaning and decluttering, pesach or not. I know someone who goes away every year to a hotel and her house is a mess. (an I don't have an immaculate house)

Do people who go away spring clean their homes ever?

MaBelleVie

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 7:40 pm

amother wrote:

Of course they do. My mom does organizing throughout the year, despite pesach cleaning and spring cleaning yearly. I go away some years and stay home others, but I absolutely organize and declutter etc as needed. I think making generalizations based on one person you know is a little silly... She sounds like the sort of person who wouldn't do a spring cleaning even if she were to pesach clean. Which is fine for her, I'm just saying.

amother

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 7:54 pm

my mother is a hoarder as is one of my siblings. Our house was a wreck growing up. We went away for pesach for many years and then started staying home once the kids were older (my grandparents were too old to go away anymore) yes the house got cleaned for pesach, it got decluttered along the way because the kids would do most of the cleaning so we would "insist" but we wouldn't be able to clean until close to pesach since we were too busy fighting to get the house in any shape or form to clean.

The stress, the yelling etc... my mother would get all upset....we probably weren't so respectful.... and if it was up to my mother then no it wouldn't have been decluttered- I know because her room was never decluttered for pesach.

I know someone else who goes away and still organizes before Pesach and her house is organized to begin with-that's her personality.

It's a personality thing.

amother

Wed, Apr 23 2014, 10:07 pm

amother wrote:

We went to the Gateways program at the Stamford Hilton. One word: phenominal. There was the right mix of ruchnious and gashmious(high quality food, late night hot milchig buffets after Shabbous and the first days after yom tov, lavish tea room). There were approx. 4 time slots each day of speakers, 2-3 speakers per time slot. It was like candy for the neshomah. Often couldn't make up my mind which shiur to go to. As for the camp, my children are older so didn't go to camp. However, I did observe that the campers were happy and were kept busy. There was a trip to Great Adventures on Chol Hamoed and a carnival. The guests were down to earth and friendly. It was $3000 a person for a double room.

I was there too...I agree with the above poster.. all in all great program and place..but on the pricey side

Wave

FranticFrummie

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 4:38 pm

amother wrote:

I'm a bit of a hoarder, and I usually start having panic attacks right after Purim, complete with nightmares where I wake up in a cold sweat. This year I didn't clean anything, and it felt so WEIRD! I felt like I wasn't really getting into the spirit of things.

G-d willing, by next Pesach I'll be in Israel, so I'll have decluttered in order to get everything into the lift. Once settled in, I'll make a resolution (bli neder) to keep things more tidy, so I can enjoy my new home with a fresh start. I want to enjoy Pesach in my own home, not to dread it.