What is your pesach cleaning personality?

amother

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 4:02 pm

I start in January by cleaning one cabinet, feel great about getting a good head start, and then loaf the next few months away till official panic season opens three weeks before Pesach, IOW right around now. I skid to a stop (love that expression, so visual!) Seder night, but not entirely due to disorganization, rather because I can always find one more thing to do. I told dh I'm in panic mode and haven't done anything for Pesach and he says "you've been cleaning for Pesach all winter.(not true. I've been lackadaisically spring cleaning all winter.) What's left to do?"

Well, he's a man. He completely doesn't understand.

seeker

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 5:27 pm

Neither. I do most things closer to the last minute but with very little frazzle or overwhelm. I am just chilled out like that. This year I'm feeling a little less chilled out because I've been a little overwhelmed in general so not sure how Pesach is going to fit in with everything exactly. I'm thinking maybe the bulk of the cleaning the Sunday before but not sure where shopping is going to fit in.

I have a very small apartment so there's a limit to how much there is to clean. I keep cooking simple, I buy better meats and such l'kavod yomtov but I don't do fancy 5-layer individually portioned desserts, 101 ways to dress up a potato, or trying to outdo anyone else. I do basic good tasty food, and for few enough people even if we are lucky enough to have company that I could put everything up the morning of and still be ready in plenty of time. A little more foreplanning this year because the first day is Shabbos so no leeway for forgetting and making something at the last minute, but I still feel fairly relaxed about that because my attitude about forgetting is that whatever it is is probably not important enough that you can't just flex and live without it. We're not forgetting the matza, marror, or wine, so whatever gets left out will seriously be OK.

gp2.0

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 5:46 pm

seeker wrote:

Same here. I thought I was crazy. Very Happy

No chometz upstairs ever, so there is a coat closet, dining room, dinette, and kitchen to clean for pesach. The dining room has a total of 8 drawers and cabinets in it that will take 10 minutes to inspect for chametz. The coat closet has a backpack, some coats, 4 bins with scarves and gloves in it to inspect. Another 15 minutes. I don't keep food in either of those but it's possible a kid threw in a piece of toast. The dinette has a problem area under the radiator that collects crumbs, vacuuming it will take 10 minutes. There are two cabinets, checking them will take 1 minute. There are 8 toy bins in the dinette. I will check two of them and seal the other 6, that could take 20 minutes. Total cleaning time so far, we'll round it to an hour and I have just the kitchen left.

Kitchen, seal all cabinets except 2. Throw out any leftover chometz from pantry, fridge and freezer (I will have used up or given most of it away at that point) package up expensive chometz like whiskey, visually inspect and clean any areas that could possibly come into contact with food like the underside of cabinets, the inside of fridge, the inside of the two cabinets I'll be using, the sinks. This will probably take several hours, we'll round it up to a full day.

Total time spent cleaning for Pesach: 1 day. If I want an extra special mitzvah, I'll open every drawer and cabinet upstairs and visually inspect the contents. Let's say I do that. Total time spent cleaning for Pesach: 2 days.

OK, it still sounds crazy. I dunno. I must be doing it wrong. Dont know

amother

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 6:03 pm

I'm guessing neither of you has ever found cookies in their underwear drawers?

I could serve the feast Achashveirosh did in his day, just from what's in the toybox.

My apartment is basically a kitchen with doors opening out of it on all sides, so food gets everywhere. The kitchen doubles as the playroom, so my mother's rule about no food in the bedrooms is a joke here.

I start after purim, wash the toys, empty drawers and shelves, turn over mattresses, pray that whatever's done doesn't get undone etc. I finish the week of Pesach.

I don't do much cooking. Thank you, Mommy and MIL!

amother

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 6:13 pm

seeker wrote:

We also basically live on top of our eating area (dining room = kid's bedroom = playing room) but it is still small enough that you can find chometz pretty easily, if it's there. Cheerios especially get around. We don't hold that it's necessary to wash toys. Chunks of chometz get removed, and if there are crumbs stuck in the lego holes it's either not accessible/not edible/less than a kezayis/and not putting the legos in my soup.

I grew up with the spring cleaning thing lol. But yes, my kids do make shtreimel out of clics and bring it to the shabbos table. On Pesach, even if it's washed, that's a huge no no, but at least if they do dunk it in the soup, it's been washed of chametz.

amother

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 6:22 pm

I've never made Pesach. My family is still small enough that it's easier to sell our home and pack up to go to our family. So preparations for Pesach entail making sure everyone has enough clean clothing that fits and buying new toothbrushes. We put away any visible chametz so we can go back home on chol hamoed in case we forget anything.

But I do try to help my mother and MIL prepare for Pesach. I figure it's the least I can do since we split Pesach between them. My mother has a Pesach kitchen, so I help her cook weeks before Pesach. She saves me the tasks she doesn't have so much patience to do, like making cookies. Or I wash and chop veggies so she can make soup to freeze. I usually invite my in laws to come to us the shabbos before Pesach so my MIL can turn over her kitchen earlier and concentrate on Y"T rather than worrying about shabbos. I also help out a lot once I'm there.

This year I'm postpartum, so I'm not sure how much help I will be. But I will do my best because I am grateful not to have to make Pesach yet. I can see that time approaching though.