Does any body not clean for pesach and stays home

amother

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 12:24 pm

I was raised where pesach cleaning started purim time and every room was gone thru thoroughly. I was aware that some of it was spring cleaning but it was important none the less to go thru all drawers and vacuum out the bottom of closets. Then I met dh. We went to his parents for the 1st pesach. I was pretty shocked to discover his mom doesnt clean for pesach! Dh is the youngest and shes pretty old so she was probably cleaned a bit more in her younger years but by the time she was 65 she completely gave up the cleaning. She taped everything shut and wiped down her counters and the kashered. The irony is that they officially dont tell chometz but I found chometz a few times over the yt and dh told me they can rely on the fact that its sold. My parents actually do sell but only keep valuable things like whiskey and get rid of everything else. The items the sell are boxed up in a storage room the whole chag. When I clean for pesach now the way my mom did, my husband thinks im nuts. Guess it's just the different ways we were raised.. what do u do?

Rappel

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 12:32 pm

Growing up, me and my siblings did the pesach cleaning. I think it got more kosher as we aged. XD I think my parents relied on the sale very much when we were little, and messy.

Now, I'm a strategic spring cleaner , and you'd better believe that fridge is getting washed. DH thinks I'm crazy, but once everything is getting moved already, I'm not going to NOT wipe it down. A week before pesach, we kasher our pots and silverware. 3 days before pesach, I usually end up have a crying fit, and DH sends me to bed and takes over. but it all gets clean in the end.

mha3484

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 12:33 pm

I will assume since your DH is the youngest, by the time she was in her 60s and had an empty house she didnt have chametz in random places. If you don't eat outside the kitchen/dining room you dont have to make your self bananas cleaning closets, bedroom drawers your basement etc

amother

Seagreen

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 12:34 pm

Rappel wrote:

Now, I'm a strategic spring cleaner , and you'd better believe that fridge is getting washed. DH thinks I'm crazy, but once everything is getting moved already, I'm not going to NOT wipe it down.

Same here. It drives my husband crazy, but if I’m going through the cabinets and fridge anyways, of course I’m going to scrub them!

little neshamala

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 12:42 pm

I grew up in a home where pesach cleaning was major tension. After consulting with our Rav, we now clean for pesach in an awesome, happy, excited manner. 1 week before pesach we begin, quickly go through bedrooms and closets literally just looking for a "mashehu" of chometz-a piece of chometz the size of a cheerio. Any tiny crumbs get left there. I sell any complicated closets that would take too much time. I dont clean or reorganize. Literally lifting the contents from a drawer, eyeballing for chometz, dumping the stuff back. My Rav told me if the bedroom is taking longer than 10-20 minutes im doing too much.
So easy, no stress, instead I cook and bake weeks in advance. Yay!

ETA I do clean my house, just not pesach time Very Happy

sky

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 12:45 pm

I was told I don’t have to move anything heavy. Including beds.
I like to do it for spring cleaning. But if I don’t its fine.
I sell a lot. I close up the toy closet and sell it. Ant cabinets we don’t use we tape and sell. It makes it much easier.
We also don’t eat in bedrooms the whole year - I think it’s disgusting anyways for there to be food in bedrooms

But we do have some time consuming jobs. In DHs family they check every pocket in any clothing worm that year. I just do it with DH bedikas chimetz nighy.
While we sell chometz we make an itemized list of every item sold and it’s lication. We sell a lot so it’s a pain.

amother

Smokey

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 12:49 pm

I believe it depends on your stage in life and life circumstances. My mother is very makpid and does more than expected.
I also used to do this years ago. Until I learned the halachos, and that's what I stick to.
No chumras but Lehalacha.
At this stage in my life, I don't have the energy. I have little kids, no help, tiny apartment (I can't even start before 2 weeks before pesach).
I did organize way in advance so that even yom tov, I just needed to remove the stuff from drawers/cabinets, recipe and put back.

This year, I still have no plan. I hope to move but don't have an apartment yet. I hope and pray for a yeshua bkorov.

amother

Jade

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 12:52 pm

Technically, I don't clean for Pesach, the cleaning lady does LOL

But in all seriousness, it is a little above and beyond typical cleaning, but not by that much. Bedrooms and bathrooms get cleaned the same way they always are, there isn't really anything extra to be done. Although we do have rules about no food going upstairs, kids are kids, nothing is 100%, so bedrooms get vacuumed because who knows. But we're not moving furniture or anything. Nobody is moving furniture over Pesach, so no reason to move it before.

Downstairs is different. I will have the couch cushions vacuumed (there are ALWAYS crumbs in there, no matter what I do, so it has to be done). The kitchen/fridge has to be cleaned really well, in order to be properly kashered. But yeah, overall, not that much is done beyond the usual, there is definitely a lot of putting away and sealing off cabinets/rooms, and selling.

amother

Coral

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 1:54 pm

I grew up in a home where spring cleaning was done simultaneously with pesach cleaning. Over the years I've learned to do things differently.
I do my organizing and "spring" cleaning throughout the year, slowly. By the time pesach comes around, every part of the house has been worked on since the previous year.
We keep food out of all rooms all year, except kitchen & dining. Dining room is cleaned of all food after every shabbos and it's not used for meals throughout the week.
So only the kitchen needs to be cleaned for pesach. That involves emptying the kitchen pantry and one other large cabinet from food. We empty 3 kitchen drawers from utensils to make cooking easier over YT (I transfer pesach utensils to the drawer). All pots & appliances stay in the pesach closet near the kitchen all year and easily accessible throughout pesach, so I don't need to empty my other kitchen cabinets.
And the biggest deal is deep cleaning the oven before kashering, and doing the refrigerator and freezer very well.

amother

Natural

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 2:04 pm

I have little kids at home and don't clean until a week before pesach. I vacuum bedrooms and under beds, check their drawers under their clothes for chametz but don't wipe them down. Vacuum living room and couch. Check toy shelf and bookshelf and move things around but don't wipe.

Cover table we eat on. Tape up kitchen cabinets. Wipe fridge and clean oven. Clean counters.

It's very short, I don't move furniture or go crazy. If I can't see it, I don't clean. No need to wipe dust from every service.

It's very stress free and doesn't make me a maniac.

mommyhood

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 2:26 pm

I live in a house and food is not allowed anywhere other than the the first floor. My kids are really good about it so I only have to focus on really cleaning that and the playroom. We do a thorough vacuum in the bedrooms but I don't empty drawers or closets when I'm Pesach cleaning. If I want to Spring clean I do that in the winter when I'm stuck indoors. I also don't clean the inside of any kitchen or dining room cabinets that I'm closing off for Pesach and I use temporary shelves for Pesach so that's most of them.

amother

Taupe

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 2:32 pm

I don't start till a week before. I do not do a spring cleaning at the same time. I do the best I can, I do the kitchen very well.I have a colonial so the upstairs is just a very good vacuuming, that I do every week anyways for Shabbos. The downstairs is where I focus and because I don't have a lot of furniture itreally does not take a lot of time. Also my husband does tons of it.

amother

Chocolate

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 2:33 pm

I don't do the obsessive-spring-cleaning-as-Pesach-cleaning. I'm a giyoret, so ... that probably makes a difference. I'm also pretry low key about cleaning to begin with. And my dh doesn't care. I clean the kitchen VERY well, and the dining room, table, chairs. I vacuum the couch. And we do normal sweeping in the rest of the house. I never get to the car (though I mean to,) but we also don't use the car during Pesach, so I just sell it, along with all the other chometz. I try to use up as much food as possible, but my dh LOVES to stock up, so it's never possible, and he would have a FIT if I actually got rid of food that we paid for. So, I seal it up and sell it.

amother

Pumpkin

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 2:38 pm

I start Spring cleaning 2 months before Pesach. From 2 weeks before Pesach it's the real Pesach cleaning. I make sure to call it Spring cleaning because I think it's important that my children know that cleaning the light fixtures and window slats aren't Pesach cleaning.

FranticFrummie

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 2:40 pm

I know one family where the mom has really severe celiac. Even one speck of gluten in anything will make her flare up. Her house is 100% grain free all the time. She just has her usual cleaning lady do the normal cleaning that she always does, and that's it.

I'm kind of jealous, but I like eating gluten too much. I guess I have to clean. *sigh*

amother

Rose

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 3:00 pm

I don't go nuts about the places we don't eat or keep food. I do regular cleaning, and I'm more careful in the living room (vacuum couch, under and behind since we do eat in there sometimes). Dining room and kitchen are cleaned well and mopped. In the kitchen, we wipe out and self-clean the oven, clean the stove really well and kasher, and clean the fridge really well. We tape up all cabinets, cover counters, and cover chametz appliances that are in the open. This is pretty much what my mother did, except I remember her emptying a few cabinets of dishes, cleaning, relining, and replacing with pesach dishes and food. That to me is extra unneeded work---I just leave my pesach supplies on a counter/extra table. Some people I know use a small bookshelf or cabinet for this purpose. I have basic pots/pans and use disposables for most things--no pesach dishes to worry about.

amother

Orange

Wed, Feb 12 2020, 3:10 pm

After purim, I remove all the chometz gamur from the pantry and put it in a box and leave it in the corner of my kitchen. The idea is to try to finish as much as possible from that box.
I start cleaning around rosh chodesh time. I clean the bedrooms as well as I can, but it's more spring cleaning. Whatever I dont get to is fine.
. I only clean the kitchen very well. All the cabinets, clean and line, and of course fridge and freezer. Stove and oven takes me a whole day. I also clean dining room chairs well.
I kasher usually two days before pesach, not earlier. Sometimes even the day of bedikas chometz. .I hate the idea of being kosher for pesach while we are still eating chometz.
Erev pesach, I have the cleaning lady clean the rest of the house like every other erev shabbos. .