Pesach (spring) cleaning

amother

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 7:04 am

My house desperately needs to be gone thru. The rooms we use a lot bh stay clean. But the storage areas in my house leave what to be desired. I know this isnt the mitzvah of pesach cleaning but once im doing it im going to declutter too because if not now, when? I moved 18 months ago. Since I moved I had a boy after 2 girls. I really want to get rid of most of my girls clothes as I know someone can get better use of it then I will. My attic, garage and all the closets in my house are going to be huge jobs. Heres ny question- when do you pesach clean? I told myself it only makes sense to clean on Sundays as I work FT during the week and I dont have the time or strength when I get home. So we just passed our 3rd sunday on the job and I feel like I can never ever do this again. My little kids need to be played with a they need the attention. The bribing and the videos only work to a certain point. My baby screams for me the whole time. Its so so stressful that its causing me terrible back pain, HOWEVER since I started I have donated hundreds of items, scary enough found a LOT of chometz. I have discovered things I didnt know I had and have organized and made things much easier to navigate. I feel like this needed to be done so badly but I doubt im even halfway thru. I need chizuk and advice to continue! TIA

ra_mom

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 7:49 am

I am not sure it's worthwhile to do this now. It will make the real pesach cleaning harder for you.
How about you spend the next 2 Sundays just going through the areas you want to organize - to look for chometz only?
After pesach, set aside 15 minutes a night to go through 1 drawer, 1 shelf, etc until you are done with organizing. Slow and steady does it.

SingALong

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 8:00 am

I find I declutter best during the winter, from after succos til Purim. Then when it’s time to clean for Pesach it’s a breeze. I need to do my toy closet very often but otherwise, everything else gets decluttered early on in the year, it’s quiet, no yt cooking, not too many off days of school etc. I do it when the kids are in school so they don’t see me throw out their stuff from forever ago that they don’t look at anymore!

If I were you I’d wait a bit. You’re working full time, have 3 little kids, and it sounds like you don’t have so much time at home without them. Maybe just do the essentials for Pesach, the rooms you live in, playroom, dr,lr, kitchen, bedrooms. Leave storage areas for after the summer. The year I had a baby, I didn’t touch my garage, I bought plastic tablecloths, hung them like curtains in front of the shelves and covered and sold them. Same with one wall of shelves in my storage room.