Pesach kitchen in basement?

amother

Thu, Nov 26 2009, 11:40 pm

We inherited a little bit of money and DH and I are thinking about putting in a Pesach kitchen in the basement. We're really not extravagant people, and live simply, but I think this might help out around Pesach time. But is it ridiculous to have a Pesach kitchen in the basement and not use the upstairs kitchen at all? Has anyone done this or heard of such a thing?

Grandmama

Fri, Nov 27 2009, 12:00 am

A Pesach kitchen anywhere is great. You just clean and close up the regular kitchen, except for one or two cabinets you may clean thoroughly and use for convenience. You cook and do everything downstairs. It makes Pesach preparations much easier, especially before yom tov. You keep your pots and things downstairs, and do not have to shlep and change it before and after yom tov, you just clean up and close it up until the next year. Pesach kitchens are not a luxury. Some of the poorest people I know make sure to live in apartments that they rent, that have a small Pesach kitchen in a closet off the kitchen. It is a necessity when the family is large and growing, and when children and grandchildren are BH multiplying.
All they have is a small oven/cooktop, a sink for fleishig, and a cabinet or two. For milchig they use the bathroom sink, with a liner of some sort, because there is not that much milchig. But even a little bit helps a lot. So go for it, you will never understand how you managed without it till now!

louche

Fri, Nov 27 2009, 10:07 am

The only thing I covet more than a Pesach kitchen is a second bathroom. And as of the day after Purim through the end of Pesach, I covet the kitchen MORE than the bathroom!

Tova

Fri, Nov 27 2009, 10:45 am

It is my dream (assuming we are still living in this city/house) in a few years to let go of our tenant and take over the space, kasher the kitchen there and use it for Pesach! For now, though, it's not worth it giving up the rental income we receive from renting out the space.

chocolate moose

Fri, Nov 27 2009, 11:18 am

Are you going to redo the entire bassement with nice talbes and chairs and artwork, so it's at least as nice as your dining room upstairs? It's not great to spend your Pesach down there if it's very "basementy".

Raisin

Sat, Nov 28 2009, 1:12 pm

my inlaws have a pesach kitchen in the basement. But they have a huge area there with lots of rooms, which is basically unsuable for most purposes. My parents had a pesach kitchen behind a wall in one of the bedrooms, and after a while my mother realised that having the extra bedroom during pesach was more useful for her. She never cooks before erev yom tov, so the whole pesach kitchen business was a waste of space in our house.

I would only do it if I had lots of space. Having a nice big laundry room would be far more useful to me personally. But if you are not sacrificing anything else - go ahead.

(Also, I would hate to be cooking in the basement for a week.)

Isramom8

Sat, Nov 28 2009, 1:50 pm

It's normal. But I didn't want to sacrifice space I could use during the whole year for something else. Also, there is a lot of cooking and guests on Pesach - I want the use of my entire big kitchen, not a tiny cramped space I'm not used to using.

Raisin

Sat, Nov 28 2009, 3:33 pm

Isramom8 wrote:

But Raisin, then you have that space taken up the whole year, plus you have to kasher your kitchen!

it doesn't have to be used only for the pesach kitchen. It can be used for another purpose during the year, and then a month or a week before pesach you can clean the area, cover it, put a small oven or electric ring there (we have a seperate small oven for pesach, we don't kasher ours) and cook away. it can be a corner of your kids playroom or even the laundry room.

(this is for the people who don't want to be stuck in the basement the whole pesach but would still like to cook in advance.)

SingALong

Sat, Nov 28 2009, 8:49 pm

I can't wait till I can do my pesach kitchen. now I have a small family, so I have a closet off the kitchen that I plan to make into a pesach kitchen as soon as I can afford it.

I currently rent out my basement but later on when I need the space and keep it, I look forward to using the basement kitchen for pesach, I probably will need to change counters/appliances, etc to make it pesachdik but for a larger family its huge so it will be pleasant to work in.

I hope to be able to cook in advance, freeze a ton of stuff so right before yom tov all I need to worry about are the last minute things that need to be made fresh and closing/covering up the regular kitchen.

Tova

Sat, Nov 28 2009, 9:12 pm

I thought that people who have a Pesach kitchen really just use it for advance cooking and freezing. They eventually kasher the main kitchen for Pesach but with no pressure of having to kasher enough in advance to have time to cook.

elf123

Sat, Nov 28 2009, 9:48 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

Huh? She's talking about a KITCHEN, not about moving into the basement for Pesach? Why do you need artwork so that you can cook?

Mommy3.5

Sun, Nov 29 2009, 2:53 pm

My IL's have peasach kitchen, but kasher thir upstairs kitchen too. The peasach kitchen is used for the cooking in advance and freezing before peasach. The extra frige is used to store extra peasach food during pesach, but the actual serving takes place from the main kitchen.

Its a real pain to sclep to the basement in order to serve each course. And going down to the basement to cook scrambled eggs for breakfast is a bigger pain.

But the extra kitchen does lighten the stress of having to get the kitchen done early enough to cook for YT.

lovemywig

Sun, Nov 29 2009, 3:04 pm

One day I would like to put in a pesach kitchen into my basement, I have the place. But my question is isnt it hard bringing up all the thing running up and down with hot food?