This week I’m officially getting started on my Pesach (Passover) cleaning! I generally don’t do more than two hours of cleaning on any given day except when we turn over the kitchen. It’s too easy to get worn down by all the work; I find breaking it into manageable pieces makes it possible to enjoy this time of year and all the attendant preparations as much as any other time of year! The kids do a lot to help, and I don’t want them to get burnt out, either. Some people like to start way in advance, but I’ve never found it beneficial to start too much in advance, since then you have to keep it in Pesach ready condition. Our house isn’t large enough that I can easily limit areas for a long time in advance!
I feel that each holiday is best enjoyed when the focus is on that holiday. That means that I don’t do any planning for Pesach until Purim has passed – I focus on Purim when it’s Purim and don’t think about Pesach until it’s over, and all the Purim stuff has been cleaned up and put away. I try not to drag out Pesach cleaning, but I also don’t like the pressure of having too much to do, too close to Pesach, so this schedule works well for me. I clean mostly in the afternoons on Monday through Weds (sometimes Thursday, but I prefer to keep that time available for Shabbos preparations), so we can continue our regular homeschooling schedule until the week before Pesach. I also use part of Sundays.
Here’s my basic schedule:
Week 1 (March 2 – 4): I inventoried chametz (leavened foods) and clothing/shoes, and made sure everyone has what they need for the upcoming holiday and spring season. It was the week of shopping, lol! I still have a couple of things I need to get (including my personal big purchase that I’ll get today), but I’m waiting for a good sale to come along for the couple of other items. 🙂
Week 1: The week after Purim I do my planning – along with things like I mentioned above. It’s preliminary kind of stuff that allows me to focus on Pesach cleaning without having to stop and start knowing it’s done.
Week 2 (March 8 – 11): We’ll clean the top two floors. That includes all the bedrooms, the attic, linen closet, and two bathrooms. We have a homeschool gathering on Weds. as well as an eye doctor appointment to take ds16 to, so I’ve scheduled that as an off-day so we can all enjoy hanging out without feeling like we should be cleaning.
Yesterday I bought our matzas and some other Pesach staples – I don’t like shopping when it’s crowded and I avoid the rush by doing it now. It also spaces out the cost – six cases of grape juice, meats, and matza were all paid for with my Feb. budget. My March budget will cover everything else. My food budget is the same at this time of year as any other month – $600. If I have to, I’ll stop in at the kosher supermarket a few days before Pesach when everything else is done to pick up any small items I don’t yet have. Unlike the vast majority of people in the very long lines at that time, I’m relaxed and cheerful; I consider it almost a public service to share some positive energy when everyone is dripping with tension. 🙂
Week 3 (March 14 – 18): At this point I do the basement and laundry room. This year I’m slightly adjusting our schedule to accommodate the home repairs the kids want to do. They want to some spackle a little, paint a little, fix some things that don’t look so nice (like the hole in the bathroom door created when ds2 used a screwdriver to screw into it!). So on Sunday and Monday, we’ll do the basement and laundry room, and then will have the following three days to do the desired visual improvements. 🙂
Week 4 (March 21 – 25): I’ll do the living room, dining room, and kitchen (we have an open layout so it’s easiest to do them all about the same time). This is the most intensive time, since it’s a lot of work in just three days. I like to finish cleaning about a week before Pesach so there’s plenty of time to cook in advance, do all the laundry, etc, without a feeling of pressure. I plan to turn over the kitchen on the 23rd, and that day we’ll shift out of hectic mode and can all relax – I plan to take the family to the duck pond for his birthday – we did that last year and he requested to do it again, with the same refreshments as last year. Then on the March 24, I’ll do my monthly shopping, and Thurs. I’ll unpack, plan my Pesach menu (to be determined after I see what I buy), and cook for Shabbos. At that time the house is entirely ready – the only thing left to do the following week is cook for Pesach.
So far the challenge this week is that the best time to clean is when the littles are napping, but they each nap in a differentbedroom, so not much can be done on the top two floors since it will wake them up! That means cleaning with them awake and involved. The biggest challenge is the attic, since I keep all the clothes storage there. Since everyone is going through all of their drawers, I have a lot of clothes that need to be cleaned and then packed in the appropriate boxes. Once I get past this area of the house, it will get easier since I can use the time the kids are sleeping to work.
I also want to find some time to plan my garden. I don’t know if I’m going to get myself together enough to plant fruit trees – this is such a hectic time of year! I need to go through all the seeds I have, see what else I need, but the most time consuming thing of all is to make a plan for where everything will be planted. I have a feeling that I’m going to have to accept that I can’t make the more involved garden that I would like. Oh, well. At times like this I remind myself that I can only do so much, and to look at what I do accomplish instead of what is left undone.
Do you have any tips that help you stay relaxed and enjoy this time of year?
Avivah
Since your kitchen will already be turned over before Shabbos, how do you like to handle challah that Shabbos?
I live in a much smaller house than you, but my schedule is very similar because I’ve found out that if I do more than a little bit at a time, I end up being ill on seder night 🙁
Sarah- We will iy”h also have a pesah house by shabbat hagadol- that means I’ll cook with pesach things only . In order to deal with challah, I’ll transfer everything in disposable, and we’ll eat on disposables too. We’ll be stricter than usual about eating at the table only and shaking crumbs off after the meals, and will sweep right after the meals. If the weather is nice- we’ll eat outside (since we live in Israel, there is a reasonable chance it will happen!).
What we do for challah on Shabbos HaGadol is very much like Nathalie: I spread a disposable plastic tablecloth over the cloth tablecloth, and we say kiddush and make hamotzi. We use pita (since it doesn’t crumble much) and everyone eats carefully over the tablecloth. Then we take it off, throw it away, sweep the floor just in case, and everyone goes outside to shake themselves off. Then we put a heavy nondisposable plastic over the tablecloth, and set the table with Pesach dishes.
We don’t eat the challah outside since then you have to have the entire meal there. We don’t have much privacy in our yard, unfortunately, otherwise we’d eat outside if it were nice weather – it’s the kind of thing the kids would enjoy.
Nathalie, I like the idea of eating outside! My kids would love that!
G-d willing we’ll be eating outside, a perk to living in south Florida! I like your schedule a lot, Avivah, I am planning a schedule that looks somewhat similar. I’ve tried to dotoo much at the last minute, but decided peaschdik foods for a few extra days is no bigee for us.
Growing up, we always ate outside teh SHabbos before Pesach…I guess I’ve veered frm that a bit, we won’t turn our kitchen over until Motzei Shabbos! My cleaning schedule is similar to yours, I never do too much in one day…the bedrooms and everything in the back half of our house gets done first (all done now expect for my bedroom) …then the front rooms (playroom, eat in kitchen, dining room) all get done much closer to Pesach …thanks to all the little ones running around here One thing I do that seems different…is the clothes prep. All that is already done …actually I buy throughout the year when I see stuff and put it away for Yom Tov. My kids actually tried on everything before Purim so I could see what I needed to buy…I was happy to find out that I only needed some new undershirts for the girls and socks for the baby!! I hate to run out last minute and try to find deals on Yom Tov clothes. So, that is one thing that is completely off my list as we get closer to Pesach. One other thing that has made my life much easier the past few years is that for the week before Pesach, I make dinner ahead of time (week before) and then we eat dinner on the front porch using all disposables. I reserve my microwave only for use during those few days …that way chametz gets used up and I don’t have to worry about cooking that week. Chag Kasher V’sameach!
@ Dina – I also think that KLP foods for another few days is no big deal.
@ Rena – I actually do something very similar to you with clothing. Last week we pulled everyone’s boxes out to see what we needed to supplement. Nothing very major, but it was still four stops in two days. Part of that was also filling in gaps for the summer, not just YT (at thrift stores this is easily done even now). I agree that running around last minute hoping for great sales on important items is chancy!
In my community there are several apparel vendors who routinely come from out of town in the three weeks before Pesach. I don’t generally buy for the following holiday since there’s no price advantage to doing so. Those are my preferred retail sources since they usually have very, very good prices as a matter of course. Also, sometimes there are big one time sales right before Pesach (by individuals) that I can’t get to any other time – like the hat sale I’m hoping will be advertised sometime in the next week or two.
But almost all of the other stuff – underwear, socks, shoes, skirts, shorts, shirts, Shabbos clothes – were basically taken care of throughout the year. I hope that clarifies what I meant!
Sorry! Didn’t mean to imply you weren’t on the ball 🙂
I didn’t think you were, don’t worry! I was just clarifying since I realized after reading your comment and then my post again that it sounded like I did most of the Pesach clothes shopping now.
Avivah, what was your schedule like when your kids were a lot younger? Your current schedule seems very stressful to me — I can’t imagine cleaning two floors of a house in one week — but you have a lot more helpers :).
We start a lot earlier — I do my chametz inventory after Tu B’shvat, and by now we’ve almost used up our chametz, and we’re only buying more if it’s going to be eaten immediately.
My schedule was very similar to what I shared, except that I started about a week later and almost always turned over the kitchen after Shabbos HaGadol; my dh preferred being able to eat grains as long as possible. I took about the same amount of time (3.5 weeks) but my kids didn’t help that much since they were so young. I did most of my cleaning when they slept or napped. I never have found Pesach preps grueling or stressful except for two years when I had extenuating circumstances: once was the first year I was married when I was hospitalized in the high risk pregnancy unit – they let me out for Shabbos HaGadol and I was cleaning as much as I could on Sat. night before I had to check back in on Sunday morning, lol!. b) My dh was hospitalized two weeks before Pesach and ended up being there for three weeks. I obviously wasn’t expecting it and had been counting on his help when I scheduled my preparations. At that time, I was pg with my third, working with two little kids (ages 2.5 and 15 months), going back and forth to the hospital (an hour and a half on two different buses in each direction, usually taking the kids because no one wanted to watch them while I went – understandably, they needed to do their Pesach cleaning!) to be with him after getting home from work. I had no help from anyone and felt I was going to collapse physically trying to get everything done (I remember crying to dh on the phone because I couldn’t physically move the fridge myself to clean behind it). When the seder night came I put my kids to bed, and sat down to make a seder for myself. And I will never forget how I was so bone-tired I felt like I couldn’t move after I finally sat down.
But those are the only exceptions in 17 years of making Pesach! (Why in the world did I just write all of that unnecessary detail??) When I lived in EY people used to ask me how I cleaned, looking for what I wasn’t doing that they were doing, but I really do the same basic stuff as everyone – I’m not cleaning cracks with a toothpick but I’m not laissez faire, either.
Two floors of my house is just four bedrooms and two bathrooms (we converted the attic to be a master bedroom and bathroom). And bedrooms are easy – basically wipe down dresser drawers, change sheets of bed, clean floor and closets. The closer you get to where chametz is actively cooked and eaten, the longer it takes!
It’s interesting to hear the different approaches that people take. My opinion is that if a mother is relaxed and the entire family comes to Pesach in a relatively good mood, then whatever she’s doing is working!
I need to start pesach cleaning. So far I’ve gotten one shelf done total. I really should get some more cleaning done while my kids sleep, but thats when i get my regular household cleaning done as opposed to pesach cleaning. How do you clean and also run the household? I find that just running my household takes much time, let alone clean for pesach.
Btw, regards from B.S., your old natural healer. She stopped by my house with her daughter, A.H., but the daughter doesnt remember you.
I guess I have issues, because it doesn’t seem to matter how I divide the work, it is always extremely stressful. Most years I have started after Chanukah (yes, Chanukah!). At that time, I do many things that aren’t really Pesach cleaning, more organizing and decluttering, but also checking and cleaning areas where there really shouldn’t be chometz anyway (closets, storage, out of the way places). By Purim, usually I have everything but my kitchen and dining room done. I live in a small apartment, though, so my “dining room” is also my living room, so I really have the two largest and hardest rooms to focus on for that last month. So I try to pre-clean things. I’ll do my stovetop really well, for example, so that it will be easier when the time comes to really clean it. So it seems like I am so with it and ahead of the game at this point, three weeks or so before Pesach, but I can’t seem to make the “turning over” part easier or stress-free. 1) My family does find it annoying to eat Pesach food for extra days, because our Pesach diet is pretty limited and labor-intensive. 2) Even if I pre-clean as much as posssible, turning over takes *at least* 48-72 hours, so everyone is hungry and irritable during that time. 3) I don’t know how to handle the food during the in-between stages. I can’t cook chametz food or in chametz kelim during the real cleaning and turning over and I can’t cook in the Pesach kelim until everything is kashered and well-covered. We don’t have anywhere to eat pre-prepared chametz food that isn’t too close to the kitchen for comfort after we start the real cleaning. No yard.
So, in summary, the whole “in-between” stage really stresses me. This year I started much later with my cleaning, but I fear I will have the same problem. The kitchen and dining areas take a certain amount of time to do no matter when they are done and during that time, I’m stressed. So I always find I have about one week of “heck”, and it has nothing to do with being disorganized or starting late.
What I am doing wrong?
@PP – you’re right that just running the house takes a lot of time and energy. I was just thinking about that last night as I was washing the large pots for the day, and marveling at how many pots are used every single day in this house. However, I’m going to guess that you’re not using your time effectively during the day if you aren’t able to do more than your daily cleaning while your kids nap (please don’t be offended). I sometimes cleaned in the afternoons with my little kids playing close by – I didn’t do the major stuff – but for example, I could do the bookshelves that were right in the area they were playing. That was easy to stop and start. I also did some things when they went to sleep for the night – unlike teenagers, little kids go to sleep pretty early in the evening!
Thanks for the regards; it’s a small world! (Did you tell AH I was the madricha for her best friend RY? I’m positive she knows who I am but I can’t think what other ‘clue’ would trigger her memory without her seeing me.)
@ Binah, I actually think you’re doing great. Turning over is pretty intense no matter what you do. I’ll try to post a little later on about what I do to minimize the ‘turning over’ pressure. I understand about not wanting to turn over too much in advance – for years I used to turn over two days in advance, ie, I had 1 – 1/2 days to do all the Pesach cooking – my dh ate a lot of brown rice during the year and really preferred to minimize the time we ate Pesach food.
I’m not the most efficient house cleaner. When my kids fall asleep (and they don’t need much sleep), thats when I take a litttle breather, and only after I catch my breath (figuratively, of course- they don’t work me THAT hard), I get cleaning done. Did i mention that I hate cleaning so I have to pep talk myself a lot first before I even start?
AH didn’t remember who RY was. Lol.
binah- what about letting your family have lots of non chometz food that you don’t have to prepare like yogurts, cottage cheese, fruit, veggies, cheeses, etc. even rice cakes are only kitnios, so even if they get crumbs around, it doesn’t mess up your pesach prep. i’ve heard this saying attributed to many different people, but the point is the same, “dirt is not chmoetz, and your kids are not the korban pesach!” i think the 2nd part is the most important to remember… but you could add that you and your husband are also not supposed to be korbonos…
I have found that preparing “transition” food in advance is the key to making our Pesach prep go more calmly and smoothly. I have a lot of favorites already in the freezer that can easily go into the microwave or toaster oven. I have baked challah and cake enough to get us through erev Pesach. It is my experience that limiting the “daily grind” as much as possible is very helpful. We homeschool, and so a lot of what we are dong and learning revolves around Pesach right now. We are on our summer schedule which means just kodesh subjects and math. That takes a lot of pressure off too.
To Binah.
My family (esp. dh !) doesn’t like eating pesach food any more than needed, so a couple of years ago I asked my rav aout kintnyot and he told me that I could use KLP kitnyot before pesach in my regular pesach dishes. I could cook them in my regular pesach pots but should wait 24 hours before using these pots to cook non kitnyot- special for pesach food (and even the waiting part is a chumra according to my rav!). So we had rice and corn based pasta, and I even bough special cornflakes for breakfast. Everyone had a good time of having “normal food”, and I was able to cook for pesach without stressing (I just kept one parve pot aside for all the kitnyot cooking).
I agree with Avivah- the less stressed out you are about pesach, the more enjoyable it is for everyone.
@ Nathalie – this is REALLY interesting. I’ve never heard about this option.
@ Sara – do you mean that Pesach is widely considered to be a time that everyone puts on weight? I really don’t see any reason that it should be unless a person is eating Pesach cakes and matza at every meal and in between.
I agree I was surprised to get the ok, but really, since on pesach one is allowed to eat non ktnyot food even if cooked in kitnyot pots (bediavad) it’s not so crazy that before pesach when there is o issur you could do the same in your own kitchen.
The waiting period before making pesach dishes is because it’s bediavad to eat from kitnyot -cooked -into- pots, and by waiting 24 h you go back to lechatchila. I’m not sure I’m very clear here, but that’s the jist of it. (It WAS clear when I was told the reasoning… but I have long just remembered the psak only 🙂 )
Avivah, you mentioned sorting clothing in the attic. Do you have some particular rules about how much of what to keep for you children? I’m assuming you keep everything to pass to the next child in that size, right? We have two little closets, and I don’t want to get rid of our 0-3yr girl and boy clothing, since we want to have more children… but I can’t even close the closet doors anymore. I sometimes feel like limiting the number of shirts per size, for example. Any tips?
I’m not extremely systematic about this. Basically I save everything that’s in very good condition. I have boxes for each size (two sets – one for girls, one for boys); when the box of a particular size is full and I have more I want to put into it, I’ll go through it and see how much I have of everything. My basic limit is everything has to fit in the box. Then I keep the best of those clothes and give away the overlap.
I look at what I have as the skeleton for the next child, not the complete wardrobe. So I’ll keep about two pairs of pajamas, 1 pr thermals, 2 – 3 Shabbos outfits, 3 – 5 every day outfits (for winter and summer). That’s approximate, not a hard and fast rule. A couple of days ago I was noticing I have a lot of boys Shabbos shirts in size 6 and 7 – disproportionate, actually. But since I have three little boys in a row after ds7, I know that I’ll eventually use them so I’m not getting rid of them. I did get rid of some bulkier items, like sweaters and sweatshirts – I notice my kids end up wearing one or two sweatshirts over different long sleeved t-shirts all winter long, so it’s not worth keeping more around.