Some people are born that way, others are trained that way
and still others train themselves. Then there are those who
live in organized chaos. However organized you are, there are
days when Baby has been screaming all night, the dinner
burnt, a child needed emergency hospital treatment or any of
the dozens of things which crop up in any household. All your
well-laid plans are useless and hopefully, kind neighbors
will help you through this crisis. There may well be more
emergencies. A friend might call on you to take in several
extra children in a hurry. A parent may need you urgently for
an unspecified time. A pipe might burst, an appliance break
down and you wonder how you will ever get out of the mess. We
have all met the scenario at some time or other.
Nevertheless, especially at this time of year, it pays to
have some hard and fast rules to which you will adhere and
tasks which you will assign to different days of the week.
Shabbos candlesticks should be polished straight after
Shabbos, not on Friday afternoon. You might argue that they
will be a little tarnished; but not really, if you use a good
silver polish which is supposed to prevent tarnish to a
degree.
Shabbos cutlery and dishes should be put away no later than
Sunday. Buttons which came off on Shabbos should be sewn back
on Sunday and all Shabbos clothing washed and put away by
Monday.
Once again, there may be a snag. If Rosh Chodesh occurs on
Sunday, there are many women who do not sew and many who do
not launder. In which case, they would be advised to try to
move Tuesday's agenda to Sunday. [Ed. I do believe that
ironing does not fall under the category of tasks not done by
women on Rosh Chodesh...] These guidelines are a general rule
of thumb and one has to be a little flexible at times. Make
up your mind that you will not do the family ironing any
later than Wednesday. There may have been a family
simcha on a Thursday night and there are six white
shirts to iron in time for Shabbos. But firstly, most little
and not-so-little boys have more than one white shirt,
because they need more than that for Yom Tov. If this is not
the case, you may have to increase your wardrobe precisely
for these contingencies or bend the rules that week.
Unfortunately, you will probably find you are running late
that Friday and you will not be able to welcome the Shabbos
Queen in your usual (now that you will have become so
organized) calm, efficient way.*
If you want to do some extra cleaning, do it on Monday and
Tuesday. If you want to turn out a cupboard or sort out
winter/summer clothing, or clean the windows or fridge, do it
on those two days. If fact, if you do not have cleaning help,
you should do the main thorough cleaning on Monday or
Tuesday, and just give an overall `lick and promise' on
Friday in honor of Shabbos. If possible, fix doctors, and
dentists, appointments during the first half of the week.
Wednesday should be your main shopping day. There are women
who keep a xeroxed master list of all commodities handy and
compile their own shopping list with this in front of them.
This serves a twofold purpose. It lessens impulse buying and
also ensures that items are not forgotten. Incidentally, such
lists are sold commercially and might make a nice small
engagement present! Unfortunately, the ones I have seen
include bacon and dog food. The answer to that is to type out
your own list on computer and perhaps photocopy a few dozen
with extra space at the bottom for special needs. Tack up
prominently right AFTER you've completed your shopping for
the week.
Many women claim proudly that they do all their cooking on
Friday in honor of Shabbos. If they habitually have a
scramble to be ready in time for Shabbos, it would be more
respectful to prepare most food on Thursday. In fact, many
things can be checked in advance, perhaps when you are on the
phone. You can soak a large amount of beans at a time, for
example, check them, and then bag and freeze them in smaller
packages. In fact, frozen beans take less time to cook! Your
baking should certainly not be done on Friday. Not that
baking itself takes so long, but cleaning up does. On the
other hand, it is a special mitzva to bake challos
early Friday morning.
A good idea is to use disposables for Friday lunch (which you
may be doing already...). Advisable for the short or the long
Fridays.
In a large family, even polishing all the shoes on Friday is
a major task. Moreover, even if you do decide not to iron
after Wednesday, every day is wash day, and the laundry needs
to be folded and put away. However, wherever there is much
washing, there are usually extra pairs of hands. Use them
wisely!
All this is just plain common sense, but some of my young
friends have been very grateful for some of these ideas and
have told me that it made a tremendous difference in the
tranquility of the home and a calm Erev Shabbos.
* We would like our readers to provide some of their
suggestions for cutting corners in all aspects of the home,
like quickie ironing: folding a shirt and ironing it double.
ETC. Mailing address: Weinbach, Panim Meirot 1, Jerusalem. I
am usually not in a mad rush to print, so use the mail. FAX-
02-5387998 and confirm that it has gone through.
