Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

29 Adar 5762 - March 13, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

OBSERVATIONS

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Produced and housed by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home and Family
TIPS TO SPEED YOUR PESACH PREPARATIONS
compiled by M. Rosenzweig

LAUNDRY AND IRONING

Decide which clothing and linens you will need for the week of yom tov. Then wash and iron only these items, and set them aside in a safe place for Pesach.

Sell everything else, including the hamper into which you toss the last set of "chometz" clothing on erev Pesach.

KITCHEN CUPBOARDS

The following approach may prove useful to you:

Buy a collapsible set of plastic or metal shelves that will be stored away, unassembled, during the year, and kept only for Pesach use. Keep the box to stash away the unit again after Pesach.

Use this for your Pesach utensils, and leave your chometz dishes right where they are. Sell the cupboard and any stray chometz in it, but not the dishes! You'll be ready to start cooking much sooner, and with more energy to devote to the essentials.

Some might protest that this makes the kitchen less tidy and elegant than it is for the rest of the year. Ask yourself what's more important: a happy, patient mother who is in good spirits and can function well during the busy week of Yom Tov, or a tidy, elegant kitchen for seven or eight days of the year.

Other kitchen tips:

* Clean out food cupboards in advance. Organize all the chometz items in cartons that you can throw out or burn on erev Pesach.

* Do the refrigerator early, even if you're still using chometz dishes and pots. Then cover the floor of refrigerator and maybe one shelf.

Cover other shelves and door parts for Pesach and store in a safe place.

LISTS and PLANS

Plan backwards. Start with what you want to do on erev yom tov, the fourteenth of Nisan. Grate morror, make charoses, other jobs that must be done that day. How about a nap for Mommy, not just for the children, so she'll also be wide awake for the seder?

Then go back one day, list jobs that can be done two days before yom tov. Keep backing up one day, and listing jobs to be done.

Try to be realistic. Remember that dust and dirt aren't chometz. Of course it's a mitzvah to have the house pleasantly fresh and clean for any yom tov or Shabbos, but better a sparkling you than sparkling windows.

Other useful lists:

Before Yom Tov:

1. How much you bought this year of staple items such as matzos, matzoh meal, etc., so you can note at the end of Pesach whether it was sufficient, not enough, or too much.

After Pesach:

1. Note on the above list any recommendations for next year: how much to buy, which products you did or didn't find useful.

2. Note any items you save from year to year. Record what you have and how much of it. Try to buy now what you need for next year. If not, note what you want to get next year, such as "Need bigger refrigerator box for gefilte fish."

3. Also write down anything that broke and needs to be replaced, any ideas for next year that popped into your head during Yom Tov.

It's a good idea to keep one copy of this list with your Pesach dishes, right on top where it's easy to get to it, and to make another copy that will be chometz- dig, so you'll have it easily available to refer to when you go shopping all year long.

4. Recipes that you especially liked. Note quantities -- did you double or half the recipe? Any special ingredients you want to be sure to buy next erev Pesach?

RENDER INACCESSIBLE FOOD CRUMBS INEDIBLE, AND THEREFORE NOT PROBLEMATIC

A trick many housewives use when they can't clean out small cracks is to douse them with concentrated bleach so that any crumbs lodged in a crack are rendered inedible and therefore not problematic on Pesach.

For items that can't take bleach, use bug spray. Try on a hidden area first to make sure the material won't be affected.

MAKE BEDIKAS CHOMETZ EARLY

Emptied out a clothes cupboard and wiped the inside down?

If you plan to sell the cupboard and its contents for the week of Pesach, go right ahead and put everything back.

If you want to use the cupboard on Yom Tov, then make bedikas chometz (without a brocho) in the cupboard BEFORE replacing contents, which, of course, should also be checked.

Label the cupboard: "CLEAN FOR PESACH" and seal it with masking tape.

A FINAL NOTE

Nothing here should be taken as halochoh; any questions should be directed to a reliable rav for decision.

The main point is to keep the atmosphere one of pleasure in doing the mitzvah at hand. In families with older children, who work along with you, be sure to take breaks, sit down together for a snack, and enjoy your progress together. Children who grow up enjoying the tasks of erev Pesach as an opportunity to accomplish something together will convey this same simcha to their children when they become parents.

Happy Pesach cleaning to all!

 

All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.