Never made pesach- how do I clean?

amother

Sienna

Mon, Mar 11 2024, 11:36 am

Really depends where you bring food. I don't allow food upstairs and don't have babies/toddlers that don't listen. We kind of just look around and vacuum upstairs. Anything else we consider spring cleaning, not pesach cleaning.

The main floor we have food everywhere, including playing with toys.
We thoroughly clean the dining room and living room. Including couches, floors, chairs etc. We dump containers of toys and make sure there is not chometz (we have found crackers and pretzels) and thoroughly clean the playroom (in addition to toys--the couch, floor, shelves, etc).

The kitchen is the hardest. We sell chometz, so I just close up the pantry and cabinets. I scrub my counters, stove, sink, fridge, freezer, etc and kasher. I wash down the outside of the cabinets and wash the kitchen floor well.

Once I start cleaning the kids are not allowed to bring any food into that room.

Door knobs and walls do not have food on them. If they do, they should be cleaned when there is food, not wait until pesach.

ChFried

Thu, Mar 14 2024, 11:51 am

YOU CAN DO THIS. I TELL MY KIDS IT IS SOUL CLEANSING PHYSICAL LABOR!

I would get a basic book. We used to love the Blumenkrantz Pesach products guide. In addition to products it had great sections on cleaning/kashering. Rabbi Blumenkrantz a"h died several years ago, but any version of his guide is great for halachos.

The best is when he says you must differentiate between what you MUST do and what you choose to do. You must check anywhere chametz may have gone that you will access during Pesach-PS not under the couch, but you know you are going to clean there! With children this can be a lot. You just clean surfaces with cleaner. You must sweep and mop, empty pockets. Most of what we do is NOT required.

But in the next sentence he explains that QTips are good for getting into cracks LOL!!!

You have lots of time. Start by cleaning closets and emptying/vacuuming pockets-pockets are often missed and can have real chametz (kids!)
We take every book down and dust and clean shelves. Is it necessary? Not if you keep your books away from food all year long! Pack away bentchers, cookbooks, anything that may have gotten food on it.

Clean out drawers. Start deciding where pesach stuff will go and where you will move everything you are locking away. We literally just stuff our pantry with everything and lock it.

Pay special attention to the kitchen. Do a preprePesach clean of the fridge now. I don't even really think lining fridge shelves is necessary, but we do... Ask a Rav.

Spread over time it is very doable. And if it is making you crazy-do less within the bounds of halacha!

Tzutzie

Tue, Mar 26 2024, 8:48 pm

amother NeonPink wrote:

This is what I do, but when DO you clean all that?
-Molly

Hey Molly! 👋
I see I missed this.
I do spring cleaning wintertime. I work on
garage/ downstairs till around chanuka from chanuka to purim upstairs.
It's not a big deal if you do one room/area every 1- 2. The school days and nights are so so long. So I utilize those days.