Pesach cleaning

Senior Member Joined: Jan 10 2005 Posts: 232

wev been married for 7 years and iv never made seder night but this year were making both and im a bit worried about it. im always really last minute and disorganised with it the last 2 years wev been away so im a bit out of it. id like to start now any good tips for me to be organised

Posted: Tue, Feb 08 2005, 8:13 am Post subject:

well, I am not a real pro....never start early enough Embarassed

but start with bedrooms, spare rooms, and never go in there with food or drinks ever again! also the medicin cabinet could be done now, etc.
hopefully you'll get lots of advises from professionals!!! I wish I could go just lock the door and go to a hotel..... Crying or Very sad

this year it starts at motsei shabbos...

Gold Member Joined: Aug 18 2004 Posts: 1352

Right after Purim get the bedrooms done. Do it piece by piece. Ban chumatz for places room by room. By strict about only eating at the table. Honestly- if you can afford it, hire a cleaning lady the last week to help you. I did last year and it made a huge difference. I plan to have my kitchen done a week before so that I can get everything cooked ahead of time for yom tov since its shabbos into yom tov. Have things ready to just throw into the oven to heat, soup to go on the stove top.

Honestly- it isn't such a biggie. Everyone tells me Pesach is so hard, seder is so hard. I love making! I love cooking for Pesach. I never had where to go to once I got married, so I don't understand why everyone makes a big deal out of making it.

sara

Posted: Tue, Feb 08 2005, 10:39 am Post subject:

my husband loves pesach too. I don't.....I don't know why. maybe partly because I really don't like matzot! and we always start the cleaning too late.....

Gold Member Joined: Aug 18 2004 Posts: 1352

candies almonds, pesach custurd, rivka kotlarsky's meatball soup, lemon chicken, brisket.... ummm... pesach Smile

sara

Posted: Tue, Feb 08 2005, 10:59 am Post subject:

we have to cross a border in order to buy goodies like that! I think it's mostly the hysterical cleaning, and the really late seders (start at 10pm) that I don't like, besides really not able to eating matzot! which nobody understands...

Gold Member Joined: Aug 18 2004 Posts: 1352

all made from scratch my dear. Candied almonds are a sintch... liquid sugar and almonds. custard is basically eggs and freshlysqueezed orange juice4.

sara

Posted: Tue, Feb 08 2005, 11:03 am Post subject:

wow, good for you!!
as I posted elsewhere, my husband is a great cook, he does make wonderful stuff every hag, bless him. I just can't be bothered with the pesach stuff.....except for matzeballs, yummie! so I always try to diet a little during pesach Wink

Guest

ok, here I go Wink

*start cleaning NOW!

as Zun said, 1 room at a time, and ban food from everywhere besides table/ kitchen

* buy non-hometz snaks for kids - rice cakes, and such, so that yo do not have to worry about crumbs

* give yourself good 2 days to kasher kitchen & dishes - in case shailos come up

* 'convert' a week in advance to give you enough time to cook

* make a menue for the enitre hol HaMoed and cook in advance

* write down what you need for the sedorim & pprepare in advance, so you can take a nap erev yom tov
(this includes food as well as kittle, etc)

* write down everything you will need to buy & get as much as possible in 1 shopping trip (especially if shopping is a big deal where you live)

* do not do extra work just in case or b/c ou'r not sure - CALL YOUR RAV!!

*if you run into a difficulty this year, write it down so that you can deal with it next year well b4 youm tov.

* keep your lists for references for the next year

and, as Zun said:

GET CLEANING HELP!!!!!

* we also 'transfer' our kitchen onto the shabbos table for the period of 'convesrion' We eat hometz there, and warm it up in the microwave, which we put there too.

* and remember - your family would rather have rested you w/ less food than a 6 cource gourmey meal with an exausted, cranky & tired you!! Smile

Guest

Another point: most of our regular recipies do not contain hometz, so we don't change the menue so much.

Take a careful look at what you eat and see if you really need to try to figure out what to cook!! Wink

Posted: Tue, Feb 08 2005, 8:30 pm Post subject:

My advice would be to get out a calendar and plan by when you want to do each room (maybe designate a Sun when everyone is home, or when everyone can be out). Also, I would start in Adar 1, at least with rooms that could stay chometz-free. Lastly, I try to pre-clean rooms and big jobs, like the stove and the frige about a month before so you don't have to deal with a whole year's worth of biuld up right before Pesach. I clean my living room really well too, and then I put slipcovers on the couch until just before Pesach.

GOOD LUCK!!!