Real women share their preparation tips

Pesach is Coming / Pesach is Here / We clean out the chometz from all the year… warbles my preschooler. But in real life, how? Real women share their preparation tips

The First Job I Do for Pesach

Buy the kids’ clothing for Yom Tov and try on the clothing I want to hand down from kid to kid. The Jewish seamstresses in my area stop working early to make Yom Tov, and the last place open for alterations is crazy expensive. And don’t remind me of the year that we forgot to pick up our alterations and cleaner’s bag on Erev Bedikas Chometz. True story! We had to call the (Jewish) owner at home and beg him to open the store on Erev Pesach. So, clothing first. Cleaning can wait.

 R.H.

Order anything I want to get from China so that it arrives in time! Like cloth napkins for the Seder, nice napkin rings, hair accessories, and kids’ Shabbos shoes. (My little secret — apparently, everyone else buys them in the local stores for $80 a pair.)

C.H.

First, I take stock of my chometz, like macaroni, cereal, and croutons, and I stop restocking it so I won’t be stuck when nobody wants leftovers anymore. Does that count?

H.J.

The first actual cleaning job I do is clean the places out of the babies’ reach. The rest has to wait till close to Yom Tov.

R.V.

My aunt taught me that Pesach cleaning starts on a snow day. When that snow day comes, go through your closets and get organized.

Leah L.

By request, our local butcher will make chicken and meat kosher l’Pesach months in advance. I freeze breaded raw cutlets and burgers, since those go very quickly.

M.K.

The first thing that I do for Pesach is make my fruit compote — in August, because plums are cheaper and readily available, and at their most delicious and juiciest!

Z.P.

Hacks

Better to take two or three cleaning ladies who each give you some hours than to rely on one. That way, if some other desperate Jewish woman poaches your cleaner, or she gets fed up with hard work and calls in sick close to Yom Tov, you still have someone coming and aren’t completely on your own.

P.T.

Where I live, there are Pesach camps for little kids after schools close. I pay the price and send them; I can’t clean with little kids underfoot.

H.H.

If the man of the house gets tense or anxious before Pesach, there’s no need to update him on every detail of the cleaning. It will just lead to more stress.

P.W.

Give the kids snacks made from kitniyos in the run-up to Pesach. That way you’re completely calm and don’t break the bank with kosher l’Pesach stuff. And go for picnic suppers to spare yourself a mess at home.

Y.K.

Every year, I buy fewer of the expensive kosher l’Pesach products. How much do we actually need to eat over one week? I make delicious basics and buy big quantities of high-quality fruit and vegetables. There is plenty of kugel, Pesach brownies, nuts, cubed fruits. No one goes hungry.

S.M.

One thing I do is clean my fridge early and slip different sized garbage bags over the shelves before I put them back in the fridge. This way, they stay clean until I’m ready to turn over. Then I remove the bags and touch up the fridge. Gets a big job done early.

Before I had a Pesach kitchen, I used to set up shelving for Pesach stuff instead of emptying out kitchen cabinets. I find that the hardest part of Pesach is turning back to chometz when Pesach is over. Minimizing how much chometz stuff was moved before Pesach made switching back much easier.

All the Purim nosh gets saved. When the kids do a Pesach job, they get to have something. When we’ve cleaned all the bedrooms and the playroom, we go to the ice cream store. The kids are excited to clean and look forward every year.

S.W.

When I moved, I realized how much junk I’d accumulated and gave away a dozen boxes of houseware! Moral of the story and best Pesach hack: Stop buying every cute mug and gadget you see in Amazing Savings, and keep your kitchen down to basics.

Barbara B.

Don’t compare others’ cleaning schedules and don’t stress about everyone else’s ideas (in articles like this one!). Comparison creates competition, and Yom Tov isn’t a contest. Go with your own strengths and get to Pesach however it works for you.

N.S.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 985)