There are many ways to make Pesach. None of them have to involve tears, extreme fatigue, or a week of pizza bagels. In this column we’ll meet women with vastly different methods, but who all share the goal of reaching Pesach calmly and happily.

Name: Malky Katz*

Been making Pesach for: 31 years, minus 4 or 5

Motto: Getting a head start makes jobs more pleasant and removes pressure

Last things… first?

The kitchen is critical, so it gets done first. Everything else — if I have to lock up a closet, I’ll lock it up. If I don’t vacuum the mattresses, that’s fine. But there’s no getting around those kitchen jobs, and having the foresight to do things early, keeps the kitchen from getting overwhelming.

Getting Started

I start about six weeks before Pesach… in the kitchen. One week I deal with the area around the stove, scrub the grease, then cover everything with foil, which I remove right before Pesach. The next week, I’ll scrub a couple cabinets, then empty one of them, storing everything in the other cabinet. Then, I put plastic on the table, take out the Pesach things, line the empty cabinet, put in the Pesach things, close the cabinet, and seal it with foil or a plastic tablecloth, and have one cabinet ready for Pesach.

I do one major job like this each week. I learned early on which jobs made me crazy — and it was needing to do all of those things at the end that made making Pesach tedious and pressured — so I started doing them bit by bit, breaking down overwhelming jobs into smaller pieces.

About three weeks before Pesach, I kasher the pareve side of my kitchen and wash everything with bleach. I take down the Pesachdig food processor, make the gefilte fish mixture, wrap it, and put it in the freezer. Then I take plastic tablecloths and cover that section of the kitchen, from the tops of the upper cabinets to the floor. Nothing can jump past plastic! I’m not afraid — there’s no fear in my system.