You’ve started cleaning after Chanukah? Used your snow days to tackle the attic for Pesach? Almost done?
Yawn.
Here’s how to let Pesach become a fun holiday again, one you don’t dread. But my method has a few ground rules:
1. If your children (or you) regularly eat chometz in odd places, like bedroom closets, and those places are not cleaned regularly throughout the year, you cannot clean for Pesach in one day.
2. You will need the help of one able-bodied adult. This may or may not take the form of paid help – more on costs in a moment. It can be a friend, an older kid (feel free to bribe) or a relative. You can’t do it totally alone, unless you live in a tiny condo and are the sole occupant. I have a cleaning woman help me. What should you delegate to your helper? Whatever you hate to do.
3. Some people spend money because they don’t want to spend more time, and some people spend more time because they don’t want to spend more money. Adjust my suggestions based on your budget and personality.
4. If you have young children, they will need to be out of your hair for the day – but remember, it’s ONE day. By “young” I mean too young to be truly helpful. Teens should stay and help, unless their job is keeping your younger kids occupied. And they won’t mind staying since it’s only ONE day. In fact, they will be bragging to all their friends how little they had to help. Help for your younger kids can come in the form of paid help, or a friend or relative – or your teen. Have someone take them out to a museum, out for a pizza lunch, whatever. Just out. Of. Your. Way. For the day.
5. For those of you that are concerned/curious about the halachic aspects of my suggestions, these ideas are based on talks I have heard from Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst of Chicago and Rabbi Baruch Hirschfeld of Cleveland. If you have family customs that are stricter than mine, it might take you longer than one day.
6. These suggestions are based on your typical single family colonial home. If your home is much smaller or larger than that, adjust your expectations accordingly.
7. I am not addressing WHEN to clean. This will largely be impacted by where and how you cook. If you have an alternative place to cook that is kosher for Pesach, you can cook in advance and clean literally 2 days before the Seder. If you don’t, you will want to do your cleaning day a few days in advance so you can cook in your newly Passovered kitchen. What and where your family will eat during those few days is not within the scope of this piece (heh heh). Ok, kidding, you will have to leave one space (garage, basement) not-clean-for-Pesach where chometz is still allowed. The morning of the Seder, this should take half-hour to clean up, max.
Ready? Let’s go.
We approach the house as though it’s concentric circles, with the dining room and mainly the kitchen as the epicenter. We start with the peripherals, since they are the easiest. In my home, here’s where we eat: the kitchen and the dining room;
occasionally in the family room and living room; chocolates and nuts by
guests in the basement (note: neither of those are true chometz); and
anything else is contraband. The kids are not allowed to eat upstairs. Do they sometimes? Yeah. We’ll deal. I don’t allow them to eat all over the house. Not because I’m Pesach-obssessed all year (I think it’s a big mistake to be) but because it’s gross.
9:00 am: Basement
Since the basement is a place where chometz generally doesn’t happen, I don’t clean it. Plus, even if chometz did go there, every now and then (not telling how often) the basement gets vacuumed. So it’s gone. No need to move furniture on the off-chance. I go down there, I give a quick look-see, peek under beds and pull out any large anything I can see, and we’re done. Shalom.
Estimated time: 15 minutes.
9:15 am: Upstairs
Since the upstairs is a place where I don’t allow chometz, any children who have offended during the year are responsible for their own clean-up, after which I inspect.
Estimated time: 15 minutes
At this point you might be wondering about organizing, emptying drawers and shelves, and cleaning. But maybe you forgot that this is about Pesach. So that’s why I didn’t mention it, and that’s why I don’t do it. I organize throughout the year, and sometimes after Pesach. In my opinion, the WORST time in the world to organize is before Pesach, when it gets attached to so much other stress. In fact, I think it should be illegal.
9:30 am: Garage
The garage contains a big job, which is my spare fridge and freezer. I empty everything that’s left in the big freezer, which is not much because I’ve been slowing down on the buying, and consolidate it in my small kitchen freezer. I leave the freezer open and turn it off to defrost. Later, my cleaning lady will clean it. She does a regular cleaning job, same as a good cleaning any day of the year, except we clean the rubber seal very well in its grooves. The spare fridge I have her clean and wipe down with some spray cleaner of some sort. Voila. It’s now kosher for Passover. No lining of shelves, no nothing. If I have some food items that are not used up (there’s always jelly and pickles) I designate one drawer, put all the stuff in it, and tape it shut. It gets sold with the chometz.
The rest of the garage involves just looking around and making sure there’s no chometz. No organizing.
Estimated time: 45 minutes.
10:15 am: Bathrooms
The only thing I am concerned about in the bathroom is toothpaste that might contain chometz. I find out which brand is ok to use for the current year, put the other toothpastes aside in a place that I am selling (we’ll come back to this), and make a note to get new ones (and new toothbrushes).
Estimated time for all bathrooms: 15 minutes, max.
10:30 am: Family room
My main job is the family room is usually the couch but this year we have a new couch where the cushions don’t come off. I LOVE THIS COUCH! We take the dustbuster and vacuum the crevices where we see stuff. Here’s what we don’t do: move furniture away from the wall that doesn’t get moved all year. Wash toys. Organize board games. Sort CDs and DVDs. Move the piano.
Why don’t I wash toys?
1. Because my children don’t eat while they play.
2. Because even if they did, I periodically sort and organize my toy closet and if there were a piece of birthday cake, it’s gone now.
Estimated time: 15 minutes.
10:45 am: Living room
My main job in the living room is the couches. Since we sometimes move furniture around, I move the furniture, me or my helper(s) vacuum under them, we pull all the cushions off the couch and it gets vacuumed inside. Ditto for the comfy chairs. Done. Don’ts: wash curtains. Dust lights. Rearrange the mantle.
Estimated time: 30 minutes.
11:15 am: Dining room
This is a big job so I’ll break it down into pieces.
1. Bookshelf. We take off the shelves all the “benchers” – little booklets that are literally used during the Shabbos meals and actually could contain challah. Do we clean them? Nah. We put them in a closet that will be sold for Pesach. We wipe the shelves where they sat. Time: 10 minutes.
2. Folding chairs. We have a little nook where we keep folding chairs. We take out the chairs, and, using a blowdryer, blow around them to blast out crumbs. We wipe down the inside of the closet. Time: 15-30 minutes to remove, clean, wipe, and replace.
3. Buffet. I have two sides of the inside of the buffet: one side I will use for Passover dishes, and one side I will sell. The side I will sell I don’t touch at all – I just tape it shut with masking tape. The other side I empty, wipe down, replace. I also blowdry and wipe the top, then cover it with a clean tablecloth. Time: 15-30 minutes.
4. Dining room chairs. I (or my helpers) bowdry the crevices of the chairs, then wipe them down. Time: 15 minutes.
5. Dining room table. I open the table without the leaves so any crumbs that may be lurking fall through. I wipe the leaves and put on a tablecloth. Time: 10 minutes.
Total dining room estimated time: With lots of wiggle room, 1 1/2 hours. (Really less because you and your helper are working simultaneously, so let’s settle on one hour.)
12:15 pm: Break for lunch
1:00 pm: Kitchen
Here, too, I am going to break the job down into parts.
1. Oven. This job I definitely delegate to my cleaning help. She cleans it just as she would all year, and then we will run the self-cleaning cycle, but before we do, I clean the cooktop, because I put the grates of the burners into the oven during the cycle, which kashers them. Time: 1/2 hour cleaning.
While self-cleaning cycle runs, we move on.
2. Fridge/freezer. We empty everything out into laundry baskets so my cleaning lady can clean on the inside. Some stuff I toss, some I put into little containers to put back in the fridge, some I give away. Don’t move fridge away from wall. Time: 45 minutes.
3. Tables and chairs. Ditto for blowdry/wipedown method mentioned above. I move the kitchen table away and sweep under it. Wipe down kitchen table and put plastic disposable tablecloth over it, which I tie under it to keep it anchored. Time: 15 minutes.
4. Small appliances: sandwich maker, toaster. I put them in the pantry, where I have all the chometz to sell. I don’t clean them at all. Actually, I move them to the garage where my kids will eat their meals till seder. Time: 5 minutes.
5. Cabinets. I designate a few drawers and cabinets that I will be using the week of Passover, and empty them. I put the contents into other non-Passover drawers or in the pantry I will be selling. My cleaning lady/kids clean out the insides of those drawers and cabs that I will use by wiping down with some cleanser. Voila. They are now kosher-for-Passover. I use masking tape to mark the “chometz” domains and move some stuff to the folding table in the garage that we will be using temporarily. Time: maybe an hour.
6. Cooktop, counters, sinks. These get cleaned really well, like a really good regular cleaning. The sinks get taped off for the next 24 hours to prepare for kashering (which my husband does). The counters will get kashered too the following night. The cooktop gets covered with foil and then I replace the grates that went through the self-clean cycle. Time: 30 minutes.
Total kitchen estimated time: 3 hours.
It’s now four pm and your house is clean for Passover. Mazel tov! When your kids are all home, they will take their backpacks and empty them outside of any crumbs. You will then throw them in the laundry and, if you have a mudroom, your kids are each responsible to clean their own cubbies. Estimated time: depends on how pokey your kids are.
The last item is the car. This is most definitely a place that I’d rather spend money than time. I take my car to a local car wash (yeah AlPaul) and for $20 all our chometz misdeeds therein are erased. But even if you tackle the car yourself, there’s no need to remove seats or anything drastic like that. You vacuum and remove visible chometz. Dirt’s cool, so just leave it there. Estimated time for car: 1 hour, tops. This is also a great thing to delegate to your kids or cleaning help.
Enjoy your holiday!
