I caught myself saying during Passover, “If Passover were a country, I’d move there!” (that is, if I didn’t have to be one of the Founding Mothers and clean the place first!) I love the simple food, the distant relatives and guests who magically appear and feel as if they really have left Egypt (i.e. the office). The excursions and catching up one one’s sleep also increase the feeling of liberation. As much as I found myself complaining about Passover cleaning, I realize every year, that it is part and parcel of the Passover experience and intensifies the relaxation that comes afterward.
Although the subject of Passover cleaning, the seder and Passover fun have received much lip service, I think that the cleaning, unpacking and organizing after Passover has been a long-neglected subject. I ran away to this beautiful land this year, full speed ahead, recklessly throwing non-chametzdiche “chametz” (“leavening” that was not really leavening—like the several hundred legos I didn’t want to clean) into closets and boxes. This meant that a) my two and a half year old had only a hundred legos to play with on Passover instead of his usual thousand (okay, slight exaggeration) b) we had a lot of unpacking to do after the last matzah was consumed!
So, it wasn’t easy. But I did take away a few pointers that I will try to follow next year. First, all the Passover items have to be removed first. The reason for this is that, everyone grabs bread, pretzels and bagels as soon as the holiday is over, and there is a high risk of getting crumbs all over the Passover stuff, so put it away fast! However, I did manage to take the time to make a Passover inventory, by listing all of the items I had. This will save a lot of guesswork next year (hmm, do I have a nutcracker in there, or do I need to buy one?). I also made a Passover wish list of things I want to buy next year, like new pots. It is not so hard to make up a Passover list, I just need to figure out where to put it!
Organizing is not so easy for me, anyway, especially when faced with boxes and closets full of stuff I shut away. So I designated a box for each room, threw the appropriate stuff in the box, and decided to organize as I went along. This approach was quite successful, and the organizing continues.
So, this is my two cents worth about post-Passover cleaning. Now I have to go figure out where I put my Passover list!
For more information on cleaning and organizing in general, visit the Families.com Cleaning & Organizing Blog here.