Sure it’s known as the holiday of national liberation. Just don’t try to convince that to anyone who has been spending countless hours cleaning for Passover. But just remember you’re not alone – and there are plenty of people who want to share their cleaning tips with you.
You can’t get much more user friendly than a web page with a title like: “How To Do Your Pesach Cleaning Happily in Less Than One Day.” In it, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner passes along the basics: how to deal with children’s clothing, medicines and toiletries, high chairs, cars and, of course, the kitchen. He concludes, “In light of what is written above, it should take about an hour to clean the house, another hour for the dining room, and two to three hours to kasher the kitchen. In short, about one day!” Wow. [http://bit.ly/passclean1]
On the other hand, there’s Stephanie Savir. I’m sure she means well. She really does. But if you look at her site and haven’t started your own cleaning, perhaps you should just file away her advice for next year. Her Ten Tips for Reducing Pesach Pressure include advice for what to do “seven weeks before Passover: review and copy recipes; buy paper goods and cleaning supplies.” At six weeks: “Buy yom tov outfits for family; clean bedrooms.” At five weeks: “Clean basement and cars.” And so on. [http://bit.ly/passclean2]
Before he gets into the nitty-gritty, Rabbi Moshe Finkelstein explains why modern Passover causes cleaning angst. In the past, wealthy people who lived in large homes had servants to do their cleaning. Poor people who could not afford servants lived in small homes with one or two rooms. “Today, we seem to be caught in a trap,” Rabbi Finkelstein writes. Our homes are larger. Furniture, utensils and clothing are more plentiful. But we don’t have the servants to do the cleaning. So the weeks before the holiday become filled with cleaning. [http://bit.ly/passclean4]
Whether or not you enjoy cleaning, do take care with those industrial strength cleansers. Yona Amitai, a senior toxicologist at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, warns that “the number of accidental poisonings of children from cleaning fluid triples during the two or three weeks before Passover.” [http://bit.ly/passclean3]
If you’re feeling overwhelmed cleaning for your army, be thankful you don’t have a real one to worry about like the Israel Defence Forces. Just imagine the logistics of locking away a sea of cutting boards, knives, deep fryers, strainers and frying pans before hauling out 110 tons of matzah meal and 25,000 litres of grape juice! [http://bit.ly/passclean5]
Finally, in the going-overboard department, here are some home-owners who have way too much time – and aluminum foil – on their hands. In their (tongue-in-cheek) photo essay, they have enveloped everything (!) in tin foil that may have ever had contact with chametz, including their couch and corner tables. But why stop there when you can also foil over your TV, lamps, dresser and for good measure, a teddy bear, toothpaste and toilet, too. [http://bit.ly/passclean6]
Well, I guess that’s a wrap.