Get into Passover mode with a family reunion

Check the calendar and fill in your cleaning and shopping schedules

Review last year’s grades. Work to complete home purchases and renovations.

7 weeks to Passover

Complete major home purchases

Set appointments for other house needs: carpet cleaning, renovations, other work dates

6 weeks to Easter

First Phase of Cleaning-Bedrooms, Closets and Warehouses

First phase of clothing purchase

5 weeks to Easter

Check Your Passover Kitchen Inventory

order matzah

Create a Passover Food Pantry – Include Storage for Non-Perishables, Frozen Foods, and Matzah

Move your Chametz foods out of this newly assigned Passover food area

Stock up on your kitchen inventory (i.e. pots and pans, cutting boards)

A Freilichin Purim!

4 weeks to Passover

Continue stocking your kitchen inventory and non-perishable Passover purchases

Buy paper goods, kitchen countertops

Order meat, wine, fish

Create meal plans

make personal appointments

Breakfront Dining Room Cleaning

3 weeks to Passover

Clean the refrigerator and freezer by designating a chametz area

Start giving kids Pesachdik snacks

Complete the clothing purchase. Clean other rooms (ie laundry rooms, offices, hallways, bathrooms) and tape.
above the areas

2 weeks to Passover

clean cars

Finalize your meal plans

Buy perishables

Clean the kitchen. Includes: Appliances, Cabinets, Chairs, Countertops, Floor, Garbage, Highchair, Oven, Telephone, Sink, Stove, Table, Windows

Kosher and make your kitchen pesachdik: line countertops, kosher oven, sink, etc.

Think about how you will eat challah on Shabbat

1 week to Passover

Cook!!!

Prepare for the Seder

Vacuum EVERYWHERE

Let’s go together to the first task of the 8-week list and get it right, the family reunion.

What is this meeting about and why is it the first step?

An effective productivity system consists of three steps. Collect, clarify and organize. Having a family reunion is the first step because… you guessed it, it’s the “collection” stage.

Your gathering is essentially a basketball collection. Before her meeting, she collects all the thoughts that go through her head about Pesach. Also collect all your papers: menus, recipes, lists, etc., from previous years. Go around the house with a voice recorder or notepad, entering everything that needs to be done. You can have fun doing this with your husband and kids. Have people “flag” when they see something that needs to be cleaned up or completed. Ask everyone what their own thoughts are regarding doing Passover.

Clarify what needs to be done for Passover. Use checklists. Create your own or use the ones found in my book, Perfectly Organized Passover, which cover everything from ordering meat to emptying your bag to studying the Haggadah. Be very clear about what to do.

Organize. Decide when you will do all the tasks you have cleared. All of your Passover decisions are personal and unique to your family.

The family reunion is a great first step to get everyone into Passover mode. Your goal is to bring them together as a family around this important project of the Jewish year: what tasks need to be done, who is available to help, and any other requests or opinions family members have.

The family meeting will help you understand what you personally need to do differently than other people and will empower you with the knowledge that your way of doing things is right and sound for your family.

Is there something different this year for your family? For example, if you have a wedding or birth before Passover, you may need to start earlier than in other years. (Organize) If you are caring for an elderly relative, you may want to cook chametz until the last possible minute. However, if you have a basement Passover kitchen, you may be able to start cooking long before you finish cleaning. These are all aspects of Passover that are personal and unique to your family.

If you have school-age children or teenagers, let them help you make a master to-do list. (Clarify) (Identifying very clear tasks is an absolutely critical step in being productive.) When children participate in the planning, they are usually more willing to do the work. Ask them to check off the tasks they will perform, along with the timeline for completing them. Now is also the time to clarify who needs new clothes for the holidays and when they will go shopping.

You can discuss at the meeting any families coming from out of town and where they will sleep. Will any of the children be displaced? Do you need more beds? More linen? Will you ask neighbors to provide sleeping space?

Talk about when Passover falls; It’s Monday night this year. Does this have ramifications for her work or her husband’s? Can you afford to help with cleaning? If so, will this be your regular cleaning lady? A professional service? Or specialized help, like oven cleaning or carpet cleaning? Will she need a babysitter so she can clean? Do you want to do some renovation or decoration before Yom Tov? Will you budget money to eat out during the last week before Passover?

There is no right or wrong way. It’s what works best for your family.

The reunion you have with your family is the first task you can complete on your Passover checklist. It is simply the best way to start Passover planning and task completion.

The jump from no Passover to Passover can be difficult. Let’s make a smooth transition before Purim… the Pesach dance gives us a boost and we know exactly what can be done first and done from the beginning.