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  Get Organized for Passovercopyright 2007 Marcie LovettWhen I was growing up, I was sure my mother stopped grocery shopping in January in preparation for Passover. Our stores of canned goods and packaged foods would diminish and, the closer we got to the holiday, the less there was in the pantry. Every year, during the last few weeks before Passover started, my brother would cry, “There’s nothing to eat in this house!” almost daily. While there was food, the choices we were accustomed to were severely limited to whatever chametz remained in the house. If you have a home that is kosher for Passover, you may have had the same experience. After all, you don’t want to store a whole pantry’s worth of groceries during the holiday. Before you start your Passover cleaning, then, you need to get organized. In the weeks leading up to Passover, cut back on your grocery shopping. Now is not the time to buy large quantities or bulk sizes of food items unless you know you are going to use them up before mid-April. If you are a couple or small family, that means curtailing the spending at warehouse stores until after the holiday. Use up what you have in the freezer and pantry so you don’t have to store it. If you have unopened food that you cannot store, you can donate it to a food bank. No matter the size of your donation, Manna Food Center in Rockville; Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, DC; Food for Others in Virginia and Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore are grateful to receive your excess food. While some people prefer to do all their Passover grocery shopping at one time, you might be overwhelmed by the cost. For the month leading up to the holiday, you can purchase several nonperishable items each time you go shopping, thereby distributing the cost. Many grocery stores put different Passover items on sale each week, enabling you to save some money. Have one list that you consult each time you shop, crossing off items as they are purchased to keep from buying duplicates. Whether you break up the task or do one large shopping trip, it is important to stick to a list. Every year there are more products that manufacturers feel we must have in order to fully experience the holiday. I know it’s tempting, but does anyone really need blueberry muffins during Passover? If you stick to your list, you won’t be sidetracked by unnecessary purchases. You can spend a small fortune outfitting a complete kitchen for Passover. If you have celebrated Passover for many years, you may not need to purchase anything aside from dish soap, sponges and rubber gloves. Will you be using the dishwasher? Add detergent to your list. Would you like to avoid cleaning pans? Make sure you stock up on disposable foil containers. Disposables are great for people with limited storage space, too. Again, it is important to maintain a list so you know what you have and what you need. If you are computer literate, create a Passover inventory in your word-processing program that you can use and update each year. We stored our Passover dishes in the basement when I was a child. It took hours to shlep all the everyday dishes downstairs and replace them with the Passover dishes. If you have space, consider creating year-round storage for your Passover dishes in the dining room, kitchen or mudroom, close to where they will be used. You might even consider a cabinet in your garage. Once you decide where you are going to store your Passover dishes when you are not using them, you need to think about where you will put them during the holiday. If you have built-in cabinetry to store your dishes off season, will it be useful space during the holiday, too? For people who have small kitchens or lack storage space, you need to be creative. Are you going to clear out a pantry or cabinets? Do you have shelves in your dining room you could use temporarily? Keeping in mind that the holiday only lasts for a little over a week, you might be able to live with stacked boxes in a corner of your dining room or family room. After all the organizing, cleaning and preparing, I wish you a happy Passover. Free Article Source: http://www.za77.org About The Author: Marcie Lovett, author and owner of Organized by Marcie, a full-service professional organizing consulting service, can be reached at info@organizedbymarcie.com. |