clean, clean, then clean some more...

It's time for Passover. That means lots of cleaning. I mean, lots. And I am not talking about the "spring cleaning" aspect of it. My Rabbi always talks about how shmutz is not chametz, meaning dirt is not what we are cleaning for Passover, rather just the leaving products. For me, practically speaking this means just the kitchen and other areas where we have food.

We do not bring any food upstairs in our house because unless you are bedridden we don't eat in our bedrooms, and the only time anyone was bedridden in recent years it was from vomiting and so there was no eating involved. I think maybe once or twice I ate crackers to avoid nausea when I was pregnant with Smush. So, since that is long ago, and we have vacuumed up there since then, there is no risk of crumbs. That leaves our downstairs.

Our downstairs is the pretty typical layout with a formal living room, a formal dining room and small den and then the kitchen with it's eat in area. When it was just the two of us, cleaning for Passover took a couple of hours, vacuuming got most of the crumbs, and then a little more work in the kitchen, done. With two little ones, lets just say it's a little more complicated.

There is still no food upstairs, but there is food that gets tracked EVERYWHERE. Squiggly just started eating solids so he is not the neatest eater in the world. As a matter of fact he is down right messy. That means there are Joe's Ohs all over the place. In his sleeves, in his diapers (somehow - not sure how those got there) and, most of all, all over the floor. Those are not dirt, those are chametz.

It's a good thing there is the annulling of ownership of chametz that happens right before Passover, of all you know about and that which you do not. I am relying on that statement to cover me for the Joe's Ohs that I am sure are under the baseboard molding in my kitchen. I know it's there. I tried to get it out with my vacuum wand tool. They are still be taunting me, but come Monday morning I will cast them out as dust in the wind. See you later, bye. Now, about cleaning my bathrooms....